Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/suvlin.2023.095.05
Creative metaphor comprehension in L2 speakers of English
Ana Werkmann Horvat
orcid.org/0000-0002-0720-2575
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Osijeku
Abstract
Most research on metaphor comprehension in second language (L2) speakers focuses on
conventionalised expressions (e.g., Littlemore et al. 2011; Mashal et al. 2015), whereas L2 comprehension
of novel metaphorical expressions has not been given much attention (Jankowiak et al., 2017). Th is paper
investigates the extent to which L2 speakers at different levels of proficiency differentiate between creative
metaphors classified as easy and hard to comprehend. A self–paced reading task combined with sensicality
judgements was used to test two groups of participants: L2 speakers of English with low/intermediate and
advanced proficiency. The study examined reading times and answers to the sensicality judgements which
inquired about whether the metaphors make sense. The results show that the advanced group of speakers
more often judges that creative metaphors make sense, but in the case of reading time, proficiency has no
significant effect on the understanding of different types of metaphors. Based on the absence of interaction
between the groups and the type of metaphor, it can be concluded that the skills needed to understand the
metaphor are partially transferred from the first language, however, the results of the sensicality judgments
show that the advanced group judges significantly more that creative metaphors (regardless of difficulty)
are meaningful. Th is indicates that with advanced knowledge of the language comes richer semantic
representations, so advanced speakers more easily activate features of concepts that are otherwise more
difficult to activate
Keywords
metaphors; metaphor comprehension; English as L2
Hrčak ID:
306428
URI
Publication date:
23.7.2023.
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