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Some Considerations on How to Deal With Metaphor in Natural Language Processing Wang Fengxin wang_f_x@pku.edu.cn Traditionally, metaphor is considered as a way of speaking or writing in which a word or phrase is used to describe something quite different from what it usually expresses. It is merely a linguistic issue. From the viewpoint of cognitive linguistics, metaphor is a change of conception from one domain to another, and therefore a comparison between two domains. In a broad sense, metaphor is a change concerning phonetics, grammar and semantics. Phonetic metaphor and semantic metaphor may lead to ambiguity. Metaphor is closely related to culture. As metaphor is a comparison between the systems formed by different domains of conceptions, it can be classified into different subsystems and metaphor study can be carried out in a systematic way. Metaphor in the form a word, phrase, clause or even a sentence, has its fixed meaning. Each metaphor has to be considered as an individual case. Metaphor processing can only be treated at the lexical level. I. Traditional Definitions of Metaphor: 1. Metaphor is the application to one thing of a name belonging to another thing. -- Aristotle, Poetics, Chap.21 2. Metaphor: Application of name or descriptive term to an object to which it is not literally applicable, e.g. a glaring error. -- The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Current English, 1911. 3. Metaphor: A way of speaking or writing in which a word or phrase is used to describe something quite different from what it usually expresses. E.g. a heart of stone; a glaring error; the ocean of life; Cf. simile, e.g. a heart like stone. Simile: a figure of a figure of speech in which two things are compared. Examples: He is as brave as a lion. Childhood is like a swiftly passing dream. -- The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 1948. 4. In a metaphor a word which in standard (“literal”) usage denotes one kind of thing, quality, or action is applied to another, in t