{"id":455,"date":"2018-10-02T11:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T10:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/?p=455"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:50:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T12:50:22","slug":"unfinished-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/2018\/10\/02\/unfinished-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfinished Reflections on a Project about Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Greg Woodin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m in the unusual position of not having finished my Postgraduate Research Scheme yet, which makes the whole \u2018reflecting on the experience\u2019 thing feel strangely anticlimactic. I haven\u2019t finished the scheme yet because we needed native English-speaking university students to take part in our study \u2013 a rare animal outside of term time. Hell, it\u2019s difficult enough tempting students out of their warm beds and into our cold, clinical laboratory during <\/em>term time (it\u2019s not that bad, really), no matter how many Amazon vouchers and chocolate chip muffins we try to bribe them with. But working on Professor Jeannette Littlemore\u2019s project \u2018Exploring different types of creativity in metaphor\u2019 has already been a fun and rewarding project to be involved in, even if we haven\u2019t got on with the real nitty-gritty yet.<\/p>\n

Amongst other things, I\u2019ve improved my intellectual athleticism jumping through the many hoops that GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation]\u00a0has thrown at us regarding participant confidentiality, inventing a method of participants constructing their own unique five-digit code number in lieu of providing us with their actual name. I\u2019ve also helped develop new materials for the project based on reservations that Professor Littlemore and her team expressed, and I\u2019ve co-authored a debriefing form for participants to read after completing the study. To give you a short summary of the research we\u2019re conducting, the debriefing form goes like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study you have just taken part in was investigating the different ways in which people respond to different types of metaphors.<\/p>\n

Metaphors involve speaking about one thing as if it were another, as in the phrase \u201cHe constructed a theory\u201d, where the \u2018theory\u2019 is described as a building being constructed. This particular metaphor is conventional because theories are often described as buildings (e.g., \u201cThe theory needs to be buttressed\u201d).<\/p>\n

Other metaphors are less conventional. For example, someone could say, \u201cHe constructed a theory with steel girders\u201d. This metaphor still describes the theory as a building, but adds uncommon detail by specifying that the building is constructed \u201cwith steel girders\u201d. This implies that the theory is strong and robust.<\/p>\n

Finally, some metaphors are completely novel, as in the phrase \u201cHis theory is purple\u201d. This metaphor could be interpreted as meaning that the theory combines ideas from two other theories, just as purple is a mix of red and blue. However, this is not a metaphor we usually use to talk about theories.<\/p>\n

This study investigated two main research questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Which type of metaphor will participants find the most difficult to understand?<\/li>\n
  2. Which type of metaphor will elicit the most varied explanations from participants?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So far, I\u2019ve dived down deep into the existential dread-inducing rabbit hole of \u2018But what is<\/em> a metaphor?\u2019 and I\u2019ve come out on the other side. Now, I\u2019m about to enter the new term with renewed enthusiasm and a metaphorical fire in my belly, ready to finally get this study underway. Wish me luck.<\/p>\n

    Greg Woodin,\u00a0MA by Research, English Language + Applied Linguistics<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The start of term is only the beginning for Postgraduate researcher Greg Woodin, who’s about to undertake a study on metaphor now our students have returned to the campus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53,125],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language-and-literature","tag-english-language","tag-metaphor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/calstudentresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}