Metaphorical priming: an analysis of Brazilian speakers language processing

• Ano de defesa: 2019
• Autor(a) principal: Flavia Alvarenga de Oliveira
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
• Palavras-chave em Português: Metáfora; Cognição; Linguística; psicolinguística; controle inibitório; metáforas nominais; metáforas conceituais; processamento da linguagem
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/1843/LETR-BADPCD

Inhibitory control is as an important component of human cognition, which is present in linguistic and non-linguistic processes. The present study attempts to investigate the role of inhibitory control (IC) when processing metaphorically primed targets. Participants read either a metaphorical prime sentence (e.g., Meu computador é uma lesma), a literal prime sentence (e.g. Lesmas são moluscos), or a baseline-prime sentence. Baseline-prime sentences were unrelated (e.g. Aquele rapaz é um doce). The literal prime sentence was changed into nonsensical sentences in half of the experimental sentences (e.g. Aquela garrafa é uma lesma). Reaction times for property statements relevant to the metaphorical meaning of the vehicle (e.g. Lesmas são lentas) were faster when participants read the metaphorical priming then the literal one. In contrast, reaction times were slower when the property statement was related to the basic literal meaning of the vehicle (e.g. Lesmassão moluscos). These results, however, were only found in the offline component of the experiment, that is, in the one which measured comprehension after the sentence was read. The self-paced reading task, which is an online task and is supposedly able to measure real time sentence processing, showed that property statements were read slower when they followed a metaphorical priming. As predicted by Glucksberg and Keysar (1990) and by Gentner and Bowdle (2005), the suppression effects in metaphorically primed targets support the processing of metaphors through categorization. In this sense,statistical differences between higher and lower IC groups, separated through participants results in a Stroop task, show that the mechanism is indeed relevant to the processing of metaphorically primed information. Regarding the processing of expressions licensed by conceptual metaphors (ex.: A discussão fez meu sangue ferver), we found that the results were similar of those of nominal metaphors (Ex.: O amor é um abacaxi) in relation to the role of inhibitory control. Reaction times for targets related to conceptual metaphors were higher for all participants, when compared to nominal metaphor related targets. This study contributes to the studies on metaphor comprehension, showing evidence that support the categorization account of metaphor understanding.