The class-inclusion model claims that metaphors (e.g., That exam is a filter) are comprehended by inclusion of the topic (or subject) as a member of an attributive category named after and exemplified by the vehicle (or predicate). In three experiments, participants rated the extent to which a topic concept (e.g., exam) was a member of a vehicle…

We report three eye-movement experiments that investigated whether alternative syntactic analyses compete during syntactic ambiguity resolution. Previous research (Traxler, Pickering, & Clifton, 1998; Van Gompel, Pickering, & Traxler, 2001) has shown that globally ambiguous sentences are easier to process than disambiguated sentences, suggesting…

Three experiments assessed how speakers avoid linguistically and nonlinguistically ambiguous expressions. Speakers described target objects (a flying mammal, bat) in contexts including foil objects that caused linguistic (a baseball bat) and nonlinguistic (a larger flying mammal) ambiguity. Speakers sometimes avoided linguistic-ambiguity, and they…

This article examines the significance of how learning objects have come to be conceptualized and utilized, particularly in higher education. While many articles critique the term and its origins, an examination of the role metaphor plays in our conceptualization of "data", "information" and "learning objects" helps us move beyond a fixation on…

Linguistic and psycholinguistic research has documented that there exists a close relationship between a verb's meaning and the syntactic structures in which it occurs, and that learners and comprehenders take advantage of this relationship both in acquisition and in processing. We address implications of these facts for issues in structural…

This article undertakes a close rhetorical reading of the speeches given by Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Francis Collins, and Craig Venter on June 26, 2000, at the White House ceremony announcing the completion of the Human Genome Project. Specifically, it looks at the metaphors used by each speaker to describe the activity of genomic scientists.…

The challenge in designing organizational interventions lies in making explicit and available what is usually implicit. Accordingly, a contribution to the understanding of complex and implicit practices such as gossip and rumor, the conditions responsible for their origin, as well as the relation they sustain to the outcome of group survival,…

This paper examines the idea of embedding Indigenous perspectives drawing upon a metaphor for designing an environment that nurtures Indigenous cultural identity and relationships. This paper constitutes a teacher's personal story of emerging understandings of Indigenous Standpoint Theory and pedagogy, which began with embedding Indigenous…

One aspect of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) involves examining how metaphors in texts, particularly hard news texts (reports of very recent conflicts, crimes, etc.), imply certain values. The usual theoretical basis for such analysis is Lakoff and Johnson (1980). My article shows problems with transplanting Lakoff and Johnson's discourse-level…

The authors introduce the integral model of the self-system and, using that model, describe the dynamics of healthy growth and the development of psychogenic pathology. Self-identification is described as "sliding" in nature, and stage theories for self-related lines are outlined to help clinicians understand the characteristics of each stage the…

This article is based on a research project carried out by the author between 1997 and 2001. The article or story has two main characters: the pacifier and the concept of childhood. The idea is to use the pacifier optically, as a text and a context where the pacifier is a starting point for interpretations and reflections about modern Norwegian…

Three experiments show that, contrary to the current view, comprehenders do not unconditionally deactivate information marked by negation. Instead, they discard negated information when it is functionally motivated. In Experiment 1, comprehenders discarded negated concepts when cued by a topic shift to dampen recently processed information.…

The authors completed a critical review of the literature on the use of metaphor and the efficacy of metaphoric activities in clinical supervision. The authors conclude that these activities might assist students in understanding the process of becoming a counselor and facilitate students' case conceptualization skills. Cautions to consider when…

Thomas Friedman's best-selling "The World is Flat" has exerted much influence in the west by providing both an accessible analysis of globalization and its economic and social effects, and a powerful cultural metaphor for globalization. In this review, we more closely examine Friedman's notion of the social contract, the moral center of his…

In this article, the author opines that modernist and especially postmodernist irony has gone beyond its traditional satirical function of deflating falsehood and exposing pretense. Because of certain historical complexities, irony has evolved in such a way that it has become the enemy of genuine open-mindedness. Among some American intellectuals,…