Overview
Background
Human beings can communicate complex ideas using only a few words. We all share cognitive tools, such as metaphor, that allow us to activate complex meanings in other people's minds using language. My research focuses on how these cognitive tools are tied to linguistic forms, such as specific words and grammar. One of the ways I examine the relation between cognition and language is to compare language and non-linguistic communication, particularly the visual arts, as in my award-winning paper The Languages of Art and other publications. My 2013 book Frames and Constructions in Metaphoric Language examines how grammar helps us to communicate metaphor. I’m also interested in connections between (central) non-metaphoric senses and (extended) metaphoric senses in different languages.
Availability
- Dr Kari Sullivan is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Oregon
- Masters (Coursework), University of California-Berkeley
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of California-Berkeley
Works
Search Professor Kari Sullivan’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2019
Book
Mixed metaphors: their use and abuse
Sullivan, Karen (2019). Mixed metaphors: their use and abuse. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic. doi: 10.5040/9781350066076
Featured
2013
Book
Frames and constructions in metaphoric language
Sullivan, Karen (2013). Frames and constructions in metaphoric language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. doi: 10.1075/cal.14
Featured
2009
Journal Article
The languages of art: How representational and abstract painters conceptualize their work in terms of language
Sullivan, Karen (2009). The languages of art: How representational and abstract painters conceptualize their work in terms of language. Poetics Today, 30 (3), 517-560. doi: 10.1215/03335372-2009-004
2024
Book
Yagara Dictionary and Salvage Grammar
Sullivan, Karen and Harward-Nalder, Glenda (2024). Yagara Dictionary and Salvage Grammar. ANU Press. doi: 10.22459/ydsg.2024
2023
Journal Article
Three levels of framing
Sullivan, Karen (2023). Three levels of framing. WIREs Cognitive Science, 14 (5) e1651, 1-13. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1651
2022
Journal Article
Anti-Muslim semantic framing by politicians, Facebook groups, and violent extremists
Sullivan, Karen (2022). Anti-Muslim semantic framing by politicians, Facebook groups, and violent extremists. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 20 (2), 476-503. doi: 10.1075/rcl.00119.sul
2022
Book
Metonymies and metaphors for death around the world
Wachowski, Wojciech and Sullivan, Karen (2022). Metonymies and metaphors for death around the world. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003183761
2020
Book Chapter
Why would we rather peg out than simply die?—How do GAME metaphors help us deal with death across languages and cultures?
Wachowski, Wojciech and Sullivan, Karen (2020). Why would we rather peg out than simply die?—How do GAME metaphors help us deal with death across languages and cultures?. Cultural conceptualizations in language and communication. (pp. 25-41) edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-42734-4_2
2020
Journal Article
Everyone "leaves" the world eventually: culture-based homogeneity and variation in Death Is Departure
Sullivan, Karen and Wachowski, Wojciech (2020). Everyone "leaves" the world eventually: culture-based homogeneity and variation in Death Is Departure. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 18 (1), 75-93. doi: 10.1075/rcl.00051.sul
2019
Journal Article
Chinese L2 acquisition of sense relatedness for shàng “to go up”
Liang, Haiyan and Sullivan, Karen (2019). Chinese L2 acquisition of sense relatedness for shàng “to go up”. Chinese as a Second Language Research, 8 (1), 1-28. doi: 10.1515/caslar-2019-0001
2018
Journal Article
Being-clauses in Historical Corpora and the US Second Amendment
Sullivan, Karen (2018). Being-clauses in Historical Corpora and the US Second Amendment. English Studies, 99 (3), 300-318. doi: 10.1080/0013838X.2018.1436285
2017
Journal Article
Are dead artists' paintings more lively? - Agency in description of artworks before and after an artist's death
Sullivan, Karen and Butler, Sally (2017). Are dead artists' paintings more lively? - Agency in description of artworks before and after an artist's death. Word, 63 (3), 198-206. doi: 10.1080/00437956.2017.1347312
2017
Journal Article
Integrating constructional semantics and conceptual metaphor
Sullivan, Karen (2017). Integrating constructional semantics and conceptual metaphor. Constructions and Frames, 8 (2), 141-165. doi: 10.1075/cf.8.2.02sul
2017
Book Chapter
Conceptual metaphor
Sullivan, Karen (2017). Conceptual metaphor. The Cambridge handbook of cognitive linguistics. (pp. 385-406) edited by Barbara Dancygier. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781316339732.025
2017
Book Chapter
Comparing word sense distinctions with bilingual comparable corpora: a pilot study of adjectives in English and Spanish
Sullivan, Karen and Valenzuela, Javier (2017). Comparing word sense distinctions with bilingual comparable corpora: a pilot study of adjectives in English and Spanish. Usage-based approaches to language acquisition and language teaching. (pp. 287-303) edited by Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul and Elena Tribushinina. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9781501505492-013
2016
Journal Article
With the future coming up behind them: evidence that time approaches from behind in Vietnamese
Sullivan, Karen and Bui, Linh Thuy (2016). With the future coming up behind them: evidence that time approaches from behind in Vietnamese. Cognitive Linguistics, 27 (2), 1-29. doi: 10.1515/cog-2015-0066
2016
Book Chapter
Silent abstractions versus "Look at me" drawings: Corpus evidence that artworks' subject matter affects their fictive speech
Sullivan, Karen (2016). Silent abstractions versus "Look at me" drawings: Corpus evidence that artworks' subject matter affects their fictive speech. The conversation frame: forms and functions of fictive interactions. (pp. 87-109) edited by Esther Pascual and Sergeiy Sandler. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Co. doi: 10.1075/hcp.55.05sul
2016
Journal Article
Why suave movimiento isn't 'smooth movement': a corpus comparison of polysemous adjectives in English and Spanish
Sullivan, Karen (2016). Why suave movimiento isn't 'smooth movement': a corpus comparison of polysemous adjectives in English and Spanish. Languages in Contrast, 16 (1), 118-132. doi: 10.1075/lic.16.1.05sul
2015
Journal Article
If you study a word do you use it more often? Lexical repetition priming in a corpus of Natural Semantic Metalanguage publications
Sullivan, Karen (2015). If you study a word do you use it more often? Lexical repetition priming in a corpus of Natural Semantic Metalanguage publications. Corpora, 10 (3), 277-290. doi: 10.3366/cor.2015.0078
2015
Journal Article
Esther Pascual: Fictive interaction: the conversation frame in thought, language and discourse
Sullivan, Karen (2015). Esther Pascual: Fictive interaction: the conversation frame in thought, language and discourse. Cognitive Semiotics, 8 (1), 93-96. doi: 10.1515/cogsem-2015-0003
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Kari Sullivan is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Completed supervision
-
2019
Doctor Philosophy
The preservation of path verb meanings in prepositional extensions in Vietnamese
Principal Advisor
-
2014
Doctor Philosophy
Language Contact and English Borrowings in a Vietnamese Magazine for Teenagers
Principal Advisor
-
2014
Doctor Philosophy
Vietnamese demonstratives: A spatially-based polysemy network
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ilana Mushin
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
The acquisition of number marking: The case of Indonesian as a second language
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Martin Schweinberger, Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
-
2015
Doctor Philosophy
Knowledge of Shàng (to Go Up) Constructions in Chinese as a Second Language
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Wendy Jiang
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Kari Sullivan directly for media enquiries about:
- Connotations
- Idioms
- Meaning change
- Metaphor
- Mixed metaphor
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