Automatic Identification of Metaphoric Utterances Jonathan Edwin Dunn Purdue University
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations Fall 2013 Automatic Identification of Metaphoric Utterances Jonathan Edwin Dunn Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Dunn, Jonathan Edwin, "Automatic Identification of Metaphoric Utterances" (2013). Open Access Dissertations. 188. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/188 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. i AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION OF METAPHORIC UTTERANCES A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Jonathan Edwin Dunn In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy i December 2013 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii For Naomi, who is glad that this is a dissertation. ii iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Victor Raskin, Julia M. Taylor, Mary K. Niepokuj, and Shaun F. D. Hughes for their patient help during this project and many others. iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................xi CHAPTER 1. CHOICES FOR THEORIES OF METAPHOR-IN-LANGUAGE ...... .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Chapter Summary ......................................................................... 1 1.2 Chapter Outline ............................................................................. 1 1.3 Basic Description of the Metaphoricity Measurement Procedure .. 2 1.3.1 Goals, Objectives, and Hypotheses ........................................ 3 1.4 Theoretical Choices for Theories of Metaphor-in-Language .......... 4 1.4.1 Language vs. Thought vs. Society .......................................... 5 1.4.2 Metaphoric Utterances vs. Metaphoric Lexemes ..................... 6 1.4.3 Unsaturated vs. Saturated Metaphoric Utterances .................. 8 1.4.4 Semantic Metaphoricity vs. External Metaphoricity vs. iv Deliberateness ............................................................................................ 10 1.4.5 Unique vs. Non-unique Properties ......................................... 11 1.4.6 Identification vs. Interpretation ............................................... 12 1.4.7 Separation vs. Similarity ........................................................ 14 1.4.8 Most Metaphors are not Semantic Anomalies ....................... 16 1.4.9 Importance of Falsifiability ..................................................... 18 1.5 Metaphor Leaves a Footprint in Utterance Meaning Representation .............................................................................................. 19 v Page 1.6 Identification as the First Level of Interpretation .......................... 20 1.7 Stable Interpretation of Metaphoric Utterances ........................... 22 1.7.1 Davidson’s Argument Against Metaphoric Meaning .............. 23 1.7.2 Variations in Internal Metaphoricity ....................................... 26 1.7.3 Saturated and unsaturated metaphoric utterances ................ 27 1.7.4 Metaphors to which Davidson’s Argument Applies ................ 29 1.7.5 Consistent Interpretations of Metaphors ................................ 32 CHAPTER 2. THE METAPHORICITY MEASUREMENT PROCEDURE......... 34 2.1 Chapter Summary ....................................................................... 34 2.2 Chapter Outline ........................................................................... 34 2.3 The Essential Features of Metaphor-in-Language ....................... 35 2.3.1 Properties and Behaviors of Metaphor-in-Language ............. 36 2.3.2 Operationalizing Gradient Metaphoricity ............................... 38 2.4 Hypotheses .................................................................................. 39 2.5 What the Metaphoricity Measurement Procedure Does .............. 40 v 2.5.1 Extracting and Representing Utterance Meaning .................. 40 2.5.2 Determining Domain and Function Membership of Concepts 45 2.5.3 Calculating Interactions ......................................................... 46 2.6 Introspective Evidence for the Metaphoricity Measurement Procedure .................................................................................................... 48 2.7 Ranges and Significant Differences ............................................. 52 CHAPTER 3. EXTRACTING AND REPRESENTING UTTERANCE MEANING . ........................................................................................ 54 3.1 Chapter Summary ....................................................................... 54 vi Page 3.2 Chapter Outline ........................................................................... 54 3.3 Ontological Semantics ................................................................. 55 3.3.1 Premises of Ontological Semantics ....................................... 56 3.4 Meaning Extraction ...................................................................... 62 3.4.1 Case Roles, Preference Semantics, and Selectional Restrictions .............................................................................................. 62 3.4.2 Case Roles Do Not Work Outside of Proto-typical Physical Events .............................................................................................. 63 3.4.3 Selectional Restrictions are Too Weak to Model Acceptable Usage .............................................................................................. 65 3.4.4 Selectional Restrictions are Too Strong to Model Acceptable Usage .............................................................................................. 65 3.5 Meaning Representation .............................................................. 67 3.6 Sources of Utterance Meaning .................................................... 69 3.6.1 Push-and-Pull Relationships in Natural Language Semantics... .............................................................................................. 70 vi 3.6.2 Predictions about Unseen Semantic Structure ...................... 73 3.6.3 Plastic Modifiers .................................................................... 74 3.6.3.1 How This Supports the Claim.......................................... 76 3.6.3.2 Counter-argument: Plasticity Depends on Context and is Variable ........................................................................................ 77 3.6.4 Parametric Verbs ................................................................... 78 3.6.4.1 How This Supports the Claim.......................................... 80 vii Page 3.6.4.2 Counter-argument: Pulling Processes Not Strictly Necessary ........................................................................................ 81 3.6.5 Displaced Modifiers ............................................................... 81 3.6.5.1 How This Supports the Claim.......................................... 83 3.6.5.2 Counter-argument: Disconnected Modifiers Can Be Defined Against Individual Concepts ....................................................... 83 3.6.6 Unintended Inferences .......................................................... 84 3.6.6.1 How This Supports the Claim.......................................... 87 3.6.6.2 Counter-argument: Unintended Inferences are Versions of Conversational Implicatures ..................................................................... 88 3.6.7 Script-based Humor .............................................................. 90 3.6.7.1 How This Supports the Claim.......................................... 92 3.6.7.2 Counter-argument: Native Speakers Do Not Share vii Intuitions of Humor ................................................................................... 92 3.6.8 Implications for Compositionality in Linguistic Semantics ...... 93 CHAPTER 4. IMPLEMENTING THE SYSTEM: MIMIL (MEASURING AND IDENTIFYING METAPHOR-IN-LANGUAGE)..................................................... 96 4.1 Chapter Summary ....................................................................... 96 4.2 Chapter Outline ........................................................................... 97 4.3 Reformulating the Problem of Metaphor Identification ................. 97 4.4 Dependencies and Use as a Module within a Larger Knowledge- based System .................................................................................................. 100 viii Page 4.5 The Measurement Algorithm ..................................................... 101 4.5.1 Pre-processing .................................................................... 102 4.5.2 Map Words to Synsets ........................................................ 104 4.5.3 Map Synsets to Concepts .................................................... 106 4.5.4 Extract Concept Properties .................................................. 108 4.5.5 Calculate M-Values ............................................................. 110 4.6 The Threshold of Metaphor: Interpreting M-values .................... 113 4.7 Evaluating MIMIL ....................................................................... 114 4.7.1 Data Set .............................................................................. 114 4.7.2 Comparison Systems .......................................................... 115 4.7.3