What is figurative interpretation

Similar to the differentiation between reference transfer and producer-for-product metonymy, metaphors, in contrast to the metonymies tested here, requires operations on the discourse referent and hence showed a more pronounced Late Positivity.

Therefore the findings support accounts that argue for differences between metaphors mapping between unrelated domains and metonymies conceptual shift within a domain matrix cf. Accounts that suggest the same cognitive costs for the interpretation of metaphors and metonymy are in contrast challenged by the results cf. Sperber and Wilson, , ; Frisson and Pickering, Metaphor and metonymy are only two of many types of figurative language use.

An important task for future research will be the development of a typology of figurative language that goes beyond these two types. Initial evidence for this comes from Schumacher who investigated different types of metonymy but see also Ferretti et al.

Note also that this study concentrated on temporal aspects of metaphor and metonymy. Obviously, research on the neuroanatomy of figurative processing is essential to complement our understanding of the language architecture but such an endeavor lies beyond the scope of the current research see e.

We presented metaphors and metonymies without and with priming to investigate the role of literal word meaning in figurative language processing. Based on previous studies cf. Holcomb and Grainger, ; Kiyonaga et al. This is reflected in a reduced Namplitude.

In contrast, unrelated prime words should hamper lexical access and therefore result in a more pronounced negative-going wave. We used this knowledge to investigate two theoretical positions. The indirect access view argued for the literal meaning of a word to be always accessed first, even during figurative language processing. Therefore a prime word that is a property of the literal but not of the figurative meaning counts as a related prime. Literal priming therefore should elicit the same effects like semantic priming, i.

On the other side, the direct access view suggested that the literal meaning of the target word is not accessed in figurative processing.

Therefore the literal prime can be equated with unrelated priming and should have no facilitating or even a hampering effect more pronounced N The calculated difference wave plot see Figure 4 compared the amplitude difference between the metaphoric and literal conditions without and with priming. They revealed that the literal prime word has no hampering effect no enhanced amplitude on the processing of figurative utterances.

In contrast, the Namplitude was reduced. This observation is also supported by the processing patterns in the metonymy study, where masked priming resulted in the absence of a difference between the two conditions, indicating that the literal prime does not impede processing.

The findings therefore point against accounts that argue for literal meaning to play no role or even having a negative influence on the processing of figurative utterances e. The data in turn support theories that integrate the literal meaning in the processing of metaphors and metonymies. This involves relatively strict accounts that propose a literal first step in their model Grice, ; Searle, , as well as accounts that argue for the lingering of literal meaning Carston, b.

Our findings are also in line with theoretical approaches that argue for the literal meaning to have a role in blending, e. The cross-modal priming technique adopted here for the first time therefore gave important insights into the role of literal meaning in figurative language processing.

Namely it shows that during the lexical access phase N , independent of figurativity, the literal meaning is activated and therefore primes related to the literal meaning of the critical word facilitate lexical access reduced N It is uncontroversial that the contextually relevant meaning is determined within a short period of time.

Still, and crucially, the masked priming data revealed that literal meaning aspects are initially available regardless of whether they are contextually relevant or not.

Interestingly, converging evidence comes from the literature on idioms: the literal meaning of the constituent words can be available until the end of idiom strings, and even after the idiomatic meaning has already been recognized Cacciari, Theories about figurative language should thus include a phase in which the literal meaning of the critical word is accessed.

Beside the reduced Namplitude, literal priming in metaphors causes a delayed Late Positivity. Because priming in metonymies did not elicit a Late Positivity, we can exclude the possibility that literal priming per se results in a delayed Positivity. Based on the findings of Schumacher et al. This would explain why we found a delayed Late Positivity in 1b for metaphors but not in 2b for metonymies.

The findings by Schumacher et al. Holcomb and Grainger, Additional studies, for instance with figurative prime words, are needed to shed further light on these findings. In sum, our data indicate that literal meaning aspects are accessed during the processing of metaphor and metonymy. We further suggest that the electrophysiological differences observed between the ERP patterns in metaphor and metonymic processing call for a more refined typology of figurative processes.

To this end, we discussed different types of metonymy such as producer-for-product metonymy vs. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Muralikrishnan and Markus Philipp for technical support. This definition is based on Searle , , who stated that the components of sentences constitute their literal meaning. A single word and a sentence both could have more than one literal meaning, e. Crucially it is important to differentiate between the literality of the whole utterance and the single words within as was e. Literal meaning is often contrasted with figurative language in a sense that everything that is not literal is figurative.

Beside this binary view, some approaches consider literal and figurative meaning as the endpoints on a scale on which the different phenomena e. Throughout this manuscript, we use the terms literal and figurative to discriminate between the two test conditions. If participants processed each word separately, we should not have found differences at hyena, neither in the condition without nor in the condition with priming. Since no two adjacent time-windows elicited significant differences, we do not consider this difference reliable cf.

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See the full definition for figurative in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of figurative for Spanish Speakers.

Britannica English: Translation of figurative for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of figurative. Other Words from figurative figurativeness noun. Did you know? Recent Examples on the Web Most interesting is the insertion of lively hanging textiles, patterned carpets and clothing into the scenes of everyday life — abstract imagery that eventually moves into the foreground, leaving most figurative representation behind.

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