Meaning in Context

People often encounter language in contexts that provide meanings that go beyond previous experience. For example, people recover metaphorical meanings that displace literal meanings for the same words. For such cases, researchers have addressed the question of whether contextual support allows people to truncate or eliminate consideration of meanings that precede specific contexts. The article reviews 3 domains in which this question has prompted research: recovery of metaphorical meanings,understanding of noun-noun combinations, and assimilation of actions within fantastic narrative worlds.