Cognitive linguists contend that learners’ awareness of motivations is the key in not only second language acquisition but also figurative language learning. Two cognitive-oriented methods are proposed to raise L2 learners’ awareness on metaphoric/metonymic expressions and to enhance retention: instruction involving conceptual metaphors (CM) and instruction involving metaphoric mappings (MM). T...

Similes are easily obtained from web-driven and casebased reasoning approaches. Still, generating thoughtful figurative descriptions with meaningful relation to narrative context and author style has not yet been fully explored. In this paper, the author prepares the foundation for a computational model which can achieve this level of aesthetic complexity. This paper also introduces and evaluat...

In the past we have witnessed our machine learning method for sentiment analysis coping well with figurative language, but determining with uncertainty the polarity of mildly figurative cases. We have shown that for these uncertain cases, a rule-based system should be consulted. We evaluate this collaborative approach on the ”Rotten Tomatoes” movie reviews dataset and compare it with other stat...

Figurative language poses a serious challenge to NLP systems. The use of idiomatic and metaphoric expressions is not only extremely widespread in natural language; many figurative expressions, in particular idioms, also behave idiosyncratically. These idiosyncrasies are not restricted to a non-compositional meaning but often also extend to syntactic properties, selectional preferences etc. To d...

It's become a caricature of autistic persons that they don't understand figurative language. Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, three of the four contributions to this special issue endorse this stereotype without question. And all four contributions attribute this supposed deficit to even shakier fallacies, such as the controversial claim that autistic people lack empathy or a 'theory...

Automatic detection of figurative language is a challenging task in computational linguistics. Recognising both literal and figurative meaning is not trivial for a machine and in some cases it is hard even for humans. For this reason novel and accurate systems able to recognise figurative languages are necessary. We present in this paper a novel computational model capable to detect sarcasm in ...

This chapter describes a technique for generating semi-abstract figurative imagery using variations on the Mandelbrot Set, evolved using a genetic algorithm. The Mandelbrot Set offers an infinite supply of complex fractal imagery, but its expressive ability is limited, as far as being a “material” for visual manipulation by artists. The technique described here achieves a unique and varied bran...

Despite flourishing research on the relationship between emotion and literal language, and despite the pervasiveness of figurative expressions in communication, the role of figurative language in conveying affect has been underinvestigated. This study provides affective and psycholinguistic norms for 619 German idiomatic expressions and explores the relationships between affective and psycholin...

Separation methods used in organic chemistry are briefly reviewed, emphasis being placed on aspects that are frequently ignored, and special attention being paid to the analytical applications of separation. The relevance of physical, inorganic and analytical chemistry for organic chemistry is stressed. The term 'separation' can be used in analytical chemistry in both a literal and figurative s...