Mersin University Journal of Linguistics and Literature (Mersin Üniversitesi Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi

1-24

Authors: Melike Baş

This study investigates the conceptualizations of the body part term ciğer (liver-lung) as it is used in idioms figuratively from the cognitive linguistic perspective. Data are collected from several dictionaries, and the idioms that include the word ciğer are analyzed in terms of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Kövecses, 2000). The findings reveal an embodied cultural model for ciğer that is conceptualized as A METONYMY FOR THE PERSON, A LIVING BEING, AN OBJECT OF VALUE and A CONTAINER, each of which include diverse sub-folk models. Findings also demonstrate ciğer as A LOCUS FOR EMOTIONS expressing sadness, pity, liking/love, fear, affectivity, disliking/hate and happiness in Turkish. The study highlights the supremacy of metaphors, metonymies and image schemas in the conceptualization of experiences in Turkish as well as supports the view that embodiment is culturally motivated.

59-84

Authors: Gülsüm Atasoy

The purpose of the study is to describe the distinctive features of the Turkish aspectual adverbials derhal ‘immediately’ and hemen ‘immediately’, which are defined as synonymous in Türk Dil Kurumu ‘Turkish Language Association’ (TDK) dictionary. We use Turkish National Corpus (TNC) (Aksan, et al., 2012) as our database. In determining the number of the node words to be analyzed, Simple sampling method is used. The sampling number is calculated according to 95% confidence interval and 5% error margin on the normalized frequency per million words. We analyze the usage values, lexical patterns and structures of the aspectual adverbials considering their frequency distribution over the domains Informative and Imaginative with a corpus-driven approach. It is observed in the corpus data that these aspectual adverbials tend to appear in certain patterns and structures more frequently. According to their temporal features, activity sentences are the most frequently used situation type with these adverbials, which mark imperfective viewpoint aspect. What makes the difference between them is their manner. Hence, the Turkish aspectual adverbials derhal and hemen cannot be evaluated as exact synonym of each other as stated in TDK dictionary.

105-124

Authors: Elif Arıca Akkök & İpek Pınar Uzun

Some studies about processing metaphors, which are accepted to be a natural product of the human cognitive system, focus on the processing where some focus on online processing of metaphors. Online studies where behavioral reactions are measured during silent reading are based on various methods such as self-paced reading, eye-movement and brain imaging techniques. This research will handle processing of prototypical and peripheral concepts and metaphors with varying degrees of familiarity during silent reading. This research aims to test behavioral reactions to prototypical and peripheral concepts and familiar and unfamiliar metaphors during silent reading. In this frame, behavioral reactions during silent reading in Turkish are measured by eye-movement method trying to answer how (a) prototypical concepts are processed, (b) peripheral concepts are processed, (c) metaphors with a high degree of familiarity are processed, (d) metaphors with a low degree of familiarity are processed. To answer these questions two pilot experiments and one main experiment has been carried out with separate subjects. In the research, where the findings of behavioral experiments which are applied as preparation to the main experiment with SMI RED 500 Hz eye-movement device are discussed as well, it is found that peripheral concepts are processed in a longer time compared to prototypical concepts, and metaphors with a low level of familiarity are processed in a longer time compared to metaphors with a high degree of familiarity.