Original scientific paper
Topologically biased construal in offline processing: the case of up and down in the language of the blind
Renata Geld
orcid.org/0000-0001-8817-204X
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Mateusz-Milan Stanojević
orcid.org/0000-0001-7221-5842
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the particles upand downin the strategic
meaning construal of particle verbs (PVs) in blind and sighted users of English as
L2. The paper is situated within the cognitive linguistic framework. Based on the results
of a speaker–judgment study with 20 blind and 20 sighted users of English, we show that
PVs with downare more informative to all the participants, and that blind users rely
on the particles (particularly the particle up) more than sighted users. We claim that the
difference in informativeness is related to the experiential status of upand down. Downis
more informative because it is at human scale, which limits its metaphorization potential.
Upis more open–ended, making it more schematic and allowing greater departure from
its original topology. Blind users rely on the particles more because they are more inclined
to analyzing linguistic cues, since they often serve as additional experiential input.
Moreover, the blind rely more on egocentric topology, which produces similar results for
down, and different for up.
Keywords
the blind; the sighted; particle verbs; strategic construal of meaning; English as a second language
Hrčak ID:
161875
URI
Publication date:
15.7.2016.
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