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THE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN PUBLIC SPEAKING: AN ANALYSIS OF SIMILE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH TED TALKS
1MARIA SALAHUDDIN, 2DR. MAIMOONA ABDULAZIZ, 3SAMINA AHMAD, 4UZMA QADIR,
1M.Phil Scholar Riphah International University Faisalabad 2Assistant Professor Department of English National University of Modern Languages Faisalabad Campus 3M.Phil Scholar Riphah International University Faisalabad
4M.Phil Scholar Riphah International University Faisalabad
Abstract-One of the aims of public speaking is to convey maximum information in a few words for maximum effectiveness. Figurative language makes sentences more expressive and vivid through deep meanings. Today, figurative language has also been used in non-literary genres, especially in communication. The present study explores the linguistic mechanism of similes in English TED to analyze how TED speakers frequently use this rhetorical trope to compare two ideas, actions and objects. This corpus-based research employed a quantitative research method to quantify the phrase structures of similes in Influential English TED Talks Corpus (IETTC) containing 10 population groups, 2,000 transcribed files and more than 3.4 million tokens. First of all, similes representing node words 'like' and 'as' were explored in the annotated version of the corpus and their phrase structures and patterns were further analyzed. The findings revealed that TED speakers employ expressions 'like' and 'as' in their speeches to convey their ideas more explicitly beyond literal meanings. The density of the simile expression 'as' was found higher than 'like'. The phrase level analysis showed that noun phrase + node words (like/as) + noun phrase is the most common structure in the selected corpus in terms of collocation on both sides of the node words. It is also observed in the analysis that verb phrases usually occur on the left side of the simile expressions and are rarely found on the right side. The results seem fair to conclude that figurative language is not confined to poetry or other literary work only but has been employed today in public speaking and non-literary work to convey hidden notions and ideas.
Keywords: Public Speaking, TED Talks, Similes, Figurative Language, Phrase Structure
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, English language has become a preferred medium of communication globally to address diverse audiences across cultures. Proficiency in grammar, vocabulary and rhetoric enables speakers to formulate compelling narratives, adorned with persuasive elements, and rhetorical devices to leave a lasting impression on the audience and convey their message with impact. Influential communication can changethe listeners' mind and can motivate them to think innovatively. To achieve this feat, a speaker employs a distinct choice of lexical elements, the figure of speech or tropes and syntactic and phrasal structures to put conceptions into words and create an effect. Tropes and schemas are considered the two forms of the third canon of style in classical rhetoric that make a speech or writing powerfully argumentative and impart colour to the meaning. Schemas refer to an artful deviation from the usual order and patterns of words at the syntactic level e.g. antithesis, ellipsis, alliosis and parallelism while tropes (a reference to one thing as another) bring unexpected twists in the word meanings at the semantic level e.g. metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche and hyperbole.
Among various types of tropes, similes and metaphors are the most frequently used figures of speech in English literature but today its reach expanded beyond traditional rhetoric to non-literary genres like public speaking that aim to persuade the audience. In Aristotle's point of view, ethos (the credibility of the speaker), pathos (to evoke audience interest) and logos (logical connection among the previous two) are three essential components of public speaking. Public speakers can win over the crowd through their creative ideas and can influence their audience's minds. The
present research explores the use of similes as a figure of speech in the non-literary public speaking genre of TED Talks. TED serves as an influential public speaking platform where charismatic speakers, famous or not, engage the audience with their creative ideas and story-telling methods. They captivate the audience's mind to bring positive changes. This study analyzes the structural features of similes in the speeches of TED speakers along with an exploration of the most frequently used simile expressions that offer visual imagery to audience.
Problem Statement
The genre of TED Talks has been explored in terms of discourse analysis, metaphor identification and stylistic analysis. Limited research work has been reported on the use of the figurative expression 'simile' by TED speakers. The present research, therefore, probes to investigate the way TED speakers use this figure of speech to persuade and attract the audience.
Purpose of the Study
This study entails to investigate the patterns and functions of similes used in TED Talks and how speakers use this rhetorical device to not only captivate and engage the audience but also to enhance their understanding of the presented ideas.
