describe indescribable – annotation of synesthetic metaphors in the project synamet
TRANSCRIPT
Describe the
indescribable
Annotation of synesthetic metaphors in the project Synamet
MAGDALENA ZAWISŁAWSKA
University of Warsaw
SYNAMETMicrocorpus of Synaesthetic Metaphors. Towards a Formal Description and Efficient Methods of Analysis of Metaphors in Discourse.
UMO/2014/15/B/HS2/00182, financed by the Polish National Science Centre.
The aims of the project
Corpus of synesthetic metaphors
Efficient methods of analyzing
metaphor in discourse
Tool dedicated to metaphor annotation
What is a synesthetic metaphor?
A metaphor is synesthetic only when its source domain pertains to perception (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, or gustatory). If the target domain does not evoke perception, we can talk of a weak synesthetic metaphor. If both the source and the target domain evoke perception, we deal with a strong synesthetic metaphor. (Werning, Fleischhauer, Beşeoğlu 2006)
Essential assumptions
Creative text metaphors based on a broad pragmatic knowledge.• the chypre breath of moss
Lexicalized metaphors, often recorded in dictionaries.• sweet smell
Dead metaphors.• lęk ‘fear’ (Proto-Slavic *lęk-ǫ
‘I bend’)
Sources of the corpusTexts excerpted from blogs devoted to perfume (SMELL), wine, beer, cigars, Yerba Mate, tea, or coffee (TASTE, SMELL, VISION), as well as culinary blogs (TASTE, VISION), music blogs (HEARING), art blogs (VISION), massage and wellness blogs (TOUCH).
Frame semantics as the methodology of description
• Meaning of lexical units, phrases, grammatical and syntactic constructions resides in frames – schematic phenomena, such as our beliefs, experiences or typical actions. (cf. Fillmore 1982).• Metaphorization process is seen as frame
shifting. i.e. a „semantic reanalysis process that reorganizes existing information into a new frame.” (Coulson, 2001).
FRAMESMELL
SUBJECT
ORGAN (the nose)
SOURCE
SENSATION• neutral value (smell)• positive vaue (scent)• negative value (stink)
SOURCE STATE• to give off (to smell)• to permeate (with
fragrance)• to change the state (to
go smelly)
SUBJECT ACTION• to search (to scent)• to check (to sniff)• to change the source
state (to perfume)
amber chord (of perfumes)
amber
FRAME SMELL
Element: a sensation
chord
FRAME HEARING
Element: a combination of tones
Procedure of metaphor annotation• Identification of the metaphoric topic - the element in the
text that is construed within the realistic convention, that is the referent of the metaphoric predication.• Isolating metaphorical units (MU) - word forms or phrases
which are used metaphorically in the given context, i.e. they combine lexemes primarily belonging to different perceptual frames or to other types of frames.• Grammatical categorisation of the MU.• Choosing frames and their elements activated by the MU.
ATOS – the tool designed for annotation
of synesthetic metaphors
SYNAMET CORPUS
Encens Mythique d’Orient dość szybko zmierza do ambrowego akordu bazy. A ta jest cudownie ciepła, głęboka, słodkawa i jednocześnie piżmowa, przy tym bardzo zmysłowa. Pachnie zaskakująco donośnie i bardzo długo – otaczając noszącego prawdziwie luksusową aurą.
‘Encens Mysthique d’Orient makes its way towards the amber chord of the base quite quickly. And the latter is wonderfully warm, deep, sweetish and musk at the same time. What’s more, it’s really sensual. It smells surprisingly loudly and very long, surrounding its user with an air of true luxury.’
Examples of the metaphorical units• baza (zapachu) ‘(fragrance) base’ [VISION and
SMELL]• ambrowy akord ‘amber accord’ [HEARING and
SMELL]• [baza] jest cudownie ciepła ‘[the base] is wonderfully
warm’ [TOUCH and SMELL]• [baza] jest cudownie głęboka ‘[the base] is
wonderfully deep’ [SMELL and COMPLEX SYNAESTHESIA]
• [baza] jest cudownie słodkawa ‘[the base] is wonderfully sweetish’ [SMELL and TASTE]
• [baza] pachnie zaskakująco donośnie ‘[the base] smells surprisingly loudly’ [SMELL and HEARING]
Problems with annotation SYNAMET CORPUS
Long chains of metaphorical clusters
[…] neroli brzmi tak jak zazwyczaj, czyli głównie zielono i kwiatowo, z lekką nuta octanową (to jaśmin), która wydaje mi się nie na miejscu. Składniki oud — toczone grzybem drewno, pewna smolistość — na chwilę ustępują świergotowi neroli, ale potem łagodnie obejmują przewodnictwo, a neroli dziwnie zaokrągla całość.
