Metaphor forces argument overtness

• Published in: Linguistics Vol. 62; no. 4; pp. 795 - 847
• Main Authors: Reinöhl, Uta, Ellison, T. Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 26.07.2024
• Subjects: forward modeling; linguistic universal; production experiment; semantic arguments; zero anaphor
• ISSN: 0024-3949; 1613-396X
• DOI: 10.1515/ling-2021-0072

This paper uncovers how metaphor forces argument overtness – across languages and parts of speech. It addresses the relationship between semantically unsaturated terms, functors, and the argument terms that complete them. When the component terms’ default senses clash semantically, a metaphor arises. In such cases, the argument must be overt, in contrast to literal uses. It is possible to say . By contrast, people do not use metaphorically without a goal argument: What they say is . We illustrate the phenomenon with powerful and diverse evidence: three corpus studies (Indo-Aryan languages, British English, Vera’a) and a sentence-completion experiment with around 250 native speakers of English. Both the corpus studies and the experiment show no or almost no exceptions to metaphor-driven argument overtness. The strength of the effect contrasts with a complete lack of speaker awareness. We propose that metaphor-driven argument overtness – as well as the lack of speaker consciousness – is a universal phenomenon that can be accounted for in terms of human language processing.