Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor

European languages represent 3% of the world 7,000+ languages, and yet, a recent survey shows that they amount for 84% of the studies in metaphor publications. The disproportionate reliance on such an infinitely small sample of the world diversity of languages seriously undermines the representative...

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Main Author: Simon Devylder
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 2022-12-01
Series:Lexis: Journal in English Lexicology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/6642
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author Simon Devylder
author_facet Simon Devylder
author_sort Simon Devylder
collection DOAJ
description European languages represent 3% of the world 7,000+ languages, and yet, a recent survey shows that they amount for 84% of the studies in metaphor publications. The disproportionate reliance on such an infinitely small sample of the world diversity of languages seriously undermines the representativeness of generalizations about a phenomenon that is claimed to be found across languages and cultures. This paper is a call for more diversity in metaphor studies and a discussion about the methodological benefits and challenges posed by such ambition. Particularly relevant to increasing diversity in metaphor studies is the role of culture and context in metaphor identification procedures. This methodological question is addressed with a specific case study that shows how providing annotators with cultural and contextual information are key to increasing inter-rater agreements.
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spelling doaj-art-5bc83b01ab7f4630b8fd9e1b29ef5e122024-12-09T14:52:35ZengUniversité Jean Moulin - Lyon 3Lexis: Journal in English Lexicology1951-62152022-12-012010.4000/lexis.6642Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphorSimon DevylderEuropean languages represent 3% of the world 7,000+ languages, and yet, a recent survey shows that they amount for 84% of the studies in metaphor publications. The disproportionate reliance on such an infinitely small sample of the world diversity of languages seriously undermines the representativeness of generalizations about a phenomenon that is claimed to be found across languages and cultures. This paper is a call for more diversity in metaphor studies and a discussion about the methodological benefits and challenges posed by such ambition. Particularly relevant to increasing diversity in metaphor studies is the role of culture and context in metaphor identification procedures. This methodological question is addressed with a specific case study that shows how providing annotators with cultural and contextual information are key to increasing inter-rater agreements.https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/6642metaphorlinguistic diversitymetaphor identification procedurePaameseinter-rater agreement
spellingShingle Simon Devylder
Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
Lexis: Journal in English Lexicology
metaphor
linguistic diversity
metaphor identification procedure
Paamese
inter-rater agreement
title Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
title_full Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
title_fullStr Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
title_full_unstemmed Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
title_short Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
title_sort making metaphor studies less weird the methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor
topic metaphor
linguistic diversity
metaphor identification procedure
Paamese
inter-rater agreement
url https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/6642
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