Computational linguistic treatment of the metaphor

• Grant number: 06/04447-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2007
• End date: December 31, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Bento Carlos Dias da Silva
• Grantee: Ana Eliza Barbosa de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is meant to inquire into both metaphorical “products” (that is, metaphorical sentences and phrases) and metaphorical “processes” (that is, cognitive linguistic structures that underlie the linguistic expression of metaphor), in the two analysis dimensions: the linguistic and cognitive dimensions, respectively. Two points of view are adopted: the Cognitive-Linguistic and Computational-Linguistic points of view. The conception of metaphor that guides the inquiry is the cognitive conception, which characterizes it as a complex process that involves the co-relation and the transposition of cognitive-linguistic structures between Domains (LAKOFF; JOHNSON, 1980). Departing from this conception of metaphor, the dissertation proposal is to explore ways of differentiating and specifying the different types of metaphor by examining the (linguistic and cognitive) structures that guide production and understanding of metaphorical products. The mining and analysis of such structures will be supported by two sets of theoretical background: on the linguistic structure expression level, (i) the theory of Semantic Fields (KITTAY, 1987; LEHER; KITTAY, 1992) and, on the conceptual structure grounding level, (ii) the theories of Cognitive Domains (LAKOFF; JOHNSON, 1980; LAKOFF, 1987), Frames (FILLMORE, 1981) and Image Schema (JOHNSON, 1987). From the cognitive-linguistic point of view, the expected result is the proposal of a typological characterization of a subset of computationally tractable metaphors; from the computational-linguistic point of view, the formal coding of that subset.KEYWORDS: Metaphor; Natural Language Processing; Semantic Fields; Cognitive Domains; Frames; Image Schema.