What we have just expressed is indeed the rule used in building the earlier metaphor. We have left many details aside, but what remains to be done is to test the validity of the rule with the other parts of our example. Let us consider “Our relationship works well.” Application of the rule yields the following, as the filler variables have been replaced in the rule by A = machine, X = orderly process, P = works, and B = relationship. The property “works”, initially attached to the machine, conveys to the relationship:

All this says is that the orderly progress of a process, derived from its realization in a machine, is akin to a similar progress expressed by a relationship. Both “work,” even as the former may be more directly observable than the latter. Actually, it is easy to imagine, nowadays, machines that are more difficult to understand than a relationship. That would put into question the actual order in which metaphors may be derived, but it is beyond the scope of this discussion to venture into that territory. We will content ourselves with letting the reader try the rule on the last sentence of our example, “We are very close.”

At this point, we have seen how a formal language, XML, can be used to model quintessential human capabilities like the expression of metaphor. While we have simplified the demonstration, we will refer the reader to Generics and Metaphors Unified under a Four-Layer Semantic Theory

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