Research Objectives & Questions
The present research adheres to explore similes with 'like' and'as' as node words in the corpus of English TED Talks along with the investigation of structural features on each side of node words. Keeping in view these objectives, the present study aims to answer the following questions:
1. What is the distribution of the most frequent simile expressions in the TED Talks?
2. Which phrases collocate, on either side, with the node words representing similes?
3. How far do different topics of TED Talks vary in terms of simile structures? Scope & Significance
The current study stands distinguished from previous researches as similes are not specifically explored in terms of the spoken genre of TED Talks. Secondly, future researchers interested in the use of figurative language can use this study as a reference to investigate figures of speech in non-literary writings. Thirdly, the study findings may reveal patterns of simile use that may contribute to the success of TED Talks and potentially guide future speakers on how to prepare impactful presentations.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literary stylistics deals with elocutio, the third canon of rhetoric which we call style today. It deals with the artistic use of language to adorn human discourse and the study of figures of speech (Levin, 1982). Figurative language has predominantly been an important ingredient of literary writings. For Richards and Schmidt (2010), any word or phrase that means differently from the original word is a figure of speech. In classical rhetoric, schemas and tropes are two forms of style figures with the former one involving the transfer of word order in syntactic structures while the latter one entails shifting of meanings. Stylisticians, philosophers and linguists not only studied tropes (similes, metaphors, personification etc.) but also tried to develop an understanding of the nature of figurative expressions (Burke, 2014). The use of figures of speech allows speakers to create more vivid and effective expressions and lay ground for more textured interaction between speaker and listeners.
The simile, the concern of the present research, is one of the ancient figures of speech or trope as well as the commonest form of expression in use. Years ago in his book Rhetoric (Book III, Part 4), Aristotle emphasized that both similes and metaphors are the same figure of speech with difference lies only in terms of forms of expression(Burke, 2014). He called similes a way for explicit comparisons between two things, concepts and actions through the use of terms 'like' and 'as' while metaphors involve implicit comparisons, imply riddles and offer freshness in the speech (Burke, 2014). Thus, similes can be defined as indirect comparisons between two ideas or things sharing similar qualities. Kandenan (2017) considers a simile a phenomenon that uses 'like' and 'as' in the sentence to compare two opposite objects. On the other hand, Cooper (1986) described similes as metaphors with the only difference lies in the use of words such as 'like' and 'as'. Today, the use of this figure of speech is not limited to literary work but this trope has also been employed in non-literary genres. Ullah et al (2021) explored the use of this rhetorical device by Aristotle time in the speeches of political leaders and also analyzed the structure after simile extraction. The structural analysis further simplifies the exploration of different phrases that collocate at the right and left sides of the similes. The researchers made a corpus of twenty
speeches delivered by 20th-century politicians for analysis. The findings indicate that noun phrases (NP) were present on both the right and left sides of the node words representing similes while verb phrases were found only on the left side. In another study, Fengjie et al (2016) analyzed the skillful use of rhetorical devices e.g. simile, metaphor, alliteration, synecdoche, metonymy, parallelism and antithesis and its effects in four of Obama's speeches. The research concluded that Obama expressed his ideas in a visual and vivid way by using different tropes such as metonymy, metaphor, simile, and synecdoche. Rhetoric can be defined as the way to influence decisions, ideas, and actions with the help of symbolic approaches. John Locke who was a 17th-century philosopher described rhetoric as the science of oratory and the art of speaking gracefully (Fengjie et al, 2016). Thus, it can be assumed that the use of rhetorical devices in speaking is an effective way to persuade and influence the audience.
Though similes as a figure of speech have been extensively studied in literature but their use in contemporary spoken genres especially in the context of TED Talks has received limited scholarly attention in academic research. At present, TED Talks as genera of public speaking has been explored in terms of analyzing commenting behaviour on TED Talk videos (Tsou et al, 2014), to study expressive means and stylistic devices in architecture and construction-related TED Talks (Konovalova&Nizamieva, 2020), to study gender differences and translation strategies (Li & Li, 2020; Dzhabrailova et al, 2019), to explore the role of TED Talks as a learning instrument to improve listening skills of Indonesian EFL learners (Tilwani et al, 2022), to examine the metaphor used in arts, natural sciences, social sciences and technology related talks (Lee, 2014) and to investigate stylistic features of this public speaking platform as genre (Salahuddin at el, 2023). However, the genre is yet to explore in terms of simile use so the present research is an attempt to fill this gap by investigating the structure of this figure of speech.
3. MATERIAL AND METHODS
Research Design
The present study deals with the exploration of simile expressions in the web-mediated genre of TED Talks. This corpus-based research work also seeks to understand the phrase structures alongside similes that are yet unexplored. Due to the non-availability of the corpus of TED Talks, a new corpus titled Influential English TED Talks Corpus (IETTC), was formulated, following a simple random sampling technique, after determining the size of the corpus. The transcribed data of 2,000 talks, having a viewership of millions, was collected from the official website of the TED Talks and sifted. Later on, these files were converted into software-compatible format (.txt) to get the annotated version of the text through MAT tagger and the extracted files were analyzed further through AntConc to get the frequency and phrase structure of similes in the TED Talks. A quantitative approach was employed to analyze simile structure in the TED speeches.
Population & Sampling
A corpus of more than 3 million words containing talks of TED speakers was collected and divided into 10 population groups e.g. animation (AN), business (BU), climate change (CC), design (DE), communication (CO), education (ED), entertainment (EN), global issues (GI), science (SC), Technology (TE). The influential English TED Talks were collected considering a random stratified sampling method in which each population group have similar characteristics (Cohen et al, 2017) which is why it is considered suitable to population groups having a non-equal sample size. The criteria for sample selection in the present research involves highly viewed TED Talks therefore each sample in the population group have viewership in million.
4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS Significant Simile Expressions in TED Talks
Figurative language is an effective way for speakers and writers to express their ideas implicitly in a variety of unique and imaginative ways for clarity, comparisons or emphasis, beyond the general use of language. Similes, the concern of the present study, make speech expressive and allow us to communicate efficiently and concisely. This section of the analysis involves the interpretation of the following question: (1) What is the distribution of the most frequent simile expressions in the TED Talks?
All instances of 'like' and 'as' were analysed deeply to extract the real examples of similes.Fromilhague (1995) clarified that similes can be explored either explicitly or implicitly based on comparisons. Explicit similes deal with the direct comparisons among two objects, things or actions wherein the point of similarities or sense is presented directly e.g. 'as...as' or 'as hard as stone'. On the other hand, implicit similes do not offer sense directly and leave an onus of
explanation on readers or listeners such as 'like' as in 'he swims like a fish' which means he swims very well.
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Implicit Similes Explict Similes
Types of Similes
Figure 4.1: Frequency distribution of implicit and explicit similes in TED Talks
The findings of the above figure show that TED Speakers have used this figure of speech in their interaction with the audience to make things clearer to them. It is also revealed that the frequency of explicit simile 'as...as, as' is higher (74%) than implicit simile 'like' (26%). Almost 8041 s imile expressions (like & as) were observed in the TED Talks, which means TED speakers use figurative language to make comparison easier. The node word representing an implicitly similar marker 'like' is found 1123 times ('me like a banned item' and 'web is like a black hole') with the indefinite article 'a' and 133 times with 'an' article. The indefinite articles are used to convey new information to readers and listeners so TED speakers employ these articles to give new information during comparison among two ideas, things or actions. Likewise, the definite article 'the' is usedalong with the 'like' expression 837 times to elaborate the already known information to readers. Here, most of the examples have an 'A is like B' structure. Meanwhile, explicit simile 'as' is found 2711 times in the corpus with definite article 'a' to make the comparison among things a nd ideas clearer to listeners. Moreover, 'as' is also used 488 times in the corpus along with another indefinite article 'an' that is also used to express new ideas or thoughts. The definite article 'the' is used 1185 times in the corpus with 'as' to compare things that share similar characteristics.
(1) Today we can make a forest for a cost as low as the cost of an iPhone", TEDCC-188.
In the above sentence taken from TED climate change, the comparison of cost is made by using A is not like B structure. Here, a TED speaker is trying to convince the audience by using the simile expression 'as' that it is possible to make forest cost lower than an iPhone cost. The comparison is made among the cost of two concrete objects (forests & iPhone). Moreover, 'a cost' and 'the cost' on the left and right side of 'as low as' is a noun phrase structure.Additionally, 'a cost' is offering new information on the left side while the speaker uses 'the cost' to deliver already known information to listeners.
1 ¡he acted as if she liked the crackers and didn't like the broccoli -- just
2 iplex. But new sensors and Al can chan9e that In a way. technology is
3 ew York, they would put the report in front of our building, as kind of.
4 t what I would call an immature version of a luxury brand that looked
5 mass of the atom. Way on the edge are the electrons. So if an atom is
6 detrusor muscle which relaxes as the bladder fills allowing it to inflate
7 chusettsi General Hospital. And I curl up into a little fetal ball. And just
8 s you could wear like a piece of jewelry or you could apply to yourself
9 d in the teamwork studies, maybe I can make the robots jam together
10 til's not just simply a storage box for carbon, though, li operates more
11 long time, maybe even thousands of years. In this way. soil acts a lot
12 it and spreads a newspaper, rolls it into the newspaper, gives it to me
13 e United States and in much of the developed world looks something
14 ices on the public side of the station -- places that spark conversation.
15 sy are simple summaries of what's going on inside your body, kind of
16 s of data, because some data is extremely valuable and they will form.
17 s here. That would be super weird. These are weirder. And it's not just
18 it going in the first place. For that I needed to think a little bit more
19 'ou like any desserts, sir? Our special is tracking cookie. Customer I'd
20 losions and burninq trucks used as barricades across the city, so truly
Figure 4.2: Distribution of 'like
like a baby and any other sane person. But half the time, what she woulc Education.txt like a baby that has just learned to recognize objects and understand wo business.txt like d backdrop to show how bad things are. Anyway, during the day. I Entertainmenttxt like a badge on a luxury car And as we've gone worldwide and gone froi business.txt like a ball the size of a football stadium, with the nudeus in the center, ar Science.txt like a balloon. As the bladder gets full, the detrusor contracts. The intern. Animation.txt like a balloon with the last bit of air. just right out of the balloon, I just Global lssues.txt i - e a Band-Aid. And after many trials and tribulations and years of ende Communication.txt like a band. Everybody's riffing off each other, nobody is stopping for a i Entertainmenttxt like a bank account, and the amount of carbon that's in soil at any given Climate Change.txt • ea bank vault for carbon. More carbon in the bank means healthier s< Climate Change.txt like a banned item, something like that I don't know why. I did not ask f< Global lssues.txt like a barbell with increasing poundage on either end of the bar. On the business.txt like a barbershop, a coffee shop or sports courts as well. Both cops and 1 Design.txt like a barometer. But they have very little detail, and you need that detail Science.txt like a barrier to entry in a market Other things you can just -- it loses its Global lssues.txt like a basketball that you smoosh down into a little point and it's super c Technology.txt like a bat, because rabies is a virus — it doesn't move by itself, it has to Science.txt like a batch of some zombie tracking cookies, thank you. Server. Comint Animation.txt like a battlefield. After these two days, and during a particularly intense < Global Issues txt
' in different categories of TED Talks
The above figure is extracted from AntConc and highlights the instances of similes in the TED corpus. For instance in example 1, a girl is compared with the baby, as she did not like broccoli and liked to eat crackers. In the second instance, a comparison has been made between technology and baby as from the speaker's point of view, technology has just started to learn new things like a baby does as it grows up. Here, TED speakers have used the simile to introduce abstract concepts (technology, atom) through concrete images (baby, balloon, barber shop and battle-field etc. Another detailed syntactic approach for simile analysis is to explore its overall syntactic composition. Svartengren (1958) introduced two distinct types of similes that differ from each other on the basis of grammatical function: Intensifying and Descriptive similes. Intensifying similescan be defined as simile devices used to emphasize the intensity or degree of certain qualities or characteristics of a substance or character. Look at the below example from TED Talks.
(2)"We're travelling from west to east, over part of the ocean that would look featureless on a big-scale map, but actually some of these mountains are as big as Everest", TEDCC-168.
(3)"Poe lived in poverty throughout his career, and his personal life was often as dark as his writing", TEDCC-43.
The first excerpt from the TED climate change category explains the way the speaker presented ideas about the height of mountains. The expression 'as big as' suggests to the listeners that mountains in the defined area have peaks above 8000 meters. In the other example (3), the speaker is elaborating on the career of Poe and said that the character's personal life is dark means full of miseries like his writing.
Descriptive simile is the second type introduced by Svartengren that is considered most effective to describe the condition or state of a particular object or character. It is different from the intensifying similes as they do not intensify behaviour or quality but just describe the things to help listeners they can better understand the situation and scene clearly.
(4)"In many ways, your body functions like a large city, full of myriad buildings, interconnected buildings, with lots of different structures", TEDSC-166.
(5)"This butterfly is called a Kallimainachus. On one side, it looks like a beautiful butterfly, and on the other side, it looks like a leaf, and it folds up like a leaf to elude predators", TEDCC-142.
In example (4) the speaker compares the body functions with a 'large city'. In a large city, there is a network of interconnected buildings and structures similarly in the human body all organs and tissues work collectively. In example (5), the speaker has used 'like' thrice in a singular sentence to make things about a special type of butterfly more clear for the audience. Moreover, 'looks like and looks like a leaf' exemplifies alliteration. The speaker explains that Kallimainachus looks similar to a beautiful butterfly on one side but it looks to change to a leaf-like shape on the other side. It is also elaborated that this kind of butterfly has a special ability to fold like a leaf to escape from predators. Additionally, verb phrase structure is used on the left side of the node word 'like' (it looks, it folds up) while on the right side, noun phrase structure is employed (a beautiful butterfly, a leaf) that follows V + like + N structure. Frequent Phrase Structures in TED Talks
Language forms not only consist of a sequence of words put together in a sentence but they can be divided into smaller units such as phrases to be analyzed hierarchically. Phrase types such as noun
phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases or prepositional phrases can be differentiated on the basis of internal phrase structure or their respective syntactic roles. This part of the analysis section answers the second and third questions by observing the lexical bundles on the right and left side of the node words (like & as) through the lens of four phrase structures proposed by Conrad and Biber (2005).
Noun Phrase (NP) + Node Words (like/as) + Noun Phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP) + Node Word (like/as) + Noun Phrase(NP) Adjective Phrase (AP) + Node Word (like/as) + Noun Phrase(NP) Prepositional Phrase (PP) + Node Word (like/as) + Noun Phrase(NP)
Table 4.1: Frequency of 4 phrase structures along the node words like/as in TED Talks
Sr. No Phrase Structure Like As Total Number of
Examples Examples structures
1 Noun phrase + node words (like/as) + 352 1052 1404
noun phrase
2 Verb phrase + node word (like/as) + 327 390 717
noun phrase
3 Adjective phrase + node word (like/as) + 14 120 134
noun phrase
4 Prepositional phrase + node word 2 57 59
(like/as) + noun phrase
The above table contains frequencies of different phrase structures along node word like and as in the spoken corpus of TED Talks. As the table above shows, the frequency of noun phrase structure representing 'as' as a simile (65%) on both sides is higher than 'like' (50.7%). This means TED speakers employ 'as' to make direct and clear comparisons among ideas. Conversely, verb phrase structure alongside node words showed different results. The second verb phrase structure is found 327 times with the preposition 'like' and 390 times with the node word 'like'. However, third and fourth phrase structures, adjective phrases and prepositional phrases, are negligible but they somehow contribute to the phrase structure. In the last two cases, the 'as' node word is employed by TED speakers more than 'like'.
Figure 4.3: Frequency distribution of node words (like/as) along different phrase structures in TED
Talks
The above figure findings revealed the frequency distribution of various phrase structures in TED Talks. As evident from the above results, the frequency of noun phrase + node words (like/as) + noun phrase is higher in the corpus (60.7%) than in other phrase structures. This means TED speakers use nouns as a head in the structures to compare two different ideas, actions or things and to make their idea more evident to the audience. Verb phrase + node word (like/as) + noun phrase constitutes the second phrase structure in which a verb phrase is used on the left side of the node word while a noun phrase is there on the right side. Its frequency in the whole corpus is also 31%. A verb phrase usually consists of a primary or lexical verb as a head accompanied by auxiliaries to specify the action of the main verb. The other two phrase types are negligible but speakers still use them to explain their viewpoints to the audience. The frequency of adjective phrase + node word (like/as) + noun and prepositional phrase + node word (like/as) + noun phrase structures is 5.8% and 2.5% respectively.
