Metaphors and Categories

Abstract

Despite the obvious affinity between the study of metaphor and the study of categorization, the link between these two fields of research has received little attention in cognitive psychology or in other disciplines. The purpose of the present study is precisely to establish and develop that link between those two research fields. After outlining the main recent developments in the modern study of categorization, focusing on the introduction of ad hoc categories, six major observations made in recent studies of metaphor comprehension (concerning, for example, the distinction between metaphors and non-metaphors, the asymmetry of metaphors, interpretation preference in metaphors, and the aptness of metaphors) are introduced. The main argument holds that these observations can be accounted for in a parsimonious and coherent way by assuming that metaphor comprehension is, in fact, a process of (ad hoc) category formation. The final section relates this proposal to alternative theories.