2025年2月21日（星期五），由國立政治大學英語教學資源中心主辦，台灣語言學學會協辦，於政治大學行政大樓7樓第五會議室隆重舉行了一場深具啟發性的學術演講。本次講座以「培育或征服？商業語境中的性別隱喻」（Planting Seeds or Going to Battle? Metaphor and Gender in Business Discourse） 為主題，特邀香港理工大學英語及傳播學系教授 Kathleen Ahrens 擔任主講人，並由政大英語教學資源中心主任暨台灣語言學會理事長鍾曉芳教授主持。本講座特別邀請到國立臺東大學通識教育中心段人鳯副教授及國立政治大學語言學研究所賴瑶鍈助理教授擔任與談人。

講座由政大英語教學資源中心鍾曉芳主任致開幕詞，隨後 Ahrens 教授發表演講，探討語言如何形塑我們對性別與權力的理解。講者的研究聚焦於商業與政治語境中的概念隱喻，特別分析「戰爭」（WAR）與「播種」（PLANT）這兩種隱喻框架在不同性別表述中的作用。 Ahrens 教授指出女性在企業與政治領域中往往面臨隱喻的挑戰，例如「玻璃天花板」（glass ceiling）與「玻璃懸崖」（glass cliff），這些語言模式可能無形中影響女性的職場發展與領導者形象。她的研究透過本體論框架（ontological frameworks）與搭配詞分析（collocational analysis），檢視這些隱喻如何與性別刻板印象相互作用，並提出改變語言框架以展現與性別平等相關的語言表徵。她以政治人物希拉蕊·柯林頓（Hillary Clinton）為例，分析女性領導者如何在競選與施政過程中運用不同的隱喻策略，以應對傳統性別角色的期望。

與談人段人鳯副教授則以「校正回歸」的隱喻與翻譯為例，探討了隱喻如何影響社會對特定政策或現象的認知與接受度。Ahrens 教授分析了該詞在台灣COVID-19疫情期間的使用情境，並比較其在不同語言與文化中的翻譯策略。她指出，「校正回歸」最初是技術性詞彙，但因其模糊性與媒體的再現，導致民眾對其產生誤解，甚至形成批判與質疑的語境。她透過語料庫分析（corpus analysis），研究該詞在社群媒體與新聞報導中的使用趨勢，並探討語言在政治與社會溝通中的影響。

賴瑶鍈助理教授則以 “Hidden” Meaning in Sentences: Conceptual Representations and Real-time Processing 為題，探討語言處理與即時語義理解的關聯。她的研究基於神經語言學（neurolinguistics）與心理語言學（psycholinguistics），關注人類如何在語言處理過程中即時解析語義的模糊性，並透過腦部成像技術（如 fMRI）來研究語言理解的神經機制。她以「補語強制」（complement coercion）與「時貌強制」（aspectual coercion）為例，說明當語言輸入與語義預期不符時，大腦如何進行即時修正與推理，以達到流暢的語言理解。Ahrens 教授的研究顯示，語言使用者的背景知識、語境線索與語義預期皆會影響語句的解讀方式，這對於人工智慧語言處理與翻譯技術的發展亦具有重要啟示。

本場講座吸引了來自政大及其他學術機構的師生與研究人員參與，現場討論熱烈。與會者對於語言如何反映並塑造性別、權力與社會結構有了更深入的思考。透過這場跨學科的對話，參與者得以從語言學、翻譯研究與心理語言學的角度，重新審視語言在性別議題中的影響力。

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On Friday, February 21, 2025, the EMI Resource Center at National Chengchi University (NCCU), in collaboration with the Linguistic Society of Taiwan, hosted a thought-provoking academic lecture in Conference Room 5 on the 7th floor of the Administration Building at NCCU.

Titled “Planting Seeds or Going to Battle? Metaphor and Gender in Business Discourse,” the event featured Professor Kathleen Ahrens from the Department of English and Communication at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the keynote speaker. The session was moderated by Professor Siaw-Fong Chung, Director of the NCCU EMI Resource Center and President of the Linguistic Society of Taiwan. Additionally, Associate Professor Ren-Feng Duann from the General Education Center at National Taitung University and Assistant Professor Yao-Ying Lai from the Graduate Institute of Linguistics at NCCU participated as discussants.

Professor Siaw-Fong Chung delivered the opening speech before Professor Kathleen Ahrens presented her research on how language shapes perceptions of gender and power. The speaker’s work focused on conceptual metaphors in business and political discourse and her research analyzed how the "war" (WAR) and "planting" (PLANT) metaphorical frameworks function in gendered communication. She highlighted challenges faced by women in leadership, such as the "glass ceiling" and the "glass cliff," demonstrating how these metaphorical structures influence views on career advancement and leadership roles.Using ontological frameworks and collocational analysis, she explored how metaphors reinforce gender stereotypes and proposed alternative linguistic models to illustrate gender equality in leadership. She also analyzed Hillary Clinton’s rhetorical strategies and illustrated how female leaders navigate traditional gender expectations through metaphor use.

Associate Professor Ren-Feng Duann explored “Metaphors and Translations of ‘校正回歸,’”which analyzed its impact on public perception during Taiwan’s COVID-19 pandemic. She analyzed how this term was translated as "backlog" and "retrospective adjustment" and examined how it was interpreted across different languages and cultural contexts. She also explained how its ambiguity, along with media portrayals, contributed to public misunderstandings, criticism, and skepticism.Through corpus analysis, she investigated how the term evolved in news reports and social media discussions which emphasized the role of language in political and social communication.

Assistant Professor Yao-Ying Lai presented her research on “Hidden Meaning in Sentences: Conceptual Representations and Real-time Processing.” Her work, grounded in neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics, investigated how people process semantic ambiguity in real time. Using fMRI studies, she examined how the brain resolves complement coercion and aspectual coercion, which demonstrates how language comprehension involves immediate adjustments based on prior knowledge, contextual cues, and semantic expectations. Her findings offered critical insights into both human cognition and the development of AI-driven natural language processing.

The event brought together faculty and researchers from NCCU and other academic institutions and sparked lively discussions on how language both reflects and shapes gender, power, and societal structures. Through this interdisciplinary exchange, attendees gained fresh perspectives from linguistics, translation studies, and cognitive science, re-evaluating the profound influence of language on gender issues.

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