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spreading.VBG from_IN neighbor.NN to IK neighbor.NN _DT way_NN soil_NN acts_VBZa_DT lort_NN _NN It.PRP S.VBZ a.DT little. J J bit_ NN er_NN „ prolonging.VBG our.PRPS carbon.NN habit. NN _JJ wink_NN . or_CC maybe.RB even_RB something.NN _IN he.PRP had_VOL) broken.VBN Lfie_DI law_ NN RB called.VBN the.DT mama.NNP bear_NN effect. NN T was_VBD really RR quite_RB ugly_JJ --_: nothingLNN _CC it.PRP feels_VBZ an.DT awful.JJ lot_NN ulation.NN CoulcLMD this.DT littie.JJ country. NN _VB2 to_TO treat.VB our.PRPS upcoming_JJ weekend. NN _PRP , , it_PRP is VR7 a_DT littie.JJ bit_NN _JJ drama.NN situation.NN in.lN your_PRP$ head.NN the_DT developed.JJ world.NN looks.VBZ something. NN _JJ nozzle.NN ._. lt_PRP looks.VBZ a_DT bit.NN N which.WDT I.PRP suppose.VBP means.VBZ something. NN _RB a.DT natural.JJ response_NN to.IN something. NN _VBD me.PRP how.WRB to.TO taste.VB coffee. NN _DT lot.NN to.IN the.DT general. J J population. NN _NN is.VBZ an.DT act.NN ofJN love.NN T plastic_NN , . piec e NN of IN sticky_JJ plastic_NN
like.lN a.DT virus.NN ... It.PRP s.VBZ like_IN a_DT bank NN vrtull NN forJN like.lN a.DT che mica I.N N fuel.NN cell.NN likeJN a_DT drug.NN running.VBG through.lN like.lN a.DT handshake.NN ... Narrator.NN :_: Here.RB ,_, likeJN a.DT criminaLNN ... He.PRP uiras.VBD ... "_" Like.lN a.DT mama.NN bear.MN defending.VBG like_IN a_DT frogLNN or CC a_DT like.lN a.DT cover.NN -_HYPH up.NN than. „ like.lN a.DT start up.NN in.lN a.DT like.lN a.DT vacation.NN ... On.lN Friday.NNP like_IN a_DT population_NN of_IN predators_NNS like.lN a.DT mouie.NN ... Ignore.NNP all.DT like.lN a.DT barbell.NN with.lN increasing.VBG like.lN a.DT chess.NN piece.NN —functions.NNS like.lN a.DT woman.NN who.WP uses.VBZ like_IN a_DT threat_NN from.lN a DT like.lN a.DT pro.NN ... And.CC it.PRP ... Like.lN a.DT tree.NN standing.VBG outside.lN —_: like.lN a.DT wedding.NN vow.NN ... A.DT likeJN a_DT plastic_NN sheet NN over IN
TED' TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TED TEDTED TED TED TEDTED
c56.txt
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Bl.txt
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B28.t>ft
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B89.t>!t
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B1 32.txt
B179.txt
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C35.txt
CS1.txt
C55.txt
C73.txt
C102.txt
C110.txt
Figure 4.4: Distribution of NP + like + NP structure along different categories of TED Talks
The data in the figure shows noun phrase + like + noun phrase structure. In this structure, the node word 'like' is in the middle while noun phrases collocate it on the right and le ft sides. The phrase structure analysis helps us to compare abstract and concrete ideas. For instance, in most of the cases on the right side 'like' collocates with a noun phrase (determiner+noun, determiner+modifier+noun) i.e. a little bit like a (chess piece, chemical fuel cell, population of predators, chess piece).
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.IN when.WRB you.PRP learn.VBP a.DT language. ... as.lN a.DT
_NN woman.NN who.WP spends.VBZ her_PRP$ life.NN as.lN a.DT performer.NN with.lN a.DT BP pounding_VBG the.DT pussy.NN ,_, using_VBG sex_NN as.lN a_DT weapon.NN ,_, playing_VBG hard.RB tradie.NN ._. There.EX was.VBD an.DT expectation.NN as.lN a.DT tradie.NN ._. You.PRP re.VBP
_CC now.RB she.PRP uses.VBZ her.PRPS voice.NN as.lN a.DT Congresswoman.NN from.lN lllinois.f* _CC honesty.NN ,_. however.RB in.lN my_PRP$ work_NN as.lN a.DT leadership.NN and.CC organizational.. _NN orange.NN or.CC a.DT relaxing.JJ blue.NN as.lN a.DT backdrop.NN for.lN the.DT G your.PRPS home.NN life.NN ,_, your_PRP$ reality.NN as.lN a.DT mother.NN alone.RB at.lN
_JJ and.CC moving.VBG into.lN her.PRPS life.NN as.lN a.DT transgender.NN activist.NN ... I_PRP JN around.lN consent.NN and.CC bodily.JJ autonomy.NN as.lN a.DT function.NN of.lN affirming.VBG _VBP to.TO think.VB of.lN a.DT shoe.NN as.lN a.DT chip.NN with.lN heels.NNS ,_, _NN with.lN heels.NNS ,_, and.CC a.DT car. NN as.lN a.DT chip.NN with.lN wheels.NNS ._, .TO help.VB me.PRP in.lN my.PRPS role.NN as.lN a.DT caregiver.NN for.lN my_PRP$ r_NN as.lN individuals.NNS our_PRP$ character. NN as.lN a.DT nation.NN is.VBZ determined.JJ J industrial.JJ park.NN ;_: a.DT vibrant.JJ hobby.NN as.lN a.DT self.NN -_HYPH taught.VBN and.
