The Cognitive Mechanism Of Metaphor Processing Among Chinese-English Bilinguals

While metaphor comprehension has received much attention in the monolingual context,thus far little electrophysiological research has been conducted with a view to examining how bilingual speakers process metaphors in their non-native language(L2)and native language(L1).Guided by the Career of Metaphor Theory,the present study investigates the time course of metaphor processing in Chinese-English bilinguals through event-related potential(ERP)technique.It aims to answer the following three questions: How bilingual speakers process L2 conventional and novel metaphors? Whether and how L2 proficiency level might modulate such processes?How bilingual speakers process novel metaphors and novel similes presented in their L1 and L2?To this end,the present dissertation conducted two experiments.The first experiment aims to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of novel and conventional metaphor comprehension in low proficient and high proficient Chinese-English bilingual speakers.The participants performed a semantic decision task to English(L2)novel metaphoric,conventional metaphoric,literal,and anomalous word pairs.The results of the first experiment showed a graded N400 effect from literal utterances,to conventional metaphors,novel metaphors,and finally to anomalous utterances in both groups of participants,which to a certain extent verified the Career of Metaphor Theory(Bowdle & Gentner,2005),indicating that the more conventional metaphors are,the less taxing they are to process.Additionally,between-group differences that were irrespective of utterance type were found in the N400 time frame,indicating more extended lexico-semantic access in the low proficient relative to the high proficient group.Finally,in both groups of participants,an anterior sustained negativity was found in response to anomalous,novel metaphoric,and conventional metaphoric word pairs,thus suggesting a continuing difficulty of meaning integration.The second experiment aims to show how Chinese(L1)-English(L2)bilinguals process novel metaphors(A is B)and novel similes(A is like B)presented in their L1 and L2.The results of the second experiment revealed a language-specific N400 effect,whereby more extended lexico-semantic retrieval mechanisms were evoked by semantically complex meanings in Chinese.Furthermore,within the LPC time window,novel metaphors converged with novel similes and literal sentences in L1,and with anomalous utterances in L2.This consequently indicates that novel metaphors evoked a continued difficulty in meaning integration only in the non-native language,and that comparison mechanisms initiated when processing novel similes facilitated novel meaning integration in both the native and non-native tongue.Based on the results,the present research suggested that for Chinese-English bilinguals,the comprehension of L2 novel metaphors was different from that of conventional metaphors.The more conventional metaphors were,the less difficult they were to comprehend;L2 proficiency level modulated bilingual semantic processing.The low proficient bilingual speakers consumed more resources than high proficient bilinguals;comparison mechanisms initiated when processing novel similes facilitated novel meaning integration in both L1 and L2.