How do Chinese-English Learners Process Metaphorical Actions

Bodily action plays a crucial role in human interaction with the world and provides a foundation for comprehending abstract concepts. This study examined how Chinese-English speakers process familiar and less familiar metaphorical actions. Using a sentence-priming paradigm, participants read action-related sentences (literal, familiar metaphorical, and less familiar metaphorical), each immediately followed by a target word associated with either the verb’s literal or figurative meaning. Participants performed a lexical decision task by pressing response keys. Results showed that familiar metaphorical action sentences facilitated recognition of target words related to figurative meanings compared to control words, whereas less familiar metaphorical action sentences facilitated recognition of target words related to literal meanings. These findings suggest that Chinese-English speakers process familiar and less familiar metaphorical actions differently and provide support for the Graded Salience Hypothesis of figurative language processing.