Figure 4.5: Distribution of NP + NP with linking word as in TED Talks Climate Change corpus
The above excerpt is extracted from the climate change category of TED Talks having a noun phrase structure (as + determiner+noun) as collocate on the right side of the node words like and as. In example 93, the language learning process of a person is compared with the child's language
process which starts learning from the core. On the left side of the preposition 'as' both abstract and concrete are being used by the speakers to make comparisons.
9 ?_DT Matrix.NNP the.DT movie_NN ,_, look.VB like_IN a.DT documentary.NN ... So.RB the.DT qi TED-B93.txt
10 r_PRP$ name.NN happens.VBZ to.TO sound.VB like_IN a.DT boy_NN s.POS was.VBD she. TED-B94.txt
11 JN interaction.NN ._. This.DT may.MD sound_VB like.lN a_DT lot.NN to_TO do_VBbut_ TED-B107.txt
12 3 down.RB ._. Does.VBZ nt.RB this.DT sound.VB like.lN a.DT software.NN thing.NN ?_. It.PRP sou TED-B162.txt
13 MNS fluently.RB ... Does.VBZ that.DT sound.VB like.lN a.DT miracle.NN ?_. Well.UH I.PRP see. TED-C8.txt
14 :er_NN to.lN strangers.NNS might.MD seem.VB like.lN a.DT recipe.NN for.lN disaster.NN ,_, but. TED-C118.txt
15 and.CC over.RB ,_, it.PRP could.MD become.VB like.lN a.DT piece.NN of.lN visual.JJ music. TED-C132.txt
16 at.WDT perhaps.RB you.PRP could.MD wear.VB like.lN a.DT piece.NN of.lN jewelry.NN or. TED-C143.txt
17 [i.DT dream.NN of.lN mankind.NN to.TO fly.VB like.lN a.DT bird.NN ... Birds.NNS are.VBP very. TED-D10.txt
18 RP have.VBP the.DT possibility.NN to.TO fly.VB like.lN a.DT bird.NN ... So.RB if.lN you. TED-D10.txt
19 : hopefully.RB the.DT cubes.NNS will.MD be.VB like.lN a.DT powder.NN that.lN you.PRP pour. TED-D50.txt
20 N ._. Now.RB that.DT does.VBZ n't.RB sound.VB like.lN a.DT lot.NN ,_, but.CC it.PRP s_ TED-D56.txt
21 _PRP know.VBP it.PRP does.VBZ n't.RB look.VB like.lN a.DT school.NN but.CC it.PRP is. TED-D77.txt
22 no.DT way.NN to.TO learn.VB to.TO fly.VB like.lN a.DT hummingbird.NN unless.lN you.PRF TED-D107.txt
23 NN ;_: a.DT robot.NN that.WDT can.MD run.VB like.lN a.DT cheetah.NN ,_, or.CC climb.NN stair: TED-D107.txt
Figure 4.6: Distribution of VP + NP with linking word 'as' in the TED Talks
VP + like/as + NP phrase structures were also found frequently in the transcribed files. Look, sound, seem, become, wear, fly, be and run are verbs collocated with like on the left side. In example 9, the movie resembles a documentary while a robot's speed of running is as fast as a cheetah in example 23.
Table 4.2: Patterns along node words like/as Patterns Examples
Abstract with Concrete Justice with war
Love with binary thing Cute with button Stress with challenge Life with boomerang Sweet with honey
Concrete with Concrete
Technology with baby Atom with ball Man with bird Universe with a box of gas DNA with Blueprint World with tapestry
Abstract with abstract Lie with hate crime
Standard with norm
The findings of the above table show different patterns of abstract and concrete nouns to explain the way TED speakers have compared abstract and concrete ideas. The general tendency reveals that abstract ideas were explained through concrete objects to make them clearer to the audience. Concrete nouns give ideas about things which we can touch, feel or sense. Thus, TED speakers use concrete nouns to elaborate abstract ideas in the best way. They have also used concrete nouns to even describe concrete objects. However, abstract ideas were rarely compared with abstract nouns.
