Words with more diverse semantic networks are more readily extended to novel meanings

Why do we say ''grasp an idea" but not ''hold an idea," or ''small talk" but not ''little talk"? Although these word pairs share similar meanings, they differ in their tendency to be metaphorically extended. Prior research has focused on how well source concepts map onto target meanings to explain why some words are more readily extended to novel metaphorical contexts. However, much less attention has been paid to how the structural properties of a word's semantic network contribute to its patterns of metaphorical extension. Using a large-scale dataset of semantic networks in English (De Deyne et al., 2019), we explored whether these structural properties predict selective extension in a metaphor rating study with English speakers, who were presented with Mandarin metaphorical expressions that lack direct English equivalents. Our findings revealed that English speakers systematically favor certain conceptual mappings from Chinese, suggesting that some metaphorical mappings may be universally recognized. However, when controlling for conceptual mappings by analyzing synonym pairs, we found that the structural features of a word's semantic network significantly predict rates of extension. Specifically, words embedded in densely interconnected neighborhoods showed stronger resistance to extension, while words bridging diverse semantic communities demonstrate greater mutability.