The bachelor’s thesis critically reviews academic literature and studies in the field of understanding figurative language – metaphors and idioms – in people with aphasia. It tries to explain contradictions in the interpretations, and answer the question, how the (mis)understanding of figurative language actually happens in people with aphasia. The answer is indicated in a dual-processing model of understanding, which is based on (non)automation and it shows that people with (Broca's) aphasia should be able to understand automated (figurative) expressions and have difficulty comprehending non-automated expressions. An individual is expected to face major difficulties understanding unconventional or non-automated figurative expressions comprised of narrower semantic fields. Finally, the need for the empirical verification of the hypothesis is pointed out.
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