14.0
12.0
10.0
g" 8.0
<i>
w aj
i 6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
I Like
I As
Figure 4.7: Frequency scores of 'like' and 'as' across categories of TED Talks
The above figure reveals the distribution of node words 'like and as' across various categories of TED Talks. The frequency of the word 'like' is higher in the Entertainment (13.9%) and Technology (13%) categories while lower in Animation (3.6%). Likewise, the frequency of 'as' representing simile is more significant in the Global Issues (12.8%) category than in Education(6%). The overall findings indicate that TED speakers have used figurative language to adorn their ideas and to make the audience's understanding of ideas and actions easier. Moreover, the category of technology has a high frequency of simile expressions in comparison with the Animation category in which the use of figurative language is not common.
5. FURTHER DISCUSSION
This section discusses how TED speakers employ figures of speech similes while delivering their speeches in front of a worldwide audience to make abstract ideas clearer with the help of concrete objects. Almost 8041 instances of node words representing similes were observed in the corpus of more than 3.4 million words (0.23%). It is also observed that the explicit simile 'as' w as employed more by the TED speakers than the implicit simile 'like'. Moreover, 'as' generally collocates with 'a' on the right side. The node word 'like' collocates more with the indefinite article 'a' than 'an' and 'the'. Indefinite articles are used to convey a new idea or information to readers. It can be assumed that TED speakers use similar expressions often to elaborate new information to listeners while the density of definite articles is also significant, which means new information was further elaborated by the use of 'the'. Both A is like B and A is not like B structures have been observed in the simile expressions of TED Talks. Similes were also studied based on intensifying and descriptive similes. The findings showed that TED speakers use this figurative device to describe the states of particular objects (examples 4 & 5) and to emphasize the intensity of qualities of a particular object or character. In previous research, Tomita (2009) worked on finding intensifying and descriptive similes in Oliver Twist in a similar way.
Similes were also studied to find their internal phrase structures collocate on either side of the simile expressions. The results indicate that noun phrase + node words (like/as) + noun phrase structure is more prominent while verb phrase + (like/as) + noun phrase is also significant after noun phrase structure in the TED Talks. It is also revealed that the density of these structures is higher along linking simile expression 'as' than 'like'. A few instances of adjective phrase + (like/as) + noun phrase and prepositional phrase + (like/as) + noun phrase were also found in the corpus. The overall results indicate that TED speakers employ noun phrases on the left side of the similes than other phrase structures that are similar to Ullah et al (2021) findings wherein they investigated similes in non-literary writing and another genre of public speaking 'political speeches' through corpus techniques.
The present research also involves finding patterns along different node words. The findings showed that most of the TED speakers compare abstract ideas with concrete objects to explain their viewpoints before the audience. Concrete nouns were also examplified to enhance the audience's understanding of concrete nouns. However, abstract ideas are rarely used to elaborate abstract nouns. The results show similarity with Ullah et al (2021) results who find out that public speakers use concrete nouns more to elaborate abstract ideas but they also emphasized that public speakers follow different patterns as per their needs to gain audience attention. Frequency scores of similes in different categories of TED Talks showed that 'like' is highly used as a simile express ion in the Entertainment category (13.9%) while 'as' frequency is higher in global issues (12.8%). Thus, it can be concluded that 'like' frequency is higher in TED Talks when the genre is categorized internally.
6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS
TED Talk is a famous web-mediated public speaking platform to motivate positive change and enhance creativity. The present research aims to explore this genre of public speaking in terms of the use of figurative language, particularly similes, from a stylistic perspective. Keeping in view this objective, simile expressions and their phrase structures were explored in TED Talks through quantitative research methods. The findings revealed that TED speakers use similes to clear their viewpoints before the TED audience. The simile representing node word 'as' more frequently occurred in the corpus than 'like' although in category-wise results, the overall frequency of 'like' was higher. Meanwhile, analysis of phrasal structures along with node words 'like' and 'as' indicates that NP + node words (like/as) + NP structure occurs more frequently than the other three structures. It is also notable that verb phrases usually collocate with simile expressions on the left side and are rarely found on the right side. Thus, it can be concluded that TED speakers use this figure of speech to enable the audience to understand the ideas and things through visual imagery of concrete objects.
The present research stands distinguished from previous researches as the non-literary genre of TED Talks is not explored before in terms of simile use. Moreover, academics and stylisticians can use the current research in classroom teaching to enhance the understanding of their learners about the phrasal structures of the similes. They can help learners to understand how learners can use figurative language to make communication more vivid and clearer. Future researchers can use it as a reference to investigate the use of similes in individual speaker talks. Lastly, this study can also be employed to compare the simile structures with other spoken genres such as podcasts and conversation.
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