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Main Authors: Hicke, Rebecca M. M., Kristensen-McLachlan, Ross Deans
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08991
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author Hicke, Rebecca M. M.
Kristensen-McLachlan, Ross Deans
author_facet Hicke, Rebecca M. M.
Kristensen-McLachlan, Ross Deans
contents Metaphors are everywhere. They appear extensively across all domains of natural language, from the most sophisticated poetry to seemingly dry academic prose. A significant body of research in the cognitive science of language argues for the existence of conceptual metaphors, the systematic structuring of one domain of experience in the language of another. Conceptual metaphors are not simply rhetorical flourishes but are crucial evidence of the role of analogical reasoning in human cognition. In this paper, we ask whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can accurately identify and explain the presence of such conceptual metaphors in natural language data. Using a novel prompting technique based on metaphor annotation guidelines, we demonstrate that LLMs are a promising tool for large-scale computational research on conceptual metaphors. Further, we show that LLMs are able to apply procedural guidelines designed for human annotators, displaying a surprising depth of linguistic knowledge.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_08991
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Science is Exploration: Computational Frontiers for Conceptual Metaphor Theory
Hicke, Rebecca M. M.
Kristensen-McLachlan, Ross Deans
Computation and Language
Machine Learning
Metaphors are everywhere. They appear extensively across all domains of natural language, from the most sophisticated poetry to seemingly dry academic prose. A significant body of research in the cognitive science of language argues for the existence of conceptual metaphors, the systematic structuring of one domain of experience in the language of another. Conceptual metaphors are not simply rhetorical flourishes but are crucial evidence of the role of analogical reasoning in human cognition. In this paper, we ask whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can accurately identify and explain the presence of such conceptual metaphors in natural language data. Using a novel prompting technique based on metaphor annotation guidelines, we demonstrate that LLMs are a promising tool for large-scale computational research on conceptual metaphors. Further, we show that LLMs are able to apply procedural guidelines designed for human annotators, displaying a surprising depth of linguistic knowledge.
title Science is Exploration: Computational Frontiers for Conceptual Metaphor Theory
topic Computation and Language
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08991