Cover not available

Article published In: Perception, Culture and Language
Edited by Judit Baranyiné Kóczy and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 10:2] 2023
► pp. 367–397

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Cultural models mediating between visual sensation and semiotic systems, exemplified on visual, alpha-pictorial and verbal-gestural communication

ORCiD logo with link | Eötvös Loránd University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Osijek
Published online: 17 November 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00105.brd
Abstract
People often see what they want to see (or hear, or taste, etc.), i.e., our mind imperceptibly edits our actual sensations. Culture may function, metaphorically speaking, as a pair of glasses that filters light, because it may be tinted, or have different lenses. In this article we study how visual sensations are filtered and edited, either reduced or enriched, so as to produce perceptions fitting the cultural models we have, and how this interaction is reflected in semiotic systems, i.e., in visual, multimodal, and verbal-gestural communication. Accordingly, we offer three case studies in which we demonstrate the claim that variably articulated cultural models (often networks of related cultural models) we have influence whether, and how, we experience something as being of metaphorical or metonymic nature.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On cultural models and conceptual metonymies (and metaphors)
  • 3.Case studies demonstrating the role of metonymies and metaphors in matching perceptions with the cultural background knowledge
    • 3.1Visual metonymies and metaphors in The Mérode Altarpiece (by the workshop of Robert Campin)
    • 3.2Alpha-pictorial type of multimodal communication – mixing graphemes and images
    • 3.3Gestural communication: When football players cross themselves during a match
  • 4.Conclusions and outlooks for further research
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
References
Ahluwalia, A. (1978). An intra-cultural investigation of susceptibility to ‘perspective’ and ‘non-perspective’ spatial illusions. British Journal of Psychology, 69(2), 233–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Appelbaum, R. (2006). Aguecheek’s beef, belch’s hiccup, and other gastronomic interjections: Literature, culture, and food among the early moderns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D. (2006). See what you want to see: Motivational influences on visual perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(4), 612–625. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barcelona, A. (2000a). Introduction: The cognitive theory of metaphor and metonymy. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads. A cognitive perspective (pp. 1–28). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2000b). On the plausibility of claiming a métonymie motivation for conceptual metaphor. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads. A cognitive perspective (pp. 31–58). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). Purely inferential metonymies. Plenary talk at AELCO 12, June 27–29, Logroño, University of La Rioja.
Barthes, R. (1972). Critical essays. (R. Howard, Trans.). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berry, J. W. (1968). Ecology, perceptual development and the Müller-Lyer illusion. British Journal of Psychology, 59(3), 205–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M. (2017). Metonymy and word-formation: Their interactions and complementation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). On the regularity of metonymy across languages (exemplified on some metonymies in medical discourse). ExELL. Explorations in English Language and Linguistics, 7(1), 52–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Walking gastrolinguistic landscapes, with metonymy as a travel-guide. Collegium Antropologicum, 45(4), 307–317. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar, M., & Brdar-Szabó, R. (2007). When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not just Bill Gates: Some thoughts on the construction of metaphtonymic meanings of proper names. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction (pp. 125–142). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brdar-Szabó, R., & Brdar, M. (2021). Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis: Getting two (or more) targets for the price of one vehicle. In A. Soares da Silva (Ed.), Figurative language – Intersubjectivity and usage (pp. 175–212). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burenhult, N., & Levinson, S. C. (2008). Language and landscape: A cross-linguistic perspective. Language Sciences, 30(2–3), 135–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Andrade, R. (1987). A folk model of the mind. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 112–148). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
David, O., Lakoff, G., & Stickles, E. (2016). Cascades in metaphor and grammar: A case study of metaphors in the gun debate. Constructions and Frames, 8(2), 214–255. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deręgowski, J. B. (1998). W. H. R. Rivers (1864–1922): The founder of research in cross-cultural perception. Perception, 27(12), 1393–1406. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (2009). Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research. In C. Forceville & E. Urios-Aparisi (Eds.), Multimodal metaphor (pp. 19–44). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freeman, M. B. (1957). The iconography of the Merode Altarpiece. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 16(4), 130–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geeraerts, D. (2003). Cultural models of linguistic standardization. In R. Dirven, R. Frank & M. Pütz (Eds.), Cognitive models in language and thought: Ideology, metaphors and meanings (pp. 25–68). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Jorio, A. (2000). Gesture in Naples and gesture in classical antiquity: A translation of Andrea de Jorio’s La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano. (A. Kendon, Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jahoda, G. (1966). Geometric illusions and environment: A study in Ghana. British Journal of Psychology, 57(1–2), 193–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1971). Retinal pigmentation, illusion susceptibility and space perception. International Journal of Psychology, 6(3), 199–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kemperdick, S. (1997). Der meister von Flémalle: Die werkstatt Robert Campins und Rogier van der Weyden [The master of Flémalle: The workshop of Robert Campin and Rogier de Weyden]. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z., & Radden, G. (1998). Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics, 9(1), 37–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics: The invisible art. Northampton: HarperCollins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Minott, C. I. (1969). The theme of the Mérode Altarpiece. The Art Bulletin, 51(3), 267–271.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mittelberg, I. (2019). Visuo-kinetic signs are inherently metonymic: How embodied metonymy motivates forms, functions, and schematic patterns in gesture. Frontiers in Psychology, 101, Article 254. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller-Lyer, F. C. (1889). Optische urteilstäuschungen [Optical illusions]. Archiv für Physiologie, Suppl. 1889, 263–270.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panofsky, E. (1966). Early Netherlandish painting. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panther, K.-U. (2005). The role of conceptual metonymy in meaning construction. In F. J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez & S. Peña Cervel (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics: Internal dynamics and interdisciplinary interaction (pp. 353–386). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pollack, R. H., & Silvar, S. D. (1967). Magnitude of the Mueller-Lyer illusion in children as a function of pigmentation of the Fundus oculi. Psychonomic Science, 81, 83–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polzenhagen, F., & Dirven, R. (2008). Rationalist or romantic model in globalisation?. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive sociolinguistics: Language variation, cultural models, social systems (pp. 237–300). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quinn, N., & Holland, D. (1987). Culture and cognition. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 3–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radden, G. (2001). The folk model of language. Metaphorik.de, 11, 55–86.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reuterswärd, P. (1998). New light on Robert Campin. Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 67(1), 43–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ridderbos, B. (2022). Choices and intentions in the Mérode Altarpiece. Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 14(1), 2–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J. (2000). The role of mappings and domains in understanding metonymy. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads (pp. 109–132). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J., & Díez Velasco, O. I. (2002). Patterns of conceptual interaction. In R. Dirven & R. Pörings (Eds.), Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast (pp. 489–532). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Metonymic motivation in anaphoric reference. In G. Radden & K.-U. Panther (Eds.), Studies in linguistic motivation (pp. 293–320). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J., & Mairal-Usón, R. (2007). High-level metaphor and metonymy in meaning construction. In G. Radden, K.-M. Köpcke, T. Berg & P. Siemund (Eds.), Aspects of meaning construction (pp. 33–49). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F. J., & Otal Campo, J. L. (2002). Metonymy, grammar, and communication. Albolote: Editorial Comares.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, F., & Pérez Hernández, L. (2001). Metonymy and the grammar: motivation, constraints and interaction. Language and Communication, 21(4), 321–357. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schapiro, M. (1945). “Muscipula diaboli,” the symbolism of the Mérode Altarpiece. The Art Bulletin, 27(3), 182–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Segall, M. H., Campbell, D. T., & Herskovits, M. J. (1963). Cultural differences in the perception of geometric illusions. Science, 139(3556), 769–771. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1966). The influence of culture on visual perception. Oxford: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snyder, J. (2005). Northern renaissance art: Painting, sculpture, the graphic arts from 1350 to 1575 (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Turnbull, C. (1962). The forest people. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (2020). Addressing God in European languages: Different meanings, different cultural attitudes. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 24(2), 259–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolff, M., Morceau, S., Folkard, R., Martin-Cortecero, J., & Groh, A. (2021). A thalamic bridge from sensory perception to cognition. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 1201, 222–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zakia, R. D., & Nadin, M. (1987). Semiotics, advertising and marketing. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 4(2), 5–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zakia, R., & Nadin, M. (1988). Visual aducation. In M. Herzfeld & L. Melazzo (Eds.), Semiotic theory and practice (volume 1+2) (pp. 1237–1244). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue