The processing of familiar and novel senses of a word: Why reading Dickens is easy but reading Needham can be hard

We investigated how easy it was for people to understand familiar and novel senses for words by monitoring participants eye movements while they read short texts. To do this, we compared the processing of names (e.g., Dickens) where sentential context gave them literal interpretations (e.g., met Dickens) versus metonymic interpretations (e.g. read Dickens). Familiar nictonyins were straiahtforward to process, but unfamiliar metonyms (e.g., Needham in read Needham) caused processing difficulty unless context made it clear that the metonymic interpretation Would be appropriate (introducing Needham as all author). The results suggest that readers call use contextual information immediately to extend a word's interpretation by rule.