Contextual Effects On Metaphor Processing Of Chinese Four-Character Idioms:An ERP Study

In communication, people can induce the metaphorical or literal meanings of Chinese four-character idioms with the help of contexts. Recently, it has become a trend of making researches on metaphor with electrophysiological methods. However, few studies have considered the effects of contexts in the processing of metaphor.The present study aims at Chinese four-character idioms which can be interpreted both literally and metaphorically with high familiarity and semantic transparency. In the research paradigm, each idiom is put in literal-bias context, metaphorical-bias context and inconsistent context. Through the analysis on N400 with event-related potentials (ERPs) which has high temporal resolution, the present study tries to explore the contextual effects on metaphor processing of Chinese four-character idioms and investigate the hemispherical differences and the degree of activation when processing the literal and metaphorical meanings of idioms.The behavior results show that subjects consume longer time and make more mistakes when understanding idioms in literal-bias contexts than in metaphorical-bias contexts. To some extent, the results imply that it’s easier for the subjects to understand idioms in metaphorical-bias contexts than in literal-bias contexts. The results are influenced by the high familiarity and semantic transparency of. the idioms. The metaphorical meanings of these idioms are accessed first in the mental lexicon, then are the literal meanings.The ERP results show that the processing mechanisms of Chinese four-character idioms in the three kinds of contexts are different. Processing idioms in literal-bias contexts evokes larger N400 when it is compared to that in metaphorical-bias contexts. The ERP results accord with the behavior results. It proves that the metaphorical meanings of idioms with high familiarity and semantic transparency are accessed first. The results also support Giora’s Graded Salience Hypothesis, in which familiar idioms (including Chinese four-character idioms) and unfamiliar idioms have different processing mechanisms. Familiar idioms are always processed in nonliteral meanings while unfamiliar idioms are always processed in literal meanings. The results of the present study support the hypothesis.As for the differences of the activated regions when processing idioms in the three kinds of contexts, the results show that the right inferior frontal part of the brain is more activated when processing idioms in literal-bias contexts while the whole frontal part of the brain is involved when processing idioms in metaphorical-bias contexts. The result also reflects that the further the semantic distance is, the more active the right hemisphere is. In the present study, the semantic distance between the literal-bias contexts and the literal meanings of idioms is far, therefore, the right hemisphere is obviously activated in literal-bias context. While the semantic distance between the metaphorical-bias contexts and the metaphorical meanings of idioms is near, then, the degree of activation of the right hemisphere is smaller when compared with the condition in literal-bias context.In a word, the present study shows that as for Chinese four-character idioms with high familiarity and semantic transparency, their metaphorical meanings are salient and activated automatically upon encounter. They are understood more quickly, smoothly and with smaller effort in metaphorical-bias contexts than in literal-bias contexts. Therefore, the metaphorical-bias contexts facilitate the understanding of the metaphorical meanings of these idioms. The literal-bias contexts inhibit the understanding of their literal meanings.