The Role of Literal Meaning in the Comprehension of Non-Literal Constructions

Based on psychological studies which show that metaphors and other non-literal constructions are comprehended in the same amount of time as comparable literal constructions, some researchers have concluded that literal meaning is not computed during comprehension of non-literal constructions. In this paper, we suggest that the empirical evidence does not rule out the possibility that literal meaning is constructed. We present a computational model of comprehension of non-literal expressions which is consistent with the data, but in which literal meaning is computed. This model has been implemented as part of a unification-based natural language processing system, called LINK. Key words; natural language processing, metaphor, metonymy, unification grammars.