Figurative language is a challenge for language models since its interpretation is based on the use of words in a way that deviates from their conventional order and meaning. Yet, humans can easily understand and interpret metaphors, similes or idioms as they can be derived from embodied metaphors. Language is a proxy for embodiment and if a metaphor is conventional and lexicalised, it becomes easier for a system without a body to make sense of embodied concepts. Yet, the intricate relation between embodiment and features such as concreteness or age of acquisition has not been studied in the context of figurative language interpretation concerning language models. Hence, the presented study shows how larger language models perform better at interpreting metaphoric sentences when the action of the metaphorical sentence is more embodied. The analysis rules out multicollinearity with other features (e.g. word length or concreteness) and provides initial evidence that larger language models conceptualise embodied concepts to a degree that facilitates figurative language understanding.

翻译：比喻语言对语言模型构成挑战，因其释义基于词汇对常规顺序和意义的偏离使用。然而，人类能够轻松理解和诠释隐喻、明喻或习语，因其源于具身隐喻。语言是具身性的代理，若隐喻已约定俗成且词汇化，无身体系统便能理解具身概念。然而，具身性与具体性、习得年龄等特征之间的复杂关联，尚未在比喻语言理解与语言模型的结合语境中得到研究。因此，本研究表明：当比喻句中的动作具身性更强时，较大语言模型在诠释隐喻句时的表现更优。分析排除了与其他特征（如词长或具体性）的多重共线性，并提供初步证据表明，较大语言模型能在一定程度上内化具身概念，从而促进比喻语言理解。