Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Metaphor Comprehension and Other Figurative Language

Abstract

A complete neurolinguistic model of language comprehension must include the representational and processing components housed in both the left and right cerebral hemispheres. This article focuses on figurative language, most notably the comprehension of metaphors and idioms. We propose that a theory of figurative language relies on a dynamic interplay of bottom-up semantic activation of word information and the top-down constraints offered by the comprehenders' understanding of the conversational pragmatics. We conclude that related language phenomena (indirect speech acts, inferences, proverbs, humor, and some prosodic cues) rely on similar mechanisms that are also shared with literal language comprehension.