Presentation

Adriana Miller¹, Janet van Hell^1,2; ¹Penn State University, ²Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Creative language is a powerful tool for sharing new and original ideas. Processing creative language such as metaphor requires conceptual expansion--the ability to extend one’s understanding of a concept to include new characteristics and associations (Rutter et al., 2012). Previous research has examined conceptual expansion by comparing the processing of literal sentences, nonsense sentences, and novel metaphorical sentences, using behavioral measures (e.g., reaction times or novelty and appropriateness judgments) and neurocognitive measures (e.g., EEG/ERP). ERP studies have found that semantic anomalies in sentences (e.g., The earthquake defrosted the city) tend to elicit a larger N400 amplitude than novel metaphors (e.g., The earthquake inhaled the city) which in turn tend to elicit a larger amplitude than literal sentences (e.g., The earthquake destroyed the city; Jonczyk et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2009; Rutter et al., 2012). As the N400 is taken to index lexical-semantic access (e.g., Kutas & Federmeier, 2011), this implies that lexical-semantic access of metaphors and nonsense constructions is more challenging than of literal sentences. From a conceptual expansion perspective, an increased N400 response for novel metaphors compared to literal sentences represents an activation in semantic memory and increased effort to make a connection between distantly related concepts (Rutter et al., 2012). As evidenced by these studies, conceptual expansion is cognitively costly, requiring time and effort to integrate distantly related concepts (Abraham et al., 2021; Jonczyk et al., 2020). Most ERP studies on metaphor processing have focused on monolinguals, largely leaving out bilinguals who must comprehend creative thoughts not only in their first but also in their second language (L2). Conceptual expansion in the L2 may either be more effortful or more efficient than in a first language. On one hand, according to the weaker links hypotheses, L2 semantic networks may be more weakly linked together making connecting distant ideas more difficult (Gollan et al., 2008). Alternatively, bilinguals’ experience with navigating conceptual representations in two languages and certain properties of L2 networks such as greater connectivity and shorter distances between connections may allow for more efficient conceptual expansion (Borodkin et al., 2016; Kenett & Faust, 2019). Combining behavioral and EEG methods, this study will investigate L2 novel metaphor processing of sixty Mandarin native speakers who learned their L2 English at school. While EEG is being recorded, the bilinguals will read novel metaphorical, literal, and nonsense sentences in L2 English, and will then judge the novelty and appropriateness of each sentence (as in Jonczyk et al., 2020). Participants’ creativity will be measured via the Alternate Uses Task (produce creative uses for common objects), in both Mandarin and English. Participants will also complete a language history questionnaire, verbal fluency tasks (in both languages), and English proficiency assessment (Lemhöfer & Broersma, 2012). If L2 conceptual expansion is relatively effortful, metaphors are predicted to elicit an increased N400 amplitude relative to literal sentences. Alternatively, if L2 conceptual expansion is relatively efficient, metaphors are predicted to yield a similar N400 amplitude to literal sentences. Preliminary data will be presented at the conference.

Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Meaning: Lexical Semantics