Salience and Defaults in Utterance Processing

The book addresses controversies around the conscious vs automatic processing of contextual information and the distinction between literal and nonliteral meaning. It sheds new light on the relation of the literal/nonliteral distinction to the distinction between the automatic and conscious retrieval of information. The question of literal meaning is inherently interwoven with the question of salience and defaults. This volume addresses these interconnected issues, stressing their mutual interdependence.