Metaphor Literacy: Varying Levels of Relational-Structure Consistency in Interpretations by Indonesian Native Speakers

One major view as to the mechanism underlying metaphor interpretation is that it is based on relational-structure consistency (a.k.a. analogy) between target and vehicle. This entails a possibility of varying levels of stringency of analogical processing by individuals. This can be viewed as metaphor literacy. The study, involving 77 Indonesian college students, investigates the extent to which metaphor interpretations made by early-adult native speakers are analogically grounded. The study used eight metaphors selected through a familiarity-rating survey of 37 metaphoric expressions taken from printed media sources. The results showed that, for each metaphor, there was an average of 12.1 different suggestions (S.D. ranging from 4.2 to 9.7) and that 72.2% of the interpretations were categorized as not being strongly grounded on relational-structure consistency. The study suggests that the looseness of the interpretations can be accounted to either the subjects’ preference for not being stringent in observing analogical processing or their being unaccustomed to an analogical manner of metaphor interpretation.