A Geometric Method of Extracting Salient Features for Metaphor Understanding

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new automatic extraction method to obtain salient features from a metaphorical expression consisting of two noun concepts as target T and source S concepts, "T is S". Human cognitive experiments were carried out to determine the initial feature values in the calculation procedure. First, we obtained a bundle of attributes from human association experiments on concepts. Second, using the bundle, we implemented SD(Semantic Differential ) Technique experiments. We selected 36 adjective pairs such as "wide-narrow", "clean-dirty", "strong-weak", and so on.The salient feature extraction method is carried out in the following procedure. First, using rated results from the SD Technique experiments, the features of the target concept bundle are sorted and allocated to corresponding axes in a circular shaped diagram. Each axis corresponds to one of the absolute average values of the rated values of features. Next, corresponding to the sorted target concept bundle, the features of the source bundle are allocated in the circular shaped diagram. Finally, the salient features are extracted as vertices of the convex hull with respect to a set of points indicating the combined features of the target and source concepts. the calculation procedure for the automatic extraction of the salient features is described by examples. Since the circular shaped diagram is used for visualization, the extracted salient features is understandable easily and intuitively.