Metaphor is not only a specific form of figurative language, but also a form of thinking or cognition. Metaphor comprehension involves the processing of language comprehension, creative thinking, and imagery thinking. This project investigated the semantic and mental imagery processing in metaphor comprehension, and furthermore explored the meaning access of vehicle. Firstly, new methods to evaluate the property of metaphors and new techniques to record the reaction time of on-line metaphor comprehension were developed. Based on the new methods, the project addressed to the influence of conventionality, aptness, and imaginableness of metaphor on meaning access of vehicle. Secondly, the project focused on the role of mental imagery of vehicle on the meaning access of metaphor. Thirdly, database of semantic concepts and features with plentiful data were collected and analysed, which will be very helpful to the future research of metaphor. Finally, processing of metaphor comprehension and lexical access among different languages was investigated. The results showed that imaginableness of metaphor is one of the important factors that influence processing of metaphor. The findings of this project will facilitate the research of comprehension mechanisms of figurative language and imagery thinking.
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