A Computational Model of Metaphor Interpretation

ing Terminate-Conversation to ancestor concept Terminating producing abstract target meaning: (A Terminating3 ( t Terminating) (t erminated3 ( f terminated) (A Computer-Process10 (f Computer-Process)) ) (terminator3 (f terminator) (A I46 ( f I)))) The first step in the processing of a similarity extension inference is to identify the concepts specified in the input example with their corresponding target concepts. In this example, the concept Computer-Process10 is identified with the target role of terminated-conversation, and the role of I46 is identified with the target role of conversation-terminator. The constrainers of these concepts, however, are too specific to accept these input concepts. In this example, there is a mismatch between the input concept Computer-Process and the candidate target concept Conversation. The next step, therefore, is to abstract the target concept of the candidate to the first concept that can accept the concepts specified in the input. In this case, the concept Terminate-Conversation is abstracted to its ancestor concept Terminating. The ancestor of the t erminat ed-conversat ion role has as a constrainer the abstract concept Process, which can constrain the morespecific concept Computer-Process. Concreting target concept Terminating to Terminate-Computer-Process producing concreted meaning: (A Terminate-Computer-Process10 (f Terminate-Computer-Process) (c-proc-termer10 ( f c-proc-termer) (A I46 ( f I) ) ) (c-proc-termed10 (f c-proc-termed) (A Computer-Process10 (f Computer-Process)))) The next step in the similarity extension inference is to look down the hierarchy from Terminating t o see if there are any more specific concepts beneath this one that can adequately accommodate the input concepts. The specific existing concept Terminate-Computer-Process 10 is found. The concept c-proc-termed10 is a more specific concept than terminated and can still accept the input concept Computer-Process10 as a filler, since the constraining concept on the concept c-proc-termed is a Computer-Process. 1.5. DETAILS OF THE APPROACH