Adjective Similes as Lexical Universals

Acquisition of Adjective Meanings : A Lexical Semantic Approach

This thesis explored the possibility of deriving constraints on the acquisition of adjective meanings from knowledge of the semantics of adjectives. Chapter 1 briefly reviews the problem of learning the meanings of words and possible classes of solutions. It is proposed that an important source of constraint on the meanings of novel words can be derived from studying adult's knowledge of langua...

Universals as Respects of Sameness

is thesis argues for realism about universals — the view that, in addition to particular things, there exist universals instantiated by those particular things. e rst half presents a positive case for realism. Here it is claimed that universals are needed in our ontology to serve as the respects in which things are the same, and the features or characteristics that things have in common. is ar...

Are metaphors elliptical similes?

What is the relation between metaphors and similes? Aristotle's "comparison theory" holds that metaphors are elliptical similes: "Sam is a pig" is simply a short form of "Sam is like a pig." In contrast, it has been suggested that metaphors cannot be elliptical similes because metaphors are "stronger" than similes. We know metaphors are stronger, it is argued, because of examples involving corr...

Similes and Sets

This paper is a report on an analysis of the English preposition like. I investigated the 101,096 occurrences of this preposition in the British National Corpus (BNC). What is its normal role and function? It seems that like has a central role to play in cognition, more powerful than metaphor and going far beyond mere comparison of similarities. It is a truism that like introduces similes (e.g....

Universals as Individuals: Reply to Levine