The comprehension and production of non-literal language

该研究项目考察非文字语言的理解和生产。在这种形式的语言中，表面信息本身与关于世界和/或说话者意图的规范知识不一致。尽管这种比喻在自然语言中普遍存在，但它们对于语言理解或产生的计算模型来说是有问题的，并且通常对脑损伤的人来说是困难的。此外，在理解过程中所涉及的过程几乎没有共识，甚至更不了解生产中使用的语境因素（语言和非语言），以邀请成功的意图沟通。 在我们的工作中，到目前为止，我们认为，一个专门的语言处理器是不需要理解非文字的语言，一组语言和社会线索的理解中发挥了重要作用，并在一般情况下，约束满意度模型似乎有灵活性来解释有些明显矛盾的数据中发现的档案文献。 我们打算系统地研究是否语用因素，如性别，年龄，或社会地位发挥的作用，在理解和生产的隐喻，讽刺和谚语语言，以及这些因素如何与更普遍研究的非语用为基础的方面的话语处理（如语义重叠，明确的标记/预期即将到来的文本）。我们将采用一套相当多样化的措施：评级，阅读时间，限制生产任务和ERP（脑电波链接到特定的输入）。 这些数据，与其他人已经在我的实验室获得将：（1）允许的讽刺加工和生产的替代理论的独立测试，（2）允许的限制满足的讽刺解释的直接测试，（3）允许的讽刺理解的计算模型的发展，基于约束满足原则。这些数据将对那些无法“理解”非文字语言的脑损伤患者产生影响

The research program examines the comprehension and production of non-literal language. In this form of language the surface message alone is inconsistent with canonical knowledge held about the world and/or the intention of the speaker. Although such tropes pervade natural language they are problematic for computational models of language comprehension or production, and often prove difficult for people with brain injuries. Moreover, there is little consensus on the processes involved in comprehension and even less known about the contextual factors (linguistic and paralinguistic) used in production to invite a successful communication of intent. In our work to date we suggest that a specialized linguistic processor is not required to understand non-literal language, that a set of linguistic and social cues play an important role in comprehension and that, in general, constraint satisfaction models appear to have the flexibility to explain the somewhat apparently conflicting data found in the archival literature. We intend to systematically examine whether pragmatic factors such as gender, age, or social status play a role in the comprehension and production of metaphor, sarcasm and proverbial language, and how these factors interact with more commonly studied non-pragmatically based aspects of discourse processing (such as semantic overlap, and explicit markers /expectations of the upcoming text). We will employ a set of quite diverse measures: ratings, reading times, constrained production tasks and ERPs (brainwaves linked to specific input). These data, taken with others already obtained in my laboratory will: (1) permit for independent tests of alternative theories of sarcasm processing and production and, (2) permits a direct test of a constraint satisfaction explanation of sarcasm, and (3) permit for the development of a computational model of sarcasm comprehension, based on constraint satisfaction principles. The data will have implications for people with brain injuries unable to "get" the point of non-literal language