„Manipulation” of language signs - comprehension of metaphorical expressions by impaired hearing students

Abstract

This article begins with a brief outline of language difficulties people with hearing impairment experience. The following part explains that some events and situations can be presented in either literary way or using metaphorical expressions or phrases. The figurative approach may well use various colloquial metaphors, phrasal verbs and also proverbs. Interestingly, the cognitive linguistics no longer consider „metaphor” a simple stylistic or rhetorical feature. It is one of the most important components of everyday interpersonal interactions. Hence the process of gaining the ability to use metaphorical expressions, as it is presented in the next part of the article, is clearly inseparable from both language acquisition (i.e. what we listen to everyday) and cultural experience.
In short, the literature pertaining to this subject suggests that people with hearing disabilities exhibit problems in mastering and understanding belletristic, specialist, archaic and abstract vocabulary.
The article, then focuses on presentation and analysis of author’s research on how hearing impaired people understand figures of speech i.e. colloquial metaphors, phrasal verbs and proverbs. The research comprised two groups of students with hearing disabilities (a total of 44 people) from the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities in Siedlce. The key finding emerging from collected material is that hearing impaired students experience numerous problems of comprehension, usage, explanation and depicting nature with the metaphorical forms abundance in the language.