Automatic metaphor identification: state-of-the-art, trends and future applications for narrative studies

(Identificación automática de metáforas: estado de la cuestión, tendencias y aplicaciones para
los estudios de narrativas)

by PhD Candidate M.Eng. María Isabel Marín Morales and Prof. dr. Pablo Valdivia
(this talk will be in Spanish with simultaneous automatic translation to any language, followed by a Q&A in English/Spanish)

Date: 17th March 2023
Venue: University of Groningen 1315.0036 / Hybrid: Link Here / UFRO Núcleo TV
Time: 15:00 to 17:00 Groningen Time (GMT+1) / 11:00-13:00 Santiago Time (GMT-4) / 09:00-11:00 Bogotá Time (GMT-5)

Summary:

Lakoff and Johnson, and scholars that followed their line of inquiry, have explained why and how metaphor is not just a rhetoric embellishment but a ubiquitous cognitive device present in
everyday language, affecting how we think and act. Thus, metaphor is one of the most complex
abstract cognitive devices with which the human mind is equipped and which weaves not only
discourses and narratives but also power relations, world-views, behaviors, and affects. In
recent years, artificial intelligence has largely surpassed its limits and has enriched and
optimized various promising models for language processing, including language models such
as ChatGPT. These new computational possibilities expand our knowledge of the internal
workings of human cognition and the understanding of some of its most challenging and
powerful mechanisms. Under this over-arching scenario, our current research inquiries whether
an AI-enabled system could help us understand how cultural narratives are shaped and how
they drive social mobilization by modeling and processing the metaphors used in public
discourse. In our talk, we will offer a systemic review of the state of the art regarding current
models available, their pros and cons concerning automatic metaphor detection and prediction,
and we will provide a comprehensive overview of the potential applications for studying
metaphoricity and complex information and representation narrative systems.

(Lakoff y Johnson, y los académicos que siguieron su línea de investigación, han explicado por
qué y cómo la metáfora no es solo un adorno retórico, sino un dispositivo cognitivo ubicuo
presente en el lenguaje cotidiano, que afecta la forma en que pensamos y actuamos. Por tanto,
la metáfora es uno de los dispositivos cognitivos abstractos más complejos con los que está
equipada la mente humana y que teje no sólo discursos y narrativas, sino también relaciones
de poder, visiones del mundo, comportamientos y emociones. En los últimos años, la
inteligencia artificial ha superado ampliamente sus límites y ha enriquecido y optimizado varios
modelos prometedores para el procesamiento del lenguaje, incluidos modelos de lenguaje
como ChatGPT. Estas nuevas posibilidades computacionales amplían nuestro conocimiento del
funcionamiento interno de la cognición humana y la comprensión de algunos de sus
mecanismos más desafiantes y poderosos. Bajo este escenario general, nuestra investigación
actual explora si un sistema de IA podría ayudarnos a comprender cómo se forman las
narrativas culturales y cómo impulsan la movilización social al modelar y procesar las metáforas
utilizadas en el discurso público. En nuestra charla, ofreceremos una revisión sistémica del
estado de la cuestión con respecto a los modelos actuales disponibles, sus pros y contras con
respecto a la detección y predicción automática de metáforas, y proporcionaremos una visión
general completa de las posibles aplicaciones para el estudio de la metaforicidad y los sistemas
narrativos complejos de información y representación)

Bio:

María Isabel Marín Morales is PhD Candidate of European Culture and Literature (University of Groningen). PhD Researcher in the Research Theme Group Data Science, Culture & Social Change at Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics. Also, currently, she collaborates as a researcher at the Sociolinguistic Studies Group of the Faculty of Communications and Philology and as a co-investigator at the Research Incubator Corpus Ex Machina, both at the University of Antioquia. Before starting doctoral studies at University of Groningen in 2022, she worked in Colombia at La Comisión para el Esclarecimiento de la Verdad, la Convivencia y la No repetición (CEV), Tecnológico de Antioquia and the Universidad Eafit. She is a Systems and Computer Engineer from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and M.Eng. from the same university. For more information, click here.

Pablo Valdivia is Chair-Full Professor of European Culture and Literature (University of Groningen), Accreditated Full Professor [Catedrático Universidad] of Arts and Humanities (ANECA, Spain), Associate in Applied Physics at Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Harvard University), Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL), Scientific Advisor of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities and the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIAS-KNAW), “Pablo Valdivia” Chair in Communication, Humanities and Technology (UACH-UFRO), Coordinator Research Theme Group Data Science, Culture & Social Change at Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (DemCP, RUG), Co-Editor of the Routledge Companions to Hispanic and Latin American Studies and Research Fellow “Corpus Ex Machina” Research Group Incubator (UdeA). His research deals primarily with the “Humanities”, “Social Sciences”, “Communication”, “Computational Literary Studies”, “Cultural Analytics” and “Technology”, and the notions of “Culture, Literature and Crisis” from a multidisciplinary transnational perspective. He is an expert on “Cultural Narratives” and “Conceptual Metaphors”. He carries out multidisciplinary research with particular emphasis on Digital Humanities, Artificial Intelligence, University Innovation, Data Science, Applied Physics, Social Sciences and Cognitive Sciences. For more information, click here.

