Only the tip of the iceberg: Who understands what about metaphor?

In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in figurative language. Much of this work has focussed on tests of the ‘standard pragmatic model of metaphor’ in which metaphor is seen as a special process which can only occur after a defect is found in the default literal processing. This view has been largely refuted, and current thinking sees metaphor as much more central to language and cognition. This paper explores how the characteristics of metaphor may interact with the characteristics of the comprehender in metaphor understanding.