CREATIVE METAPHOR PRODUCTION IN A FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE AND THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY BY BRIAN JON BIRDSELL A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics School of English, Drama, and American & Canadian Studies College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham February 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ii ABSTRACT The study of metaphor is an interdisciplinary endeavor crossing such fields as cognitive linguistics, psychology, and creativity studies. Two important conclusions on the nature of metaphor have been drawn to date: (1) the ability to use metaphor is a normal human cognitive ability and widespread in language; (2) metaphor is not a unitary construct and varies greatly from the highly familiar and conventional to the creative. Viewing metaphor as lying along a continuum, this thesis narrows the concept of metaphoric competence to creative metaphoric competence, which looks at this ability from a creativity perspective. In this thesis, it is hypothesized that creative metaphoric competence is an underlying competency, which is related to a more general creative competence, and therefore is projected onto both the L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English). In order to test this hypothesis, data from creative metaphor production tasks were collected in both languages. In addition, a number of creativity measurements were also developed with the aim of measuring the multifaceted nature of creativity. Relationships between these variables were investigated. Findings suggest that creative metaphoric competence is an individual difference variable, which could be described as a disposition towards novelty and is related to other measurements of creativity. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my advisor Professor Jeannette Littlemore. I appreciate all her contributions to this PhD project from her time to her ideas and valuable insights. I am thankful for her enthusiasm, calm demeanor, and motivation to help and most importantly to listen while the ideas in this PhD slowly took form. The passion and enthusiasm she has for research into figurative language gave me the inspiration and determination to continue and to overcome the numerous hurdles along the way. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the support of Hirosaki University and all of the students who participated in this research from the pilot studies to the main study. This research would never have been completed if not for all the willing, creative, and interesting students who participated in this study. I am particularly indebted to Professor Hiroaki Nakamura and the countless number of other professors at Hirosaki University and elsewhere in Japan, who also provided valuable insight and encouragement throughout the process of developing this thesis. This research used a number of independent judges to score the creativity of a set of drawings, poems, and metaphors, so I would also like to warmly thank these many volunteers for their time and valuable judgments. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for all their love and encouragement. First I would like to thank my parents who raised me to become curious and to have a desire to explore the world. For my wife, Kumiko, and daughter, Maya, who provided me with laughter, support, and wonderful distractions throughout this PhD program. Brian Birdsell Hirosaki University, Japan University of Birmingham, UK February 2018 iv Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Outline of this Thesis ....................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 The Development of Metaphors in Language and the Individual ....................... 9 2.1 Background to the Study of Metaphor ........................................................................ 10 2.1.1 The Thin Line: Literal and Nonliteral Language ...................................................... 11 2.1.2 Processing Metaphors: Secondary or Parallel to Literal Language? ........................ 12 2.1.3 Plugging the Gap: Why do People Use Metaphors? ................................................. 14 2.2 Embodiment: How Metaphors Arise in Language .................................................... 16 2.2.1 Analyzing the Differences Between Concrete and Abstract Language .................... 19 2.2.2 The Body in the Mind: Strong Embodiment ............................................................. 21 2.2.3 Summary of an Embodied View of Metaphor .......................................................... 34 2.3 The Development of Metaphoric Competence at the Individual Level .................... 34 2.3.1 The Development of Metaphoric Competence in a First Language ......................... 35 2.3.2 The Development of Metaphoric Competence in a Foreign Language .................... 43 2.3.3 Creative Metaphoric Competence: A Possible Cognitive Process ........................... 49 2.4 Summary of Chapter 2 .................................................................................................. 51 Chapter 3 Differentiating Creative from Conventional Metaphors .................................... 54 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 54 3.2 Differentiating Creative from Conventional Metaphors: Three Contemporary Views ........................................................................................................................................ 56 3.2.1 Conceptual Metaphor Theory ................................................................................... 58 3.2.2 The Career of Metaphor Theory ............................................................................... 65 3.2.3 Graded Salience Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 73 3.3 Differentiating Creative from Conventional Metaphors: The Brain ....................... 79 3.3.1 Language and the Brain: The Left Hemisphere ........................................................ 79 3.3.2 Language and the Brain: The Right Hemisphere ...................................................... 81 3.3.3 The Bilateral Brain and Creative Metaphors: Coarse Semantic Coding Theory ...... 87 3.3.4 Summary of the Brain and Creative Metaphors ........................................................ 88 3.4 A Framework for Differentiating Creative Metaphors ............................................. 89 3.5 Ways to Measure Creative Metaphoric Competence ................................................ 92 3.5.1 Fluency, Competence, and Clarifying Terminology ................................................. 94 3.5.2 Developing a Framework for a Creative Metaphor Assessment Tool ...................... 97 3.6 Scoring Creative Metaphor Production .................................................................... 103 3.7 Summary of Chapter 3 ................................................................................................ 106 Chapter 4 Approaching Creativity Using a Multifaceted Approach ................................. 108 4.1 Divergent Thinking and the Multiple Uses of a Brick ............................................. 112 4.1.1 What is Divergent Thinking? .................................................................................. 114 4.1.2 Measuring Divergent Thinking ............................................................................... 115 4.1.3 Divergent Thinking Tasks: An Effective, but Incomplete Look at the Creative Process ................................................................................................................................ 118 4.2 Past Creative Achievement and Everyday Creativity .............................................. 120 4.3 Personality Traits and Creativity .............................................................................. 123 4.3.1 Personality: The Big Five ........................................................................................ 126 4.3.2 The Creative Personality: Beyond the Big Five ...................................................... 130 4.4 Creative Self-Beliefs: "Yes I am Creative" ............................................................... 144 4.5 Haiku: A Short Poem as a Creative Product ............................................................ 149 v 4.5.1 The Consensual Assessment Technique: Using Judges as Evaluators of Creativity .... ..............................................................................................................................................152 4.6 A Note on Culture and Creativity: The Case of Japan ............................................ 156 4.7 Summary of Chapter 4 ...............................................................................................