Onsite (Amsterdam) and online | 17 April, 24 April, 8 May and 15 May 2023, 12:00-15:00 (onsite, see below); 22 May and 5 June 2023, 12:00-15:00 (online)

Organizer: Prof. Dr. Karina van Dalen-Oskam (University of Amsterdam)
Venue: Exact locations, see below
Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access.
Credits: 3-6ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.
Registration

NB: Members of the Huizinga research school should sign up via the Huizinga website

THE COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED, please send an e-mail with your with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership to osl@rug.nl. We will put you on our waiting list.

Scholars working in computational literary studies make use of computer software that helps them to analyze digital textual data. Software can support the exploration of a much larger amount of data in systematic ways than was possible before. In this course, students will get introduced to the most important current approaches in computational literary studies, ranging from the analysis of style and methods for the verification and attribution of authorship to various forms of ‘distant reading’ and discourse analysis.

The first part of the course explores the new horizons and possibilities as well as the limitations of computational approaches in literary studies. Several computational tools will be demonstrated such as concordance software that can be used for discourse analytical approaches and specialized R-scripts for authorship attribution and stylistic analysis. The questions to be addressed in the first four sessions of the seminar include: How can different authors be distinguished from each other using computational tools? In which ways do their writing styles exactly differ? What are the options for computer-assisted discourse analysis? What kinds of reasoning and logic play a role when computational tools are applied and what are their epistemological implications? How can we evaluate the results of the new methods and techniques? Each class, a new tool will be introduced and the students will learn the basics of their use hands-on.

The second part of the course is optional and more practical. In two workshop-like hands-on meetings students will conduct small research projects of their own. In this way, they will learn to use the computational tools themselves and gain practical experience with their possibilities and limitations. The research projects can be devoted to the cases presented in the first part of the course but also be proposed by the students themselves.

Course objectives:

• Students learn to employ empirical and computational methods in literary studies, including the selection of tools and the reflection on their possibilities and
• Students get an overview of international discussions in the fields of computational literary studies and digital humanities and learn to relate their research to these
• Students learn to reflect on the relation of research questions and digital methods in literary studies.

More details on the programme will follow soon.

Venues: 

17 April | 12:00-15:00 PCH 5.02 – PC Hoofthuis, Spuistraat 134, Amsterdam

24 April | 12:00-15:00 OMHP C 3.17 – Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Amsterdam

8 May | 12:00-15:00 OMHP C 0.23 – Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Amsterdam

15 May 2023 | 12:00-15:00 OMHP C 0.23 – Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, Amsterdam

22 May and 5 June 2023, 12:00-15:00 (online)

Amsterdam | 2 February 2023, 9:30 – 17:00 | Oudemanhuispoort 4-6 (OMHP), room A1.18C

Organizers: Bart Mulderij and Marijke Valk (University of Groningen)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access.

Credits: 2ECs can be obtained by presenting a paper or submitting the final assignment (please see below for more details). NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration will open on 28 November 2022. NB: Should you encounter problems with the registration form, please try emptying your cache and/or signing up via a different browser. If the problem persists, you can register by emailing osl@rug.nl with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership.

‘Lifting the Veil: Science, Superstition, and the Supernatural’ is a one-day symposium on Gothic interpretations of science and the supernatural, taking place in Amsterdam on 2 February 2023. The symposium will feature lectures by two keynote speakers, namely Dr Eleanor Dobson (University of Birmingham), author of Victorian Alchemy: Science, Magic and Ancient Egypt (2022); and Dr Evert Jan van Leeuwen (Leiden University), co-editor of Haunted Europe: Continental Connections in English-Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media (with M.S. Newton, 2019). In addition, there will be two panels with presentations by students and early career scholars.

An increasing amount of scholarly attention is being paid to the interplay between science and the supernatural within fiction, predominantly concerning the emergence of occultism during the Victorian period as a reconciliation between the incomprehensible natural sciences and the familiar religious framework, and the tension between the Victorians’ desire to learn more about the world and being terrified of what they learned. Recent influential works on the topic include Ferguson’s article (2017) on the connection and overlap between the natural and occult sides of the scientific spectrum in Victorian occult fiction; Corcoran’s (2021) contextualization of the rise of spiritualism as a result of the technological advances that occurred during the nineteenth century and its influence on Gothic literature; and Kirland’s book (2021) on the influence of the horror within Gothic literature on modern video games. This growing body of scholarship also highlights promising avenues for future research, including interdisciplinary approaches – as shown by Kirkland’s literature/video games analysis – as well as Gothic and Victorian echoes in contemporary representations of science and the supernatural.

This symposium re-examines the role of occult elements in Victorian occult fiction novels as part of the cultural fear of the supernatural and spiritual. To this end, it intends to provide a new angle on (Victorian) Gothic and occult studies, by using canonical and non-canonical literary works to approach the Victorians’ fear of the natural sciences in a manner that emphasises the Victorians’ desire to control the unknown.

Programme

9:30 – 9:45 Welcome and Introduction

9:45-11:00 Keynote lecture 1

• Dr Eleanor Dobson: ‘Between Science and Magic: The Ancient Egyptian Occult in Fin-de-Siècle Fiction’

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-13:00 Panel 1 

• Yuqi Khoo: ‘Neo-Victorian Reading of the Stereotypical Scientist in Riot’
• Karen D. van Minnen: ‘The Haunted Cocoon: Angst, Ghosts and Conspiracies’ 
• Marijke Valk: ‘“The Chimera of Magical Fascination”: The Representation of Alchemy in Victorian Occult Fiction’

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Panel 2

• Shiyi Zhu: ‘“Do you think I am a hypocrite?”: Unveiling, Dramatizing and
  Reconciling Identity Anxiety in MazM: Jekyll and Hyde’

• David Slot: ‘“You Bewilder Me” — Appropriation and Disavowal of the Grotesque
  Body in George MacDonald’s Lilith and H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor
  Moreau’
• Bart Mulderij: “‘Fear the Old Blood’: Victorian Anxieties in Bloodborne”

15:30-15:45 Coffee break

15:45-17:00 Keynote lecture 2 

• Dr Evert Jan van Leeuwen: ‘Sociological Satan: Gaskell’s “Lois the Witch” (1859) and Victorian Class-Consciousness’ 

17:00 Wrap-up

17:15 Drinks

Keynotes

Dr Eleanor Dobson ‘Between Science and Magic: The Ancient Egyptian Occult in Fin-de-Siècle Fiction’  Dr Eleanor Dobson is a senior lecturer in nineteenth-century literature at the University of Birmingham, whose current work focuses on the reception of ancient Egypt in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This includes notions of the supernatural and the occult, particularly how these ideas operate at the edges of a range of scientific discourses, as well as Gothic genre, the natural world, gender and sexuality. Her most recent work, Victorian Alchemy: Science, Magic and Ancient Egypt (2022), focuses on science of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, specifically when it is seen to intersect with contemporary ideas about the supernatural or occult, charting these tropes forward into modern media, spotlighting particular nineteenth-century legacies.

Dr Evert Jan van Leeuwen – ‘Sociological Satan: Gaskell’s “Lois the Witch” (1859) and Victorian Class-Consciousness’  Evert Jan van Leeuwen is a University Lecturer in English-language literature at Leiden University. His research focuses on fantastic fiction and counter cultures from the eighteenth century to the present, which encompasses the Gothic aesthetic, Horror, and Science Fiction. One of his recent major works includes his work as a co-editor of Haunted Europe: Continental Connections in English-Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media, which offers a comprehensive account of the British and Irish fascination with a Gothic vision of continental Europe, tracing its effect on British intellectual life from the birth of the Gothic novel, to the eve of Brexit, and the symbolic recalibration of the UK’s relationship to mainland Europe. Currently, he is focussing his research on the relation between social issues and fantastic fiction.

Credits

Students can obtain 2ECs by presenting a paper (see guidelines above), or by submitting a critical reflection (1400-1600 words, excl. bibliography) to osl@rug.nl before 28 February 2023, 23:59. In their reflections, students should discuss one of the panels and/or keynote lectures in light of relevant secondary sources (at least five); they are also welcome to elaborate on how the panels relate to their own research interests. Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Utrecht, 18-20 January 2023

Organizers: Dr Lucas van der Deijl (University of Groningen), Dr Roel Smeets (Radboud University) and Dr Inge van de Ven (Tilburg University)

Open to: PhDs and RMA students; OSL members have first access

Credits: 5-6 ECs. NB: Credits can only be awarded to humanities ReMA and PhD students from Dutch universities.

Registration will open in 28 November 2022 (deadline for registration: 4 January 2023). NB: Should you encounter problems with the registration form, please try emptying your cache and/or signing up via a different browser. If the problem persists, you can register by emailing osl@rug.nl with your name, affiliation, status (ReMA, PhD, other) and research school membership.

The Ravenstein Seminar 2023 offers an exciting program of both Dutch and international scholars specializing in the study of the novel, including confirmed keynotes Richard Jean So (McGill University), Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo) and Caroline Levine (Cornell University). Besides plenary lectures and panel sessions on the history, form, and politics of novels from various language fields and cultural contexts, the program contains hands-on workshops about research methods tailored for the study of both individual cases and large collections of novels. Particular attention will be paid to digital humanities approaches to close and distant reading.

The full program is now available here: Ravenstein 2023_Program