We critically address current theories of figurative language, focusing on the role of literal or compositional meaning in the interpretation of non-literal expressions, including idioms and metaphors. Specifically, we formulate and discuss the processing hypothesis that compositional meaning may either facilitate or impede the recovery or construction of the intended figurative meaning depending on multiple factors, and in particular, on the expression’s decomposability and on the “strength” of semantic relations between the compositional and figurative meanings. As a case study, we consider research on processing and acquisition of figurative expressions in highly verbal individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to neuro-typical individuals, and examine the factors that may account for the observed comprehension deficits in the ASD group. Based on this evidence, we discuss some of the strategies employed by language users in processing non-compositional or non-literal expressions, and we highlight implications for research on natural language comprehension and processing systems in the domain of figurative meaning.

中文翻译：

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恩惠还是负担？构图意义在比喻语言处理和习得中的作用

我们批判性地讨论当前的比喻语言理论，重点关注字面或组合意义在解释非字面表达（包括习语和隐喻）中的作用。具体来说，我们制定并讨论了加工假设，即组合意义可能促进或阻碍预期比喻意义的恢复或构建，这取决于多种因素，特别是表达的可分解性和语义关系之间的“强度”。构成和比喻意义。作为一个案例研究，我们考虑了与神经典型个体相比，自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 高度语言个体的比喻表达的处理和获取的研究，并检查可能导致 ASD 组中观察到的理解缺陷的因素。基于这一证据，我们讨论了语言用户在处理非组合或非文字表达时所采用的一些策略，并强调了在比喻意义领域对自然语言理解和处理系统研究的意义。