Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain

Abstract

This paper explores the processes underlying verb metaphoric extension. Work on metaphor processing has largely focused on noun metaphor, despite evidence that verb metaphor is more common (e.g., Krennmayr, 2011). Across three experiments, we tested the hypothesis that verb metaphoric extensions arise when a verb-noun pairing results in semantic strain. Experiment 1 showed that verbs are more likely than nouns to alter their meaning under semantic strain (the verb mutability effect). Participants paraphrased simple intransitive sentences like The motor complained (sample paraphrase: The engine revved loudly). We developed a novel methodology of using word2vec to assess the degree of semantic change that occurred from initial sentence to paraphrase for both nouns and verbs. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the verb mutability effect was chiefly due to online meaning adjustments, rather than to differences in polysemy between nouns and verbs. In Experiment 3, we replicated the word2vec results with an assessment using human subjects. The results also showed that nouns and verbs change meaning in qualitatively different ways, with verbs more likely to change meaning metaphorically, and nouns more likely to change meaning taxonomically or metonymically. These findings bear on the origin and processing of verb metaphors and provide a link between online sentence processing and diachronic change over language evolution.