2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Positive and negative effects of mother tongue knowledge on the interpretations of figurative expressions
| Project/Area Number |
18520469
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Foreign language education
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| Research Institution | Kobe Design University |
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Principal Investigator |
AZUMA Masumi Kobe Design University, Professor (-2006) ; Emeritus Professor (2007-) (80212504)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | figurative expressions / metaphors / idioms / schemas / cognition / image schemas / semantic fields / the expansions of meanings / language and culture / vocabulary / vocabulary knowledge |
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| Research Abstract |
This research investigates the effects of knowledge originated in or generated from the mother tongue on the understanding of figurative expressions. A test, Metaphor Cognition Test, was designed to obtain quantitative data and administered on Japanese EFL students and native English speakers to investigate the aspects of figurative interpretations and the differences in interpretations by different mother tongue users. The test consisted of a descriptive type test (40 items) and a multiple choice type test (19 items), and the items were featured with the expressions having shared concepts/wordings and the, expressions originated in English and Japanese. To collect qualitative information, interviews with a number of participants took place.
The assumption was that the interpreters would activate their cognitive processes, for example, resorting to the knowledge of their mother tongue, utilizing schemas, and/or logical thinking as interpretation strategies; however, these cognitive proc
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esses might have ambivalent (positive and negative) effects on certain test items of the Metaphor Cognition Test.
The quantitative and qualitative investigation indicates that the positive effects of mother tongue knowledge are found on the majority of the items having shared concepts/wordings between Japanese and English while ambivalent effects are found on the items of the same/similar wordings with different concepts/meanings between the languages. A unique phenomenon in the latter is that there is a blurred area, where a branching-off occurs, especially in a non-native language. The branching-off leads to a correct or incorrect interpretation. If it is true to the original meaning (usually as an idiom or a proverb), it creates no/few problems, however, if it takes a branching-off not commonly used in the original language, though figurative, logical thinking is appropriate, it is problematic or a failure in that language. Here specific cultural elements involve greatly. We should be cautious about these phenomena in our language teaching. Less
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Research Products
(11 results)
