It's Hard to Offend the College: Effects of Sentence Structure on Figurative-Language Processing

Autor/inn/en	Lowder, Matthew W.; Gordon, Peter C.
Titel	It's Hard to Offend the College: Effects of Sentence Structure on Figurative-Language Processing
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39 (2013) 4, S.993-1011 (19 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0278-7393
DOI	10.1037/a0031671
Schlagwörter	Sentence Structure; Figurative Language; Language Processing; Eye Movements; Reading; Verbs; Nouns; College Students; North Carolina + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Satzbau; Satzstruktur; Sprachverarbeitung; Augenbewegung; Leseprozess; Lesen; Collegestudent
Abstract	Previous research has given inconsistent evidence about whether familiar metonyms are more difficult to process than literal expressions. In 2 eye-tracking-while-reading experiments, we tested the hypothesis that the difficulty associated with processing metonyms would depend on sentence structure. Experiment 1 examined comprehension of familiar place-for-institution metonyms (e.g., "college") when they were an argument of the main verb and showed that they are more difficult to process in a figurative context (e.g., "offended the college") than in a literal context (e.g., "photographed the college"). Experiment 2 demonstrated that when they are arguments of the main verb, familiar metonyms are more difficult to process than frequency-and-length-matched nouns that refer to people (e.g., "offended the leader), but that this difficulty was reduced when the metonym appeared as part of an adjunct phrase (e.g., "offended the honor of the college"). The results support the view that figurative-language processing is moderated by sentence structure. When the metonym was an argument of the verb, the results were consistent with the pattern predicted by the indirect-access model of figurative-language comprehension. In contrast, when the metonym was part of an adjunct phrase, the results were consistent with the pattern predicted by the direct-access model. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01