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，因其解释基于词语偏离常规顺序和意义的用法。然而，人类能轻松理解和解读隐喻、明喻或习语，源于这些表达源自具身隐喻。语言是具身性的代理，当隐喻约定俗成且词汇化后，无具身系统便能理解具身概念。然而，在比喻语言理解的语境下，具身性与具体性、习得年龄等特征之间复杂的关系尚缺乏研究。本研究揭示了在比喻句动作更具身性时，更大规模的语言模型在解释隐喻句方面表现更优。分析排除了与其他特征（如词长或具体性）的多重共线性，并初步证明：大语言模型能在一定程度上概念化具身概念，从而促进比喻语言理解。