Effect of Priming on the Comprehension of Predicative Metaphors

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Abstract
We examine the relative influence of intra- and extrasentential context on comprehension time for metaphorical statements of the form "Some X are Y." Two intrasentential factors were manipulated. First, the ground of the metaphor corresponded to a semantic dimension of the subject noun that was either highly expected or not based on normative data. Second, the ground was either a high or low salient feature of the predicate noun. Extrasentential context was manipulated by preceding each metaphor with a literal sentence that was either related or unrelated to its meaning. Metaphors were read more quickly when the ground was a highly salient feature of the predicate noun or a highly expected dimension of the subject noun. In addition, reading time was reduced when the prime was consistent with the highly expected ending. However, reading times increased when the priming sentence activated the less expected ending. Taken together, the data support a schema-based model of metaphor comprehension.

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