[…] neroli [SMELL] sounds [HEARING] as usual, that is mainly greenly [VISION] and flowery [SMELL] with a light [COMPLEX PERCEPTION] acetate [SMELL] note [HEARING] (it is jasmine [SMELL]) which seems to be out of place. Oud [SMELL] components —wood eaten by fungus [VISION], some of pitch-blackness [VISION]—for a moment give in for a chirping [HEARING] of neroli [SMELL], but later gently take the leadership [PERSONIFICATION], while neroli [SMELL] strangely rounds off [VISION] the whole. http://nosthrills.blox.pl/html
Subjectless sentencesHabit Rouge, znany nam dzisiaj, to zapach już po reformulacji, dostosowany do współczesnych nosów. Mimo to jest zasłużenie uważany za klasyka męskich perfum. Otwiera się głośno, przykurzonym aromatem cytrusów, znanym chociażby z Eau de Guerlain. Przypomina w tym miejscu wodę kolońską, ale nie taką, której używał tata.
Habit Rouge [subject] that we know today is a fragrance after reform, well adapted to contemporary noses. Yet, [it] is deservedly considered a classic of men’s perfumes. [It] opens loudly with a dusty aroma of citruses, which we know for instance from Eau de Guerlain. [It] is in that place a reminiscent of cologne, but not like the one your father used to apply. http://www.opinie-perfumy.pl/guerlain-habit-rouge-perfumy-dla-drwala/
Plentiful ellipsis Mineralność wynagradza w nim niską kwasowość i już po pierwszym nosie czuć, że otwierając 2014 dokonaliśmy dzieciobójstwa.
Minerality [of wine] compensates its [the wine’s] low acidity, and just after the first nose [after the tester smelled the wine for the first time] we feel that when we open the 2014 [the vintage of the wine] we have commited an infanticide. http://blogi.magazynwino.pl/prange/
Indispensability of a very broad context
Jaka szkoda, że ta przecudnej urody aria jest tak lakoniczna, dyskretna, ulotna i delikatna – bo aż by się chciało zatracić i przepaść z kretesem w tym zniewalającym brzmieniu…
It’s too bad that this aria of such lovely beauty is so laconic, discreet, light, and delicate—because one would like to become completely engrossed and disappear in this captivating sound. https://perfumomania.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/acqua-di-parma-colonia-intensa-czyli-kwintesencja-ulotnej-doskonalosci/
Problem of the layered
and overlapping metaphors
SYNAMET CORPUS
Ta płyta to mroczna podróż przez 20 utworów.
This record is a dark journey through 20 pieces.
płytato
mroczna podróż
płytato
mroczna podróż
SYNTAX SEMANTICS
JOURNEY
RECORD DARK
SOURCE FRAME 1 THE MEDIATOR
TARGET FRAME SOURCE FRAME 2
nuta sercathe heart note
nuta
serca
nuta (note)(zapachu/scent)
serca (heart)
SYNTAX SEMANTICS
NOTE
[SCENT] HEART
SOURCE FRAME 1 THE MEDIATOR
TARGET FRAME SOURCE FRAME 2
References• Coulson, S. (2001). Semantic leaps: Frame-shifting and conceptual blending in meaning
construction. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.• Fillmore, C. J. (1982). Frame semantics. In Linguistics in the Morning Calm (pp. 111–137).
Seoul, South Korea: Hanshin Publishing Co.• Judycka, I. (1963). Synestezja w rozwoju znaczeniowym wyrazów. Prace Filologiczne, XVIII,
59–78.• Sullivan, K. (2014). Frames and Constructions in Metaphoric Language.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.• Werning, M., Fleischhauer, J., & Beseoglu, H. (2006). The Cognitive Accessibility of
Synaesthetic Metaphors. In R. Sun & N. Miyake (Ed.), Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2365–2370). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
