Cover not available

Article published In: Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 8:1 (2018) ► pp.40–63

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

Metaphor and the automatic mind

 | University of California, Santa Cruz
 | University of California, Santa Cruz
Published online: 7 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.16026.gib
Abstract
When people produce or understand verbal metaphors, and metaphoric gestures, do they do so automatically or with conscious deliberation? Metaphor scholars widely recognize that the answer to this question depends on several factors, including the specific kind of metaphor that was produced or understood. But many scholars assume that the automatic use of metaphor involves the simple retrieval of its figurative meaning, without having to draw any cross-domain mappings. We argue that automaticity in behavior, such as when using verbal metaphors, actually involves many complex embodied and conceptual processes, even if these may operate quickly and without conscious attention. This article reviews the evidence for this claim, and considers other attempts to explore automaticity in metaphoric experiences, such as in 20th-century automatic writing practices. Our argument provides another set of reasons, from cognitive science research, to reject simplistic assumptions that automatic metaphor behavior is necessarily different in kind from more conscious metaphor use and understanding.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Psychology of automaticity in behavior
  • 3.Automatic processing of metaphoric language
  • 4.Automatic production of metaphoricity
  • 5.Automatic writing: A case study of metaphoric creativity
  • 6.Resisting automatic metaphors
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (55)
References
Bargh, J. (1994). The four horsemen of automaticity: Awareness, intention, efficiency and control in social cognition. In R. S. Wyer, Jr., & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (2nd ed.) (pp. 1–40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bargh, J., Schwader, K., Hailey, S., Dyer, R., & Boothby, E. (2012). Automaticity in social-cognitive processes. Trends in Cognitive Science, 16(12) 593–605. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bergen, B. (2012). Louder than words: The new science of how the mind makes meaning. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breton, A. (1969). Manifestoes of surrealism, R. Seaver & H. Lane, Trans. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carney, D., Cuddy, A., & Yap, A. (2010). Power posing: Brief nonverbal displays cause changes in neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance. Psychological Science, 211, 1363–1368. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casasanto, D. (2008). Similarity and proximity: When does close in space mean close in mind? Memory & Cognition, 361, 1047–1056. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cienki, A. (1998). STRAIGHT: An image schema and its metaphorical extensions. Cognitive Linguistics, 91, 107–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cienki, A., & Müller, C. (Eds.) (2008). Metaphor and gesture. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Conely, K. (2003). Robert Desnos, surrealism, and the marvelous in everyday life. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijksterhuis, A., & Nordgren, L. (2006). A theory of unconscious thought. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 11, 95–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Epstein-Jannai, M. (2010). Some remarks about semi-automatic writing: Between constraints and possibilites in a writing workshop. New Writing, 71, 58–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. (1984). Literal meaning and psychological theory. Cognitive Science, 81, 275–304.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994). The poetics of mind: Figurative thought, language, and understanding. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Are deliberate metaphors really deliberate? A question of human consciousness and action. Metaphor and the Social World. 11, 26–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Metaphor wars: Conceptual metaphor in human life. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R., & Colston, H. (2012). Interpreting figurative meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R., Kushner, J., & Mills, R. (1991). Authorial intentions and metaphor comprehension. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 201, 11–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R., Beitel, D., Harrington, M., & Sanders, P. (1994). Taking a stand on the meanings of stand: Bodily experience as motivation for polysemy. Journal of Semantics, 111, 231–251.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giora, R. (2002). On our mind: Salience, context, and figurative language. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Is metaphor unique? In R. Gibbs (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 143–160). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gildea, P., & Glucksberg, S. (1983). On understanding metaphor: The role of context. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 221, 577–590. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Glucksberg, S., Gildea, P., & Bookin, H. (1982). On understanding nonliteral speech: can people ignore metaphors? Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 211, 85–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helmholtz, H. (1925). Treatise on physiological optics, Volume II1. The Optical Society of America, 1925.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. New York: MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, S., Creigh, P., & Bartolotti, J. (2010). Integrating speech and iconic gestures in a Stroop task: Evidence for automatic processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 221, 683–694. