Figurative language: advances and new research perspectives (Lenguaje figurado: avances y nuevas perspectivas investigativas)

ABSTRACT This introduction presents the studies that make up volume 42, issue 2, of the journal Studies in Psychology. The first part comprises studies from the fields of psycholinguistics and cognitive neuropsychology of language. They address the processing of highly creative metaphors, comprehension of idioms in English–Spanish bilinguals, impairments in the processing of metaphors and idioms in people with aphasia and dementia, and, finally, a critical look at various accounts of the ‘literalist bias’ in the Autism Spectrum Disorder. The second part contains articles dealing with the main assumptions of the so-called conventional figurative language theory, the linguistic expression of aesthetic emotions, the use of subversive humour to vindicate the role of women in present-day society and, to conclude, an ontogenetic perspective on the emergence of humour in school-aged children.