Herbert L. Colston, Using Figurative Language

Computational approaches to figurative language

concepts that are associated with the same source domain are often related to each other in the way we conceptualise them, but their meanings are not necessarily synonymous or even semantically close. Compare, for example, the target concepts MARRIAGE and POLITICAL REGIME. Although not directly related in semantic space, they are both metaphorically mapped to the source concept of MECHANISM (e....

Computational Approaches to Figurative Language

The heading figurative language subsumes multiple phenomena that can be used to perform most linguistic functions including predication, modification, and reference. Figurative language can tap into conceptual and linguistic knowledge (as in the case of idioms, metaphor, and some metonymies) as well as evoke pragmatic factors in interpretation (as in indirect speech acts, humor, irony, or sarca...

In Memoriam: Herbert L. Needleman.

Herbert L. Needleman, MD, pediatrician, child psychiatrist, and hero for children’s environmental health, died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 18 July 2017. Needleman was one of the world’s foremost researchers on lead poisoning. He conducted seminal studies that illuminated with great clarity the enduring impacts of lead on children’s health. He was a deeply moral man with a strong sense of so...

Using Gaussian Mixture Models to Detect Figurative Language in Context

We present a Gaussian Mixture model for detecting different types of figurative language in context. We show that this model performs well when the parameters are estimated in an unsupervised fashion using EM. Performance can be improved further by estimating the parameters from a small annotated data set.

Figurative Language, Language Disorders, and Language(s) Evolution