Jankowiak Katarzyna, Cieślicka Anna B
Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Grunwaldzka 6, Poznań, 60-780, Poland.
Department of Psychology and Communication, Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 22;15(1):30971. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16841-5.
This event-related potential study investigates whether semantically related words facilitate the processing of English novel metaphors and how this effect varies across within- and between-language contexts. Spanish-English/English-Spanish bilinguals performed a meaningfulness decision task in response to sentences in English, which included novel metaphors, novel similes, literal, and anomalous sentences. Prime words that were either related to the overall meaning of the target sentences or unrelated were presented either in English (the within-language condition) or Spanish (the between-language condition) before the sentence onset. In the N400 time window, unrelated primes evoked larger amplitudes than related primes in the within-language condition, indicating that conceptual compatibility reduces cognitive effort during early semantic processing. This effect was absent in the between-language condition, likely due to weaker associative links or additional cognitive demands from language switching. In the Late Positive Complex window, related primes imposed higher processing costs, reflecting their incorporation into sentence interpretation, while unrelated primes were dismissed earlier, reducing later-stage cognitive effort. These findings highlight the role of linguistic context in semantic processing, showing that within-language priming enhances efficiency, whereas between-language priming is less effective, particularly for complex novel metaphorical meanings.
这项与事件相关的电位研究调查了语义相关的词语是否有助于英语新奇隐喻的加工，以及这种效应在语言内和语言间语境中是如何变化的。西班牙语-英语/英语-西班牙语双语者针对包含新奇隐喻、新奇明喻、直白句和异常句的英语句子执行了一项意义判断任务。在句子呈现之前，与目标句子整体意义相关或不相关的启动词分别以英语（语言内条件）或西班牙语（语言间条件）呈现。在N400时间窗口内，在语言内条件下，不相关的启动词比相关的启动词诱发的波幅更大，这表明概念兼容性在早期语义加工过程中减少了认知努力。在语言间条件下没有这种效应，这可能是由于关联链接较弱或语言切换带来的额外认知需求。在晚期正复合波窗口中，相关的启动词带来了更高的加工成本，反映出它们被纳入句子解释中，而不相关的启动词被更早地排除，从而减少了后期的认知努力。这些发现凸显了语言语境在语义加工中的作用，表明语言内启动增强了效率，而语言间启动效果较差，尤其是对于复杂的新奇隐喻意义。
