A good number of neurophysiological studies have been conducted to explore the neural mechanisms of metaphor processing, but few have taken the bilingual phenomenon into consideration. The current study, by using even...A good number of neurophysiological studies have been conducted to explore the neural mechanisms of metaphor processing, but few have taken the bilingual phenomenon into consideration. The current study, by using event related potentials （ERPs）, investigated the neural mechanism employed by Chinese native speakers whose second language is English in comprehending Chinese and English metaphors. Amplitudes of the N400 ERP component （350-600 ms） were more negative for English metaphors compared with Chinese literal sentences, English literal sentences and Chinese metaphors. In addition, both hemispheres were more activated in processing English metaphors than other conditions. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence for a different mechanism used by Chinese-English bilinguals to comprehend Chinese and English metaphors.展开更多
Brain mechanism of metaphor processing has always been a focus in Neurolinguistics. This study approaches bilinguals＇ metaphor semantic representation mechanism with Chinese bilinguals with different levels of second...Brain mechanism of metaphor processing has always been a focus in Neurolinguistics. This study approaches bilinguals＇ metaphor semantic representation mechanism with Chinese bilinguals with different levels of second language proficiency by means of ERP （Event-related Potentials） technology. The experiment results showed that： 1） Both hemispheres collaborate in metaphor processing with the left hemisphere serving a leading semantic recognition role. The left hemisphere is more sensitive to first language input, while the right hemisphere is more active to second language input. 2） Compared with Chinese learners of higher proficiency in L2, learners of lower proficiency tend to adopt more Chinese neural mechanism in processing English metaphors. 3） When learners process metaphors, the neural mechanism difference of learners of higher proficiency is smaller than that of those of lower proficiency. The higher the second language proficiency, the higher the degree of common representation of Chinese and English metaphor.展开更多
基金funded by the research project for Humanities and Social Science,granted by the Ministry of Education,PRC,2012.The project order:12YJCZH010funded by Dalian University of Technology Research Fund DUT10RW402
文摘A good number of neurophysiological studies have been conducted to explore the neural mechanisms of metaphor processing, but few have taken the bilingual phenomenon into consideration. The current study, by using event related potentials （ERPs）, investigated the neural mechanism employed by Chinese native speakers whose second language is English in comprehending Chinese and English metaphors. Amplitudes of the N400 ERP component （350-600 ms） were more negative for English metaphors compared with Chinese literal sentences, English literal sentences and Chinese metaphors. In addition, both hemispheres were more activated in processing English metaphors than other conditions. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence for a different mechanism used by Chinese-English bilinguals to comprehend Chinese and English metaphors.
基金supported by China Foreign Language Education Research Fund under grant No.ZGWYJYJJ2016B79
文摘Brain mechanism of metaphor processing has always been a focus in Neurolinguistics. This study approaches bilinguals＇ metaphor semantic representation mechanism with Chinese bilinguals with different levels of second language proficiency by means of ERP （Event-related Potentials） technology. The experiment results showed that： 1） Both hemispheres collaborate in metaphor processing with the left hemisphere serving a leading semantic recognition role. The left hemisphere is more sensitive to first language input, while the right hemisphere is more active to second language input. 2） Compared with Chinese learners of higher proficiency in L2, learners of lower proficiency tend to adopt more Chinese neural mechanism in processing English metaphors. 3） When learners process metaphors, the neural mechanism difference of learners of higher proficiency is smaller than that of those of lower proficiency. The higher the second language proficiency, the higher the degree of common representation of Chinese and English metaphor.
