Morphological Metaphor Mapping of Moral Concepts in Chinese Culture

Language Nativeness Modulates Physiological Responses to Moral vs. Immoral Concepts in Chinese-English Bilinguals: Evidence from Event-Related Potential and Psychophysiological Measures

Morality has been an integral part of social cognition and our daily life, and different languages may exert distinct impacts on human moral judgment. However, it remains unclear how moral concept is encoded in the bilingual brain. This study, therefore, aimed to explore the emotional and cognitive involvement of bilingual morality judgement by using combined event-related potential (ERP) and psychophysiological (including skin, heart, and pulse) measures. In the experiment, thirty-one Chinese-English bilingual participants were asked to make moral judgments in Chinese and English, respectively. Our results revealed increased early frontal N400 and decreased LPC in L1 moral concept encoding as compared to L2, suggesting that L1 was more reliant on automatic processes and emotions yet less on elaboration. In contrast, L2 moral and immoral concepts elicited enhanced LPC, decreased N400, and greater automatic psychophysiological electrocardiograph responses, which might reflect more elaborate processing despite blunted emotional responses and increased anxiety. Additionally, both behavioral and P200 data revealed a reliable immorality bias across languages. Our results were discussed in light of the dual-process framework of moral judgments and the (dis)embodiment of bilingual processing, which may advance our understanding of the interplay between language and morality as well as between emotion and cognition.

Keeping Morality "on the Straight" and Never "on the Bend": Metaphorical Representations of Moral Concepts in Straightness and Curvature

The study of moral conceptual metaphors has been an important topic in recent years. In Chinese culture, the concepts of curvature and straightness are given certain semantic contents, in which curvature refers to being sly while straightness refers to having integrity. In the present study, we used the Implicit Association Test (IAT) paradigm (Experiment 1) and the Stroop paradigm (Experiment 2) to investigate whether there are metaphorical representations of curvature and straightness in moral concepts. The results revealed that the mean reaction time in compatible trials (i.e., moral words accompanied by a straight pattern and immoral words accompanied by a curved pattern) was significantly shorter than that in incompatible trials (i.e., moral words accompanied by a curved pattern and immoral words accompanied by a straight pattern). The Stroop paradigm showed that reaction times were significantly reduced when moral words were presented in a straight font, but there was no significant difference between the presentation of immoral words in a straight font and that in a curved font. The results suggest that mental representations of moral concepts are associated with straightness and curvature in Chinese culture.

Can second language metaphorical competence be taught through instructional intervention? A meta-analysis

Background

For a long time, the traditional view regarded metaphor as merely a rhetorical device that served to enrich linguistic expression. With the continuous development of cognitive linguistics, foreign language educators began to realize the vital role of metaphor in foreign language education.

Objectives

This study looked at how well pedagogical interventions improve metaphorical competence by looking at how well teachers teach metaphors.

Methods

After a rigorous literature search and selection process from the Chinese and English databases, 13 Chinese and 7 international studies with 51 effect sizes were included in this meta-analysis. With the help of the meta-analysis 3.0 software, the literature and heterogeneity tests were performed to ensure that the meta-analysis results were as accurate and valid as possible.

Results

The effect size tests revealed that the metaphorical instructional intervention was significantly effective in general and produced a large effect size (d = 0.888) on improving learners' metaphorical abilities. Meta-regression analyses were also conducted to examine how other factors might change the effects of the interventions.

Findings

Research has shown that instructional interventions that combine prolonged input of metaphorical concepts with reinforcement of metaphorical practice can help second language learners develop metaphorical competence. Teaching puts more pressure on teachers and the learning environment, and the results of this study could help teachers teach metaphors in the future.