Metaphorical Reasoning Using a Hierarchical Network of Grounded Feeling-Based Memories

This paper describes a system designed to perform text interpretation and reasoning using a spatial processor and a network of prototypical memories. These memories of basic embodied acts such as moving and grasping, are organized in a hierarchical structure based on the system’s own set of grounded feelings associated with each memory. The prototypes form metaphor schemas organized into a tall and narrow hierarchy that allows a minimal set of basic embodied metaphors to be used in the interpretation of a wide variety of metaphorical expressions and to find metaphorical expressions for a wide variety of seemingly unrelated events. When presented with either a metaphorical statement or a sequence of embodied feelings, the system is able to derive the correct mappings in its hierarchy of prototypical metaphors and to pursue analysis of its input exploiting specific details available at the prototypical level.