The effects of familiarity as a pragmatic variable in metaphorical sentence processing

Abstract

Conventionality is usually considered the main operating variable in metaphorical sentence processing. This article argues that familiarity is actually the determining pragmatic factor in regular understanding of nominal metaphors of the type as “X is a Y”. Authors such as Searle (1993 [1979]), Gibbs (1981), Janus and Bever (1985), Glucksberg (1988; 2003), Bowdle and Gentner (2005) and Ricci (2016) manipulated conventionality as a fundamental variable in their experimental studies. They’ve ignored familiarity effects. It is within this context, and by contrast with it, that the present study is addressed. An online self-paced reading experiment with metaphorical sentences presented without prior context was applied and revealed that familiarity was the only variable with a significant effect.

Keywords:
Psycholinguistics; Language Processing; Metaphor; Pragmatics; Familiarity