Abstract Our topic is an under-theorized type of closed simile in which the ground represents a non-salient feature of the source term (e.g., as quiet as a weight, as opposed to a standard simile, e.g., as heavy as a weight). The non-standard simile introduces a semantic difficulty, a result of the unexpected mismatch between ground and source. Since they are highly prevalent in poetic texts there is special interest in investigating the ways subjects attempt to comprehend such similes. To that end, we have asked 62 subjects to interpret pairs of similes distinguished only by the salience of the ground. We identify 5 response types and find that these are unevenly distributed across the two simile types (standard and non-standard). The structural difference between the two kinds of similes, therefore, evokes different interpretational strategies. Additionally, we find that the non-standard simile entails a hit-or-miss potentiality, creating conditions for either an insightful interpretation or a rejection of any possibility of its coherent comprehension.

中文翻译：

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“像火一样简单”：理解非标准的诗意明喻

摘要我们的主题是理论上封闭的比喻，其中地面代表源项的非显着特征（例如，像权重一样安静，而不是像权重一样的标准比喻） 。非标准的比喻引入了语义上的困难，这是地与源之间意外的不匹配的结果。由于它们在诗歌文本中非常普遍，因此对研究对象试图理解此类比喻的方式特别感兴趣。为此，我们已要求62名受试者解释仅凭地面的显着性而区分的明喻对。我们确定了5种响应类型，发现它们在两种明喻类型（标准和非标准）之间分布不均。因此，两种明喻之间的结构差异引起了不同的解释策略。