2024 Volume 31 Issue 1 Pages 128-137
Relative embodiment (RE) measures the degree to which a given verb’s meaning is related to a human’s body or action. Verbs with a high RE are recognized faster than verbs with a low RE. However, the actual robustness of this phenomenon remains unclear because word combinations can change the meaning of the verbs. Accordingly, we conducted a two-factor within-participant experiment (word combination × stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]) involving 42 native Japanese speakers. Regarding the word combination factor, we compared expressions denoting literal actions (literal condition) and metaphorical actions (metaphorical condition) that involved high RE verbs. The experiment also included expressions that used low RE verbs to denote abstract actions (abstract condition). SOA factors were compared between two conditions where the words were processed consecutively (SOA 250 ms condition) and separately (SOA 800 ms condition). Participants had to determine whether the target word was a verb or a noun. The results revealed significantly shorter reaction times in the literal condition compared to the metaphorical condition. Moreover, reaction times were significantly shorter in the literal condition compared to the abstract condition in the SOA 800 ms condition. Metaphorical expressions received fewer benefits from RE when low-imageability nouns were combined with high RE verbs. Unlike previous studies, this study did not observe any embodiment effects when the words were read consecutively (e.g., in normal reading). Thus, even if RE affects verbs in single-word processing, its effect may be small or negligible in the case of everyday sentences and phrases.
