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Article In: AILA Review: Online-First Articles

Through the reader’s Eyes

Processing effort and aesthetic engagement with metaphors in a second language

ORCiD logo with link | University of Warsaw
ORCiD logo with link | University of Verona
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Abstract
This study investigates how second-language (L2) readers process and aesthetically evaluate literary metaphors, combining eye-tracking data with comprehension and aesthetic judgment tasks. Sixty Polish university students with advanced English proficiency read an excerpt from The Golden Bowl by Henry James in one of two versions: the original text containing metaphors or a simplified version with non-metaphorical paraphrases. Results showed that metaphorical expressions elicited significantly longer dwell times, more fixations and more revisits, indicating higher processing effort. Aesthetic ratings revealed that metaphors were perceived as more beautiful, creative, and surprising than their simplified counterparts, with creativity emerging as the most prominent evaluative dimension. Strong positive correlations were found among aesthetic dimensions and between these and eye-tracking measures, while negative correlations emerged between comprehension and aesthetic ratings. These findings show that the processing of metaphorical expressions in L2 requires greater processing effort related to the difficulty in comprehending them but it remarkably enhances their aesthetic appreciation.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Expanded theoretical framework of metaphor processing in L2
  • 3.Pilot study
  • Experimental design
  • Participants
  • Experimental settings and research equipment
  • Experimental material
  • Experimental procedure
  • Data analysis
  • Results
    • Eye tracking results
    • Aesthetic appreciation results
      • Correlations
  • Discussion
    • Eye-tracking results and processing of metaphors
    • Aesthetic appreciation and dimensionality
    • Correlations between aesthetic dimensions
    • Correlations between aesthetic ratings and comprehension
    • Correlations between eye-tracking parameters and aesthetic dimensions
  • Limitations
  • Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • References
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