TY - JOUR
T1 - Inferential memory and linguistic creativity
AU - Birnbaum, Lawrence
PY - 1990
Y1 - 1990
N2 - Metaphor seems, in many ways, the linguistic reflection of the fundamentally analogical nature of human memory and understanding. It follows that the processes involved in the comprehension of metaphor are not fundamentally different from those used in the comprehension of language that would normally be deemed literal. In this article, I examine those processes in the context of the task of correctly interpreting vague utterances and argue that the fundamental component of our ability to understand novel expressions is explanatory inference.
AB - Metaphor seems, in many ways, the linguistic reflection of the fundamentally analogical nature of human memory and understanding. It follows that the processes involved in the comprehension of metaphor are not fundamentally different from those used in the comprehension of language that would normally be deemed literal. In this article, I examine those processes in the context of the task of correctly interpreting vague utterances and argue that the fundamental component of our ability to understand novel expressions is explanatory inference.
U2 - 10.1207/s15327868ms0503_3
DO - 10.1207/s15327868ms0503_3
M3 - Article
VL - 5
SP - 175
EP - 193
JO - Metaphor and Symbolic Activity
JF - Metaphor and Symbolic Activity
ER -