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Figurative Archive: an open dataset and web-based application for the study of metaphor
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  • Published: 07 January 2026

Figurative Archive: an open dataset and web-based application for the study of metaphor

  • Maddalena Bressler  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-4911-78221 na1,
  • Veronica Mangiaterra  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0001-7852-52591 na1,
  • Paolo Canal  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-56561,
  • Federico Frau  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4567-782X1,
  • Fabrizio Luciani  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-9534-15181,
  • Biagio Scalingi  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4600-04041,
  • Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4407-70371,
  • Chiara Battaglini  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-5488-46121,
  • Chiara Pompei  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4381-39471,
  • Fortunata Romeo  ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0004-6609-74201,
  • Luca Bischetti  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8875-10921 &
  • …
  • Valentina Bambini  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5770-228X1 

Scientific Data , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Psychology
  • Social sciences

Abstract

Research on metaphor has steadily increased over the last decades, as this phenomenon opens a window into a range of linguistic and cognitive processes. At the same time, the demand for rigorously constructed and extensively normed experimental materials increased as well. Here, we present the Figurative Archive, an open database of 996 metaphors in Italian enriched with ratings and corpus-based measures (from familiarity to semantic distance and preferred interpretations), derived by collecting stimuli used across 11 studies. It includes both everyday and literary metaphors, varying in structure and semantic domains, and is validated based on correlations between familiarity and other measures. The Archive has several aspects of novelty: it is increased in size compared to previous resources; it offers a measure of metaphor inclusiveness, to comply with recommendations for non-discriminatory language use; it is displayed in a web-based interface, with features for a customized consultation. We provide guidelines for using the Archive to source materials for studies investigating metaphor processing and the relationships between metaphor features in humans and computational models.

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Data availability

The Figurative Archive, including the main datasets and the datasets of the original studies, is available on Zenodo63 at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14924803.

Code availability

The codes to reproduce the Technical Validation and to locally access the interface are provided as R scripts in the Zenodo repository63 at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14924803.

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Acknowledgements

This work received support from the European Research Council under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, ERC Consolidator Grant “PROcessing MEtaphors: Neurochronometry, Acquisition and Decay, PROMENADE” [101045733]. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the authors. The European Commission or its services cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. We thank Prof. Filippo Domaneschi for his valuable input in refining the definition and conceptual scope of the inclusiveness measure. We are also grateful to Prof. Gloria Cappelli and Cordelia Katrina Bacci for their assistance in refining the English adaptation of metaphorical items based on verbs.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Maddalena Bressler, Veronica Mangiaterra.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEPLab), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy

    Maddalena Bressler, Veronica Mangiaterra, Paolo Canal, Federico Frau, Fabrizio Luciani, Biagio Scalingi, Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro, Chiara Battaglini, Chiara Pompei, Fortunata Romeo, Luca Bischetti & Valentina Bambini

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  1. Maddalena Bressler
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Contributions

Maddalena Bressler: Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data Curation, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft. Veronica Mangiaterra: Methodology, Software, Validation, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data Curation, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft. Paolo Canal: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing. Federico Frau: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing. Fabrizio Luciani: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Biagio Scalingi: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Chiara Barattieri di San Pietro: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Chiara Battaglini: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Chiara Pompei: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Fortunata Romeo: Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing. Luca Bischetti: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Supervision, Writing - Original Draft. Valentina Bambini: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Supervision, Writing - Original Draft, Resources, Funding acquisition.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Luca Bischetti or Valentina Bambini.

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Bressler, M., Mangiaterra, V., Canal, P. et al. Figurative Archive: an open dataset and web-based application for the study of metaphor. Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06459-7

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  • Received: 28 March 2025

  • Accepted: 11 December 2025

  • Published: 07 January 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06459-7

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