Nonliteral language processing as a constraint satisfaction problem

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The research program examines how people comprehend, and the conditions under which they produce, language in which what one states differs from what one intends to convey. This language occurs with so-called non-literal language such as metaphor (e.g.. "My car is a lemon"), sarcasm ("boy you turned out to be my best friend"), proverbial speech (e.g ""the grass is greener on the other side of the fence"),  instances in which  one is intending to convey (but does not state)  that the car is unreliable, the friend is not a friend and that one is envious. Theoretical explanations and computational models alike are inadequate in their explanations of how we process such pervasive language, although there is a recognition that the context in which the statement is made aids in the recovery of the intended meaning. We have a programmatic approach to studying the processing of nonliteral language in discourse context that employs a converging set of methodologies, both those that measure the reaction to such language in various contexts and those that measure our understanding of the sentence during the act of reading it. Moreover, we separate context into those more tied to the discourse itself (such as the linguistic "hints" or constraints in the text forewarning  a person that an upcoming sentences is to be understood nonliterally) and those more tied to social-cultural constraints factors (such as stereotypes active when a sentence is said by a woman vs a man, or by a priest vs a busdriver). We observe that social-cultural constraints  play a role in comprehension at the earliest moments of processing, a finding with important implications on how we process nonliteral language and are extending these findings now by examining a range of discourse and social-cultural constraints with the aim of discriminating between different theoretical accounts of language processing. In addition to the theoretical import, the research is of practical importance because nonliteral langauge is especially impaired with brain injuries, follows a developmental course and is used in persuasive communication.  Consequently, the basic research should have direct implications not only theoretically but clinically and educationally as well.