An attribute inference theory of metaphor comprehension

Feature comparison theories characterize metaphors as expressions of featural similarity between the tenor and vehicle terms. This paradigm views metaphor comprehension as the attempt to identify these shared features.; The feature comparison paradigm has received a great deal of criticism. An early theory by Tversky (1977) fails to explain metaphor adequately and subsequent attempts to address these inadequacies have been overly narrow. They explain a single type of metaphorical similarity but fail to address others. Nevertheless, this dissertation will defend the feature comparison paradigm by proposing a theory which exhibits its fundamental assumptions.; Attribute inference theory views metaphor as an asymmetric statement of featural similarity in which properties of the vehicle term are attributed to the tenor. Metaphor comprehension involves an attempt by the listener to identify these attributes. This inference process is enabled by the tenor and vehicle terms which constrain the likely metaphorically relevant attributes of the vehicle.; The vehicle represents an important source of information in the attribute inference process. The primary way in which the vehicle aids metaphor comprehension can be attributed to Grice's (1975) conversational maxims. When listeners encounter metaphor, they expect the metaphorically relevant attributes of the vehicle to be centrally important to the vehicle's meaning. Therefore, metaphorical references to highly salient or centrally important attributes should receive higher effectiveness ratings than should references to nonsalient or incidentally important attributes. Experiments 1-4 supported this prediction.; Experiments 3 and 4 also showed vehicle complexity to affect the rated effectiveness of metaphor. Among high salience metaphorical references, those with conceptually simple vehicles received higher effectiveness ratings than did those with conceptually complex vehicles. This finding suggests that attribute inference is easier when the metaphorically relevant attributes are not camouflaged within a field of nonrelevant alternatives. However, among medium salience metaphors, complexity exerted the opposite effect. Metaphors with high complexity vehicles received higher effectiveness ratings than did those with low complexity vehicles.; Finally, Experiment 5 investigated the constraint imposed by the tenor. This experiment demonstrated that metaphors are understood more easily if their metaphorically relevant attributes are compatible with the meaning of the metaphor tenor.