Briefs

By Lisa M. Krieger, Mercury News Posted: 02/28/2009

Metaphors cannot be taught, asserted the great philosopher Aristotle. "It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others."

But a computer scientist and a literary historian say he's wrong.

In a project started at Stanford University, the researchers are teaching computers how to analyze texts from Plato to Pynchon, mining millions of these abstract phrases. (Metaphorically speaking.)

They're building a vast searchable database, making it possible to browse historic patterns of word usage - for instance, "rose" and "love" - from ancient Homeric epics to postmodern cyberpunk novels, and everything in between.

Read more.