Interpretation of Metaphor in Literature

Abstract

The online comprehension of metaphor is a major area of psycholinguistic research, but less attention has been paid to the casual, off-line interpretation of metaphor, especially of metaphor in literature. Nevertheless, there is a fairly substantial body of research, and L2 researchers have made a significant contribution to this with research on culture and metaphor interpretation. The present chapter presents an overview of this research with a particular focus on work in the CM tradition. This focus is necessary to provide background for the studies presented in the second part of the chapter. These investigate the awareness of CMs among L2 learners and the effects of metaphor awareness-raising on metaphor interpretation among these learners. The studies mainly have implications for teaching, but some of the data gathered in the studies is relevant to foregrounding theory and the idea that foregrounding guides interpretation.