%A MA Lijun, MA Yunxiao, HE Xiaoqing, LIU Haitao, ZHANG Jingyu %T Processing of Chinese homophonic two-part allegoric sayings: Effects of familiarity and homophone %0 Journal Article %D 2019 %J Acta Psychologica Sinica %R 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.01306 %P 1306-1317 %V 51 %N 12 %U {https://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlxb/CN/abstract/article_4575.shtml} %8 2019-12-25 %X
Two-part allegorical sayings are a typical language form in Chinese. Understanding two-part allegorical saying involves the ability to understand figurative meanings. Chinese two-part allegorical sayings convey figurative meanings by activating either homophonic or conceptual associations. Homophonic associations are realized based on a conceptual connection between the two homophonic expressions: the second part of the sayings and the expression of the idiomatic meaning. Within the example of Lao tai tai shang ji wo (老太太上鸡窝)—ben dan (笨蛋), a situation is described as an old lady (lao tai tai or老太太) is about to walk towards a henhouse (shang ji wo or上鸡窝), which is reflected in the second part that the purpose of doing this is “heading for eggs” (ben dan or奔蛋). The intended interpretation of the saying “an idiot” (ben dan or笨蛋) could not be worked out without the help of a very crucial apparatus—sound association; that is, “heading for eggs” is pronounced the same with “an idiot” in Chinese with respect to the same segmental combinations and tone patterns. Within the paradigm of sound association, the meaning identified in the source domain (the first part; in our example, the old lady’s behavior) is also observed in the target domain (the second part; in our example, the figurative meaning of the old lady’s behavior) in a metaphoric way through mapping between the two domains, resulting in a shifting from a concrete concept to an abstract one. Mapping, which was described by Lakoff and Johnson in their Conceptual Metaphor Theory, has been considered a powerful theory in interpreting metaphors. Fauconnier proposed Conceptual Blending Theory, emphasizing that mapping happens across spaces via connecting counterparts in the input mental spaces. In our example, it connects one mental space contained the image of an old lady walking towards a henhouse and another mental space describing the purpose of carrying out this behavior. Then the mapping happens when the mental apparatus identifies the sound similarity and generates the intended meaning. Meanwhile, the knowledge of recognizing implicature (