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Creativity of metaphor in perceptual symbol systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1999

Bipin Indurkhya
Affiliation:
Department of Computer, Information, and Communication Sciences, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo 184-8588, Japanbipin@cc.tuat.ac.jp

Abstract

A metaphor can often create novel features in an object or a situation. This phenomenon has been particularly hard to account for using amodal symbol systems: although highlighting and downplaying can explain the shift of focus, it cannot explain how entirely new features can come about. We suggest here that the dynamism of perceptual symbol systems, particularly the notion of simulator, provides an elegant account of the creativity of metaphor. The elegance lies in the idea that the creation of new features by a metaphor proceeds in the same way as the creation of regular features in a perceptual symbol.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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