Metaphor: An Inescapable Phenomenon in Natural Language Comprehension

摘要

Interpreting metaphors is an integral and inescapable process in human understanding of natural language. Part I of this paper discusses a method of analyzing metaphors based on the existence of a small number of generalized metaphor mappings. Each generalized metaphor contains a recognition network, a basic mapping, additional transfer mappings, and an implicit intention component. It is argued that this method reduces metaphor interpretation from a reconstruction to a recognition task. Steps towards automating certain aspects of language learning are also discussed. Part II analyzes analogical mappings underlying metaphors and implications for inference and memory organization. Regularities have been observed indicating that certain types of conceptual relations are much more apt to remain invariant in analogical mappings than other relations, resulting in an induced invariance hierarchy. The central thesis is that human inference processes are governed by the same analogical mappings manifest as metaphors in language. (Author)