Conventionality and context jointly modulate the effect of inhibitory control on L2 metaphor comprehension

Zhao Yao (), Xinle Huang, Yu Chai and Jifei Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Zhao Yao: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Xinle Huang: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Yu Chai: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Jifei Zhang: Xi’an Jiaotong University

Palgrave Communications, 2024, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The Structure Building Framework has suggested that inhibitory control plays an important role in metaphor comprehension, yet it remains less clear how the role varies with different types of L2 metaphors in the absence or presence of context. We used a modified flanker task to measure the inhibitory control ability of Chinese-English bilinguals who were divided into two groups: high inhibitory control (HIC) and low inhibitory control (LIC). They performed semantic judgment tasks in which L2 conventional and novel metaphors were presented in isolated sentences (Experiment 1), and the same metaphors were preceded by supportive or literal contexts (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, the HIC group responded significantly slower than the LIC group to novel metaphors, with no obvious distinction between the groups for conventional metaphors. In Experiment 2, the HIC group performed significantly faster on novel metaphors in supportive contexts than in literal contexts, while the LIC group had no such facilitative effect. However, the LIC group’s response to conventional metaphors was greatly facilitated by supportive contexts, whereas the HIC group showed no significant difference in two context conditions. These results suggest that inhibitory control is selectively recruited in the comprehension of L2 conventional and novel metaphors under different contextual demands. This finding provides a comprehensive account of the flexible role of inhibitory control in L2 metaphor comprehension.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03977-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03977-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03977-4

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().