Date: January 17 (Wednesday), 3:00 pm (Warsaw time)
Join online: on Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9356316703
Join live: s. 3099, Wydział Geologii UW, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 93
Title: Literary text perception and comprehension
During this seminar, we will hear two shorter talks, given by Prof. Monika Płużyczka and her PhD students — Ainur Kakimova and Danil Fokin, from LELO lab at University of Warsaw. They will present the results of their research projects.
Talk #1: Comprehension and appreciation of literary metaphors in foreign language
Speakers: Monika Płużyczka & Ainur Kakimova
Abstract:
Experimental research on the processing of literary metaphors in a foreign language is scarce. And there is no scholarly consensus on whether comprehending metaphors in a foreign language requires additional cognitive effort and a longer time to process. Some propose a three-stage model of metaphor comprehension during which the non-native speaker first considers the literal meaning. Others support the concept of a universal pattern of metaphor comprehension independent of the language. However, there is still little empirical research to support either approach. Even less research exists on the appreciation of literary metaphors by non-native speakers. To explore this, we formulated the following research questions:
a) How do we process literary metaphors in L2?
b) Is their processing cognitively demanding?
c) How well people do understand literary metaphors in foreign language?
d) How do we evaluate their aesthetic value?
The team experiment was conducted in the LELO Lab at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Applied Linguistics). The methodology consisted of both online (eye tracking) and offline (comprehension tests, appreciation ratings) methods. The participants were Polish EFL students (English level B2 and higher). The experimental material was an excerpt from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” written by Oscar Wilde. The experimental group read the original text with metaphors, and the control group read the same text adapted by us and verified by three independent experts, in that the metaphors were rewritten in plain language. The findings provide empirical evidence for longer processing of literary metaphors in L2 than non-metaphorical expression and their higher aesthetic evaluation. They also show the correlations between difficulty in comprehension and aesthetic appreciation.
Talk #2: The Depth Behind the Words: The Test Battery for expert-novice differences in Polish poetry reading investigation
Speaker: Danil Fokin
Abstract:
The experimental design developed for expert-novice study on Polish poetic texts will be presented. While empirical literary studies are a growing research area, there is still few experimental research on Polish poetic material and a lack of methodologies, fitted this type of studies. Thus, we developed the test battery aimed at investigating of both expert-novice differences in Polish poetry reading and the influence of poetic tropes on reading-related cognitive processes. The test battery includes six experiments integrated into the eye tracking study. The first test is a Polish adaptation of the SLS-Berlin Reading Fluency Test aimed to examine reading proficiency. The second one is the Polish MoCA test whose goal is to test one’s working memory. These two preliminary tests are intended to confirm the null hypothesis, i.e. no between-group differences. Further experiments allow us to evaluate possible differences more thoroughly. Once each poem has been read, readers complete the Context-Primed Association Test (CPAT). Words from poems are used as primes for context recall. CPAT is aimed to establish the impact of expertise on poetic content remembrance and to what extent the context remembrance affects the associations provided. CPAT is followed by the Cloze-Task, aimed to estimate one’s verbatim memory. Once all poetic stimuli have been read, groups are going to complete Topic Inferential Task and Topical Matching Task. Both tests focus on participants’ ability to draw inferences between- and within-texts and highlight readers’ understanding of the aesthetic purposes of tropes and affective values of the poem. The proposed methodology will explore expertise-dependent patterns in Polish poetry reading and form solid underpinnings for the evolution of empirical poetics in Polish.
This talk is a part of the Traincrease Lecture Series (D4.2).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952324.
