Information and Experience in Metaphor: A Perspective From Computer Analysis

Novel linguistic metaphor can be seen as the assignment of attributes to a topic through a vehicle belonging to another domain. The experience evoked by the vehicle is a significant aspect of the meaning of the metaphor, especially for abstract metaphor, which involves more than mere physical similarity. In this article I indicate, through description of a specific model, some possibilities as well as limitations of computer processing directed toward both informative and experiential/affective aspects of metaphor. A background to the discussion is given by other computational treatments of metaphor analysis, as well as by some questions about metaphor originating in other disciplines. The approach on which the present metaphor analysis model is based is consistent with a theory of language comprehension that includes both the intent of the originator and the effect on the recipient of the metaphor. The model addresses the dual problem of (a) determining potentially salient properties of the vehicle concept, and (b) defining extensible symbolic representations of such properties, including affective and other connotations. The nature of the linguistic analysis underlying the model suggests how metaphoric expression of experiential components in abstract metaphor is dependent on the nominalization of actions and attributes. The inverse process of undoing such nominalizations in computer analysis of metaphor constitutes a translation of a metaphor to a more literal expression within the metaphor-nonmetaphor dichotomy

Abstraction as a basis for the computational interpretation of creative cross-modal metaphor

Various approaches to computational metaphor interpretation are based on pre-existing similarities between source and target domains and/or are based on metaphors already observed to be prevalent in the language. This paper addresses similarity-creating cross-modal metaphoric expressions. It is shown how the “abstract concept as object” (or reification) metaphor plays a central role in a large class of metaphoric extensions. The described approach depends on the imposition of abstract ontological components, which represent source concepts, onto target concepts. The challenge of such a system is to represent both denotative and connotative components which are extensible, together with a framework of general domains between which such extensions can conceivably occur. An existing ontology of this kind, consistent with some mathematic concepts and widely held linguistic notions, is outlined. It is suggested that the use of such an abstract representation system is well adapted to the interpretation of both conventional and unconventional metaphor that is similarity-creating

Introducing Conceptual Grammar

This report describes research done at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author was sponsored by the Institute of International Education on an ITT-fellowship.This paper contains an informal and sketchy overview of a new way of thinking about linguistics and linguistic processing known as conceptual grammar. Some ideas are presented on what kind of knowledge is involved in a natural language, how this knowledge is organized and represented and how it is activated and acquired.MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Institute of International Education on an ITT-fellowshi

Interpretation-driven mapping: A framework for conducting search and re-representation in parallel for computational analogy in design

This paper presents a framework for the interactions between the processes of mapping and rerepresentation within analogy making. Analogical reasoning systems for use in design tasks require representations that are open to being reinterpreted. The framework, interpretation-driven mapping, casts the process of constructing an analogical relationship as requiring iterative, parallel interactions between mapping and interpreting. This paper argues that this interpretation-driven approach focuses research on a fundamental problem in analogy making: how do the representations that make new mappings possible emerge during the mapping process? The framework is useful for both describing existing analogy-making models and designing future ones. The paper presents a computational model informed by the framework Idiom, which learns ways to reinterpret the representations of objects as it maps between them. The results of an implementation in the domain of visual analogy are presented to demonstrate its feasibility. Analogies constructed by the system are presented as examples. The interpretation-driven mapping framework is then used to compare representational change in Idiom to that in three previously published systems

Catalog/dialog

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69).The organization and archival storage of visual records takes a variety of forms, from the family photograph album to the large picture files maintained by the news media. Common to all systems is the problem of the location and retrieval of particular images, to serve any purpose from page layout to illustrating a story. The thesis will examine ways to personalize the cataloging of large bodies of visual data. Single frames of an optical videodisc will provide the storage mechanism and computer control of the disc will facilitate search procedures. Manipulation of a database associated with the disc frames allows the development of more than one way to order this sea of information, whether by a card catalogue system like the picture file or some personal chronology like the photograph album.by Paul Paternoster.M.S.V.S

Frames, knowledge, and inference

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43833/1/11229_2004_Article_BF00485316.pd

Artificial Intelligence and Human Error Prevention: A Computer Aided Decision Making Approach: Technical Report No. 4: Survey and Analysis of Research on Learning Systems from Artificial Intelligence

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratoryU.S. Department of Transportation / DOT FA79WA-4360 ABFederal Aviation Administratio

Designing an expert system for design

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-99).Principal assumptions are made during the early stage of the design process, fixing 70% to 80% of total building costs and most of a building's architectural and environmental qualities. The demands of any one constraint impose a whole set of assumptions that often result in a design that is satisfactory along only a few dimensions. Ruling out many alternatives at a stroke, such assumptions relieve the architect from exhaustively reviewing variations by removing opportunities from consideration. Both the power and crudeness of assumptions increase as constraints multiply and conflict. Having the ability to quickly and thoroughly evaluate assumptions and their consequences would allow architects to intelligently challenge and reform those assumptions and, as a result, to explore a broader range of possibilities for any particular design. This is particularly important in complex projects where the architect's primary role may be to orchestrate experts. This role is not insignificant, for the experts' recommendations will necessarily be bounded by their own concerns and will often conflict. The architect must assign values to design consequences and must provide the assumptions that the experts will base their recommendations on. The architect, then, focuses on making assumptions and interpreting evaluations. But assumptions are of ten outside analysis; rules of thumb, based on experience, generally prevail. Knowledge- based computer expert systems are a promising path of research for the support of conscious and explicit assumption-making. The crucial question for this technology and the central topic of this thesis is how to structure knowledge for use in such a system. My primary goal is to offer a representation of the knowledge involved in window design (a simpler and somewhat isolable subset of building design), a representation comprehensive enough to be useful, but also flexible enough to support differing design processes and decision sequences.by Samuel Isenstadt.M.Arch