Emergent and Common Features Influence Metaphor Interpretation

Abstract

Metaphor interpretations may contain four types of features: common (features included in one's usual representations of both topic and vehicle), vehicle-shared (included in one's representation of the vehicle, but not the topic), topic-shared (included in one' s representation of the topic, but not the vehicle), and emergent (not part of one's usual representation of either topic or vehicle). Two groups of participants, each given different instructions, interpreted "A is a B" metaphors. Another group of participants listed features of individually presented topic and vehicle words. Features from metaphor interpretations were compared with features listed for individual words in order to identify the four types of features. Significantly more vehicle-shared and emergent features appeared in interpretations than either common or topic-shared features, regardless of interpretation strategy. Common features were judged as most important to metaphor interpretation and were significantly more important than emergent features. Altering a metaphor's vehicle produced greater changes in emergent content than did altering the topic, suggesting that emergent features were influenced primarily by one's representation of the vehicle.