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kazmerski, V., Blasko, D., & Dessalegn, B. (2003). ERP and behavioral evidence of individual differences in metaphor comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 311, 673–689. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keysar, B. (1989). On the functional equivalence of literal and metaphorical interpretations in discourse. Journal of Memory & Language, 281, 375–385. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koutstaal, W. (1992). Skirting the abyss: A history of experimental explorations of automatic writing in psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 281, 5–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). The agile mind. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A practical introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (Vol. 21) (pp. 202–251). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landau, M., Robinson, M., & Meier, B. (Eds.). (2014). The power of metaphor: Examining its influence on social life. Washington, DC: APA Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langton, S., & Bruce, V. (2007). You must see the point: Automatic processing of curs to the direction of social attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 261, 247–257.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, C. (2007). Metaphors dead and alive, sleeping and waking: A dynamics view. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muldoon, P. (2007). The end of the poem: Oxford lectures. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murphy, G. (1996). On metaphoric representations. Cognition, 601, 173–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Obermeier, C., Holle, H., & Gunter, T. C. (2011). What iconic gesture fragments reveal about gesture-speech integration: When synchrony is lost, memory can help. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 231, 1648–1663. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2007). The stuff of thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Posner, M., & Snyder, C. (1975). Facilitation and inhibition in the processing of signals. In P. M. A. Rabbitt & S. Domic (Eds.), Attention and performance V. (pp. 669–692). New York: Academic Press,Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Restak, R. (1983). Is free will a fraud? Science Digest (October): 53–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, J. (1979). Metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought. (pp. 92–123). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, W. & Shiffrin, R. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: 1. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological Review, 841, 1–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Solomons, M., & Stein, G. (1896). Normal motor automatism. Psychological Review, 31, 492–512. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanovich, K. (2005). The robot’s rebellion: Finding meaning in the age of Darwin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G. (2008). The paradox of metaphor: Why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol, 231, 213–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Developing, testing, and interpreting deliberate metaphor theory. Journal of Pragmatics, 901, 67–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 181, 643–662. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, J. (1988). The use of automatic writing in self-analysis: A phenomenological examination (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 8902293)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trotsky, L. (1930/1970). My life. New York: Pathfinder Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, L., & Bargh, J. (2008). Experiencing physical warm influences interpersonal warmth. Science, 3221, 606–607. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhong, C., & Liljenquist, K. (2006). Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing. Science, 3131, 1451–1452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Cheng, Kaiwen, Yu Chen, Hongmei Yan & Ling Wang
2024. The role of consciousness in Chinese nominal metaphor processing: a psychophysical approach. Language and Cognition 16:4 ► pp. 969 ff. DOI logo
Dyrmo, Tomasz
2024. Figurativeness of the Japanese flag. Review of Cognitive Linguistics DOI logo
Nauryzbayev, Zh.A. & S.D. Seidenova
2024. METAPHORICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE UNITY (BASED ON THE NATION ADDRESSES OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN KASSYM-JOMART TOKAYEV). Журнал серии «Филологические науки» 75:4 DOI logo
Alarcón-Hermosilla, Salvador, Neil Nehring & Javier Campos Calvo Sotelo
2023. Drowned, Washed Up, and Left for Dead: Hyperbolic Irreverence in “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Rock Music Studies 10:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Lemghari, El Mustapha
2021. Metaphorical blending in complex proverbs. Metaphor and the Social World 11:1 ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Lemghari, El Mustapha
2022. On the Role of Source and Target Words’ Meanings in Metaphorical Conceptualizations. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 67:1 ► pp. 73 ff. DOI logo
Beger, Anke & Thomas H. Smith
2020. Introduction. In How Metaphors Guide, Teach and Popularize Science [Figurative Thought and Language, 6], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Stampoulidis, Georgios, Marianna Bolognesi & Jordan Zlatev
2019. A cognitive semiotic exploration of metaphors in Greek street art. Cognitive Semiotics 12:1 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Slowing Metaphor Down [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 26], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 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