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Contextual Effects on Metaphor Comprehension: Experiment and Simulation

Lemaire, Benoit and Bianco, Maryse (2003) Contextual Effects on Metaphor Comprehension: Experiment and Simulation. [Conference Paper]

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Abstract

This paper presents a computational model of referential metaphor comprehension. This model is designed on top of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a model of the representation of word and text meanings. Compre­hending a referential metaphor consists in scanning the semantic neighbors of the metaphor in order to find words that are also semantically related to the context. The depth of that search is compared to the time it takes for humans to process a metaphor. In particular, we are interested in two independent variables : the nature of the reference (either a literal meaning or a figurative meaning) and the nature of the context (inductive or not inductive). We show that, for both humans and model, first, metaphors take longer to process than the literal meanings and second, an inductive context can shorten the processing time.

Item Type:Conference Paper
Keywords:Latent Semantic Analysis metaphor simulation
Subjects:Computer Science > Language
Linguistics > Semantics
Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
ID Code:3205
Deposited By: Lemaire, Benoit
Deposited On:09 Oct 2003
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:55

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