Language Analysis and Calculation
YAO Dengfeng, JIANG Minghu, Abudoukelimu Abulizi, HOU Renkui,Halidanmu Abudukelimu
2015, 29(5): 39-49.
The metaphor processing is a challenging issuein natural language processing. From the perspective of psycholinguistics, spatial metaphor is made to perform similar classification and computation. We use multidimensional scaling and clustering method, with the deaf as subjects for two experiments, and showe thatthe deaf use the topographic space and syntactic space for computational implementation of spatial metaphor comprehension. At the same time, influenced by sign language, the deaf’s cognitive subjects of spatial metaphor include signers’ own reference frame, references’ relative coordinates and the sign space saturation, within the boundary of the part of hand or chest. It is also revealed from the experiments that, due to the presence of two kinds of space, spatial metaphor understanding in the deaf brain is leveled, as suggested by the the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, with the structure and representation of spatial metaphor influenced by its interaction between topographic space and syntactic space.