To all listmates.
In 1997 I published a paper on Figures of Speech and their
possible neurophysiological bases. Perhaps someone is
interested in this topic. Of course the supposed
neurophysiological bases are not specific for the figures of
speech nor for the language, but they can works also in non
verbal fields. The following is the summary, but if there were
many interested in this topic I can send the whole paper to the
list.
Renato Cocchi MD, PhD
specialist in neurology
specialist in medical psychology
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Printed on It. J. Intellect. Impair. 1997, 10: 35-42
FIGURES OF SPEECH: POSSIBLE
NEURO-PHYSIOLOGICAL BASES?
By Renato Cocchi
Summary
Figures of speech are the most used style's tools in
speaking and in writing. Their use is common to peoples living
in countries without any knowledge of our
rhetoric.
Many figures of speech can act by adding a non-rational
conscious force of persuading to the argumentation; nearly
all stimulate the curiosity of the target; some
modify prosody or rhythm of speaking.
A new type of analysis showed that 90 figures of speech spread
into four mechanisms related to the neural network
functioning of the brain. These mechanisms categorize
perceptive stimuli according to identity by similarity,
identity by space contiguity, post hoc ergo propter hoc (or
cause and effect's relationship by temporal contiguity), and
opposition.
The different levels (grammatical, syntactic, semantic, phonetic,
rhythmic, attentional) where figures of speech
apply themselves and the mechanism or mechanisms involved
give peculiar features to each of them.
Figures of speech are not exclusive of verbal language, but
they can be found in other perceptive fields too, as painting
or advertising in the visual field.
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