为什么快乐在“上”,悲伤在“下”——语篇阅读中情绪的垂直空间隐喻

The Vertical-Spatial Metaphor of Emotions in Text Reading

以具有一定情境的语篇作为实验材料,采用引导范式和无关任务范式,探讨了"快乐是上,悲伤是下"这一情绪的垂直空间隐喻在语篇阅读中的心理现实性。实验1要求被试阅读情绪语篇后,对呈现在屏幕上方或下方的字母"F"或"J"进行判断。结果发现,被试阅读积极情绪语篇后对呈现在空间位置上方的字母反应更快,阅读消极情绪语篇后对呈现在空间位置下方的字母反应更快,表明语篇阅读中存在情绪的垂直空间隐喻的始源域向目标域映射的心理现实性。实验2要求被试阅读含有空间位移的语篇后对随机呈现在屏幕上方或下方的图片中面孔人物的性别进行判断。结果发现被试阅读含有在空间中向上移动的语篇后对积极情绪图片反应更快,阅读含有在空间中向下移动的语篇后对消极情绪图片的反应更快,说明语篇阅读中存在情绪的垂直空间隐喻的目标域向始源域映射的心理现实性。研究表明:语篇阅读中读者可以产生情绪的垂直空间隐喻,并且空间这一始源域和情绪这一目标域具有双向映射的性质。

＂Metaphors we live by＂ is a quote from Lakoff and Johnson which means that metaphors actually describe the way we live, covering our language, thought, behavior, almost everything we do. They believe that spatial metaphor is the most important of all meta- phors and is in the basic cognitive domain. The vertical-spatial metaphor is a cognitive style, which is construed from top down spatial- ly, compared to other cognitive domains. In this paper, two experiments were conducted to investigate the psychological reality of the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions, which is ＂happiness is up, sadness is down＂ in text reading. In Experiment 1, 25 participants were assigned to read an emotional discourse presenting sentence by sentence at first, then to re- act to the letter ＂F＂ or ＂J＂ presenting above or below the screen. The purpose of the experiment was to explore whether reading differ- ent emotional discourses produced vertical-spatial metaphor or not. The results showed that subjects reacted quickly to the letters presen- ted above the spatial location when reading positive emotional discourses, and reacted quickly to the letters presented in the bottom of the spatial location while reading negative emotional discourses. In other words, there is a mapping from the source domain to the target domain of the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions in text. In Experiment 2, 30 participants read text containing a spatial displacement at first, then judged the gender of the emotional pictures presenting above or below the screen at random by an irrelevant task paradigm. The purpose of the experiment was to explore whether reading different discourses containing different spatial displacements affected the subjects＂ responses to different emotional pictures. Because the locations of the emotional pictures were presenting at random, the effect of its presenting position on the results of the experiment were balanced. The results showed that the spatial factors affected the reactions to emotional pictures. That is, subjects responded fast to positive emotional pictures when reading discourse moving up in space, and responded fast to negative emotional pictures when reading discourse moving down in space. In other words, there is a mapping from the target domain to the source domain of vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions in text. This study reveals that the vertical-spatial metaphor of emotions exist in discourse context, and there is a bidirectional mapping among space, the original domain, mood, and the target domain.