The regularity of polysemy patterns in the mind

Linguists have often observed that the sense extensions in polysemous words follow patterns. Yet, these patterns have rarely been quantified, and it is unknown whether language users are sensitive to them. We developed four regularity metrics, focusing in this initial study on metaphor patterns that apply to nouns. We further tested adult English speakers’ capacity to understand new senses in an acceptability judgement task. We compared novel senses that followed a metaphor pattern against novel senses that did not respect any pattern. Our results showed that novel senses were judged as more acceptable when they were part of a polysemy pattern as opposed to when they were not. We also assessed whether acceptability judgements were influenced by the degree of regularity of the pattern that they follow. The results confirmed the psychological validity of degree of regularity as a measure: the more regular the polysemy pattern, the more acceptable the new sense following that pattern. Regularity metrics that captured the consistency with which a pattern is instantiated were more successful in predicting acceptability ratings than regularity metrics that captured the number of times a pattern is instantiated. These results motivate future psycholinguistic studies investigating the influence of regularity on learning, processing, and storage of polysemes in a more nuanced way than has been possible previously.

语言学家们普遍注意到，多义词的语义延伸遵循一定的模式。然而，这些模式鲜有被量化分析，且尚未明确语言使用者是否对之敏感。本研究中，我们开发了四个规律性指标，专注于对名词适用的隐喻模式。此外，我们通过一项可接受性判断任务，测试了成年英语母语者理解新义的能力。我们比较了遵循隐喻模式的新义与不遵循任何模式的新义。结果表明，当新义作为多义模式的一部分时，其可接受性评价高于不作为模式一部分的新义。我们还评估了可接受性判断是否受到所遵循模式规律性程度的影响。结果证实了规律性程度作为衡量标准的心理有效性：多义模式越规律，遵循该模式的新义的可接受性越高。捕捉模式实例一致性的规律性指标在预测可接受性评分方面比捕捉模式实例次数的规律性指标更为成功。这些结果激励了未来心理语言学研究，以期以比以往更为细致的方式探究规律性对多义词学习、处理和存储的影响。