Gutenberg Open Science: The role of literal meaning in figurative language comprehension : evidence from masked priming ERP

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7741

Full metadata record

DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Weiland, Hanna	-
dc.contributor.author	Bambini, Valentina	-
dc.contributor.author	Schumacher, Petra	-
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-14T07:34:25Z	-
dc.date.available	2022-09-14T07:34:25Z	-
dc.date.issued	2014	-
dc.identifier.uri	https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/7756	-
dc.description.abstract	The role of literal meaning during the construction of meaning that goes beyond pure literal composition was investigated by combining cross-modal masked priming and ERPs. This experimental design was chosen to compare two conflicting theoretical positions on this topic. The indirect access account claims that literal aspects are processed first, and additional meaning components are computed only if no satisfactory interpretation is reached. In contrast, the direct access approach argues that figurative aspects can be accessed immediately. We presented metaphors (These lawyers are hyenas, Experiment 1a and 1b) and producer-for-product metonymies (The boy read Böll, Experiment 2a and 2b) with and without a prime word that was semantically relevant to the literal meaning of the target word (furry and talented, respectively). In the presentation without priming, metaphors revealed a biphasic N400-Late Positivity pattern, while metonymies showed an N400 only. We interpret the findings within a two-phase language architecture where contextual expectations guide initial access (N400) and precede pragmatic adjustment resulting in reconceptualization (Late Positivity). With masked priming, the N400-difference was reduced for metaphors and vanished for metonymies. This speaks against the direct access view that predicts a facilitating effect for the literal condition only and hence would predict the N400-difference to increase. The results are more consistent with indirect access accounts that argue for facilitation effects for both conditions and consequently for consistent or even smaller N400-amplitude differences. This combined masked priming ERP paradigm therefore yields new insights into the role of literal meaning in the online composition of figurative language.	en_GB
dc.description.sponsorship	DFG, Open Access-Publizieren Universität Mainz / Universitätsmedizin	de
dc.language.iso	eng	de
dc.rights	CC BY	*
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/	*
dc.subject.ddc	400 Sprache	de_DE
dc.subject.ddc	400 Language	en_GB
dc.title	The role of literal meaning in figurative language comprehension : evidence from masked priming ERP	en_GB
dc.type	Zeitschriftenaufsatz	de
dc.identifier.doi	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7741	-
jgu.type.dinitype	article	en_GB
jgu.type.version	Published version	de
jgu.type.resource	Text	de
jgu.organisation.department	FB 05 Philosophie und Philologie	de
jgu.organisation.number	7920	-
jgu.organisation.name	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz	-
jgu.rights.accessrights	openAccess	-
jgu.journal.title	Frontiers in human neuroscience	de
jgu.journal.volume	8	de
jgu.pages.alternative	Art. 583	de
jgu.publisher.year	2014	-
jgu.publisher.name	Frontiers Research Foundation	de
jgu.publisher.place	Lausanne	de
jgu.publisher.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00583	de
jgu.publisher.issn	1662-5161	de
jgu.organisation.place	Mainz	-
jgu.subject.ddccode	400	de
opus.date.modified	2018-08-08T08:04:21Z	-
opus.subject.dfgcode	00-000	-
opus.organisation.string	FB 05: Philosophie und Philologie: Department of English and Linguistics	de_DE
opus.identifier.opusid	26871	-
opus.institute.number	0501	-
opus.metadataonly	false	-
opus.type.contenttype	Keine	de_DE
opus.type.contenttype	None	en_EN
opus.affiliated	Weiland, Hanna	-
opus.affiliated	Schumacher, Petra	-
jgu.publisher.doi	10.3389/fnhum.2014.00583	de
jgu.organisation.ror	https://ror.org/023b0x485	-
Appears in collections:	DFG-OA-Publizieren (2012 - 2017)

Files in This Item:

	File	Description	Size	Format
	the_role_of_literal_meaning_i-20220913184735684.pdf		1.81 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Show simple item record