On understanding familiar and less-familiar figurative language

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 31; no. 12; pp. 1601 - 1618
• Main Authors: Giora, Rachel, Fein, Ofer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.11.1999; North-Holland Pub. Co
• Subjects: Discourse Context; Familiar; Familiarity; Figurative language; Hebrew; Idiom; Literal language; Metaphor; Rhetorical Figures; Salience; Semantic Processing; Word Meaning; Figurative language; Familiar; Literal language; Metaphor; Salience; Idiom

Findings of three experiments are consistent with the graded salience hypothesis (Giora, 1997), according to which salient meanings should be processed initially before less salient meanings are activated. A meaning of a word or an expression is considered salient if it can be retrieved directly fro...