Truncated or Expanded? Conventionality Predicts Syntactic Form in Metaphor Production

But when do they use one format over another? Research suggests that people truncate multi-word expressions over time as they become more established (e.g. someone who skates on ice becomes an <i>ice skater</i>).

Given that metaphors also vary in conventionality from being novel (<i>ideas are diamonds</i>) to more established or conventional (<i>arms are steel</i>), do people truncate the latter (<i>steel arms</i>)? In the current experiment, participants read 55 short stories, each of which included a metaphor varying in conventionality and presented in either a truncated or an expanded format. After each story, participants answered a question that elicited them to produce the metaphor included in that story.