The impact of noun animacy on the processing of L1 and L2 action metaphors among Chinese English learners: An event-related potential study

These findings suggest that in action metaphor processing, the animacy level of an object noun modulates semantic extraction and integration in L1, as well as the allocation of attentional resources for L2. However, overall, sentences with high-animacy objects were more difficult to comprehend than those with low-animacy objects. Additionally, regardless of the animacy level of an object noun, more attention and cognitive resources were allocated to L1 processing than to L2 processing, facilitating faster semantic access to sentences.