Abstract
Abstract A good number of neurophysiological studies have been conducted to explore the neural mechanisms of metaphor processing, but few have taken the bilingual phenomenon into consideration. The current study, by using event related potentials (ERPs), investigated the neural mechanism employed by Chinese native speakers whose second language is English in comprehending Chinese and English metaphors. Amplitudes of the N400 ERP component (350-600 ms) were more negative for English metaphors compared with Chinese literal sentences, English literal sentences and Chinese metaphors. In addition, both hemispheres were more activated in processing English metaphors than other conditions. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence for a different mechanism used by Chinese – English bilinguals to comprehend Chinese and English metaphors.
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