The importance of spatial and other metaphors is demonstrated. An approach to interpreting metaphor in a computational framework is described, based on the idea of selective inferencing, in which a processor draws or refrains from drawing certain inferences in a controlled fashion. Two examples of metaphors are examined in detail in this light—a simple metaphor and a spatial metaphor schema. In Part 2 a novel metaphor will be examined and there will be a discussion, from this perspective, of some classic issues concerning metaphor, including the analogical processes that underlie metaphor, the stages in the life of a metaphor, and the definition of metaphor.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
RichardsI. A., The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1936.
2.
KnuthD., The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 1, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1973.
3.
LakoffG. and JohnsonM., Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980.
4.
VicoG., The New Science of Giambattista Vico, BerginT. and FrischM. (trans.), Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1968. (Orig. published, 1744.)
5.
OgdenC., Bentham's Theory of Fictions, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1932.
6.
LangerS., Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1942.
7.
JespersenO., Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1922.
8.
WhorfB., The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language, CarrollJ. (ed.), Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, Wiley, New York, 1956.
9.
UrbanW., Language and Reality, G. Allen and Unwin, London, 1939.
10.
ClarkH., Space, Time, Semantics, and the Child. MooreT. (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language, Academic Press, New York, 1973.
11.
HobbsJ., A Model for Natural Language Semantics, Part I: The Model, Research Report 36, Department of Computer Science, Yale University, October, 1974.
12.
HobbsJ., A Computational Approach to Discourse Analysis, Research Report 76-2, Department of Computer Sciences, City College, City University of New York, December, 1976.
13.
JackendoffR., Toward an Explanatory Semantic Representation, Linguistic Inquiry, 7, pp. 89–150, 1976.
14.
JoshiA. and RosenscheinS., Some Problems of Inferencing: Relation of Inferencing to Decomposition of Predicates, Statistical Methods in Linguistics, 1:1, 1976.
15.
GroszB., The Representation and Use of Focus in Dialogue Understanding, Stanford Research Institute Technical Note 151, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Calif., July, 1977.
16.
SchankR. and AbelsonR., Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J., 1977.
17.
RobinsonA., Investigating the Process of Natural-Language Communication: A Status Report, SRI Technical Note 165. SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., July, 1978.
18.
CollinsA. and QuillianM. R., How to Make a Language User, Tulving and Donaldson (eds.), Organization of Memory, Academic Press, New York, 1971.
19.
McDermottD. and DoyleJ., Non-Monotonic Logic I, Artificial Intelligence, 13, pp. 41–72, 1980.
20.
ReiterR., A Logic for Default Reasoning, Artificial Intelligence, 13, pp. 81–132, 1980.
21.
MannW.MooreJ., and LevinJ., A Comprehension Model for Human Dialogue, Proceedings, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August, 1977.
22.
HobbsJ., Interpreting Natural Language Discourse, Final Report, National Science Foundation Research Grant No. MCS 78-07121, July, 1980.
23.
HobbsJ., Coherence and Interpretation in English Texts, Proceedings, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August, 1977.
24.
HobbsJ., Coherence and Coreference, Cognitive Science, 3, pp. 67–90, 1979.
25.
HobbsJ., Selective Inferencing, Proceedings, Third National Conference of Canadian Society for Computational Studies of Intelligence, Victoria, British Columbia, May, 1980.
26.
BlackM., More About Metaphor, OrtonyA. (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979.
27.
Aristotle, “Art” of Rhetoric, FreeseJ. (trans.), Aristotle: “Art” of Rhetoric. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
28.
RussellS. W., Computer Understanding of Metaphorically Used Verbs, American Journal of Computational Linguistics, microfiche 44, 1976.
29.
LevinS., The Semantics of Metaphor, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1977.
30.
MatthewsR., Concerning a ‘Linguistic Theory’ of Metaphor, Foundations of Language, 7, pp. 413–425, 1971.
31.
KahnE., Frame Semantics for Motion Verbs with Application to Metaphor, CogenC. (eds.), Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 1975.
32.
NunbergG., The Pragmatics of Reference, Ph.D. Thesis, City University of New York, 1978.
33.
MillerG., Images and Models, Similes and Metaphors, OrtonyA. (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambirdge, 1979.
34.
TverskyA., Features of Similarity, Psychological Review, 84, pp. 327–352, 1977.
35.
OrtonyA., The Role of Similarity in Similes and Metaphors, OrtonyA. (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979.
36.
CarbonellJ., Metaphor: An Inescapable Phenomenon in Natural-Language Comprehension, LehnertW. and RingleM. (eds.), Strategies for Natural Language Processing, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, N.J., 1982.
37.
EvansT., A Program for the Solution of a Class of Geometric-Analogy Intelligence-Test Questions, MinskyM. (ed.), Semantic Information Processing, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1968.
38.
KlingR., A Paradigm for Reasoning by Analogy, Artificial Intelligence, 2, pp. 147–178, 1971.
DershowitzN. and MannaZ., The Evolution of Programs: A System for Automatic Program Modification, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. SE-3, No. 4, 1977.
41.
MollR. and UlrichJ., The Synthesis of Programs by Analogy, Proceedings, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Tokyo, August, 1979.
42.
McDermottJ., Learning to Use Analogies, Proceedings, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Tokyo, August, 1979.
43.
WinstonP., Learning by Creating and Justifying Transfer Frames, Artificial Intelligence, 10, pp. 147–172, 1978.
44.
GentnerD., Studies of Metaphor and Complex Analogies, Paper presented at the A.P.A. Symposium on Metaphor as Process, Montreal, September, 1980.
45.
OrtonyA.ReynoldsR., and ArterJ., Metaphor: Theoretical and Empirical Research, Psychological Bulletin, 85, pp. 919–943, 1978.
46.
HobbsJ., Why is Discourse Coherent? SRI Technical Note 176, SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., November, 1978.
47.
ReigerC., Viewing Parsing as Word Sense Discrimination, DingwallW. (ed.), A Survey of Linguistic Science, Greylock, London, 1978.
