摘要
Giora proposed that general principle of salience： salient comprehension of figurative and meanings are processed first and literal language be governed by a more meaning salience determines the type of processing invoked. According to the Graded Salience Hypothesis, processing familiar metaphors should involve the activation of both their metaphoric and literal meanings, regardless of the type of context in which they are embedded. Processing less familiar metaphors should activate the literal meaning in both types of contexts; however, in the literally biased context, it should be the only one activated. Processing familiar idioms in context biased towards the idiomatic meaning should evoke their figurative meaning almost exclusively, because their figurative meaning is much more salient than their literal meaning. However, processing less familiar idioms in an idiomatic context should activate both their literal and idiomatic meanings because both meanings enjoy similar salience status.
Giora提出比喻意义和字面意义的理解由一个总括性的原则调控，这个原则就是突显意义优先加工处理，突显程度决定加工类型。根据突显意义假说（the Graded Salient Hypothesis），对业已熟知的隐喻进行加工处理，不论是处于文字背景还是隐喻背景下，比喻意义和字面意义都应该优先激活。处理加工欠熟悉的隐喻时只有字面意义在两种语境下高度激活。如果仅有字面意义指向的条件，只有字面意义得以激活。解读熟知成语时，在成语特殊意义指向的语境中，成语的特殊意义是唯一激活的意义，这是因为成语的特定意义与字面意义相比更加凸出。解读欠熟知的成语，在成语特殊意义语境下，特殊意义和字面意义高度激活，因为两种意义有着相似的突显地位。
