Table 2.
Psycholinguistic properties of literal and metaphoric sentences.
| Literal |
Metaphor |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominal-Entity | Nominal-Event | Predicate | Nominal-Entity | Nominal-Event | Predicate | |
| M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | |
| Base auditory imagery | 2.63 (1.2) | 2.61 (1.4) | 2.07 (1.16) | 2.63 (1.2) | 2.61 (1.4) | 2.07 (1.16) |
| Base visual imagery | 3.66 (1.14) | 3.2 (0.59) | 3.41 (0.72) | 3.66 (1.14) | 3.2 (0.59) | 3.41 (0.72) |
| Concreteness | 480 (76) | 474 (46) | 500 (53) | 450 (57) | 449 (69) | 474 (76) |
| Frequency* | 92.9 (159) | 89.9 (142.4) | 86.7 (85.3) | 90.8 (123.7) | 91.8 (128) | 95.6 (133.7) |
| No. of characters | 33.3 (4.2) | 32 (5.1) | 33.6 (5.2) | 34.3 (4.6) | 32.7 (5.2) | 34.9 (4) |
| No. of words | 6.1 (0.4) | 6.2 (0.4) | 6.2 (0.5) | 6.1 (0.6) | 6.1 (0.5) | 6 (0.6) |
| No. of content words | 3.2 (0.5) | 3.2 (0.4) | 3.3 (0.5) | 3.2 (0.5) | 3.1 (0.5) | 3.3 (0.4) |
| Interpretability | n/a | n/a | n/a | 0.94 (0.08) | 0.94 (0.08) | 0.96 (0.05) |
| Familiarity | 5.28 (0.73) | 5.14 (1.11) | 5.26 (1.23) | 4.96 (0.76) | 4.83 (1.18) | 4.86 (1.37) |
| Naturalness | 5.68 (0.73) | 5.76 (0.95) | 5.48 (1.24) | 4.84 (0.82) | 5.1 (1.07) | 4.8 (1.34) |
| Imageability | 5.55 (0.83) | 5.67 (0.97) | 5.8 (1.08) | 4.17 (0.97) | 4.27 (0.78) | 3.94 (1.16) |
| Figurativeness | 1.88 (0.73) | 2.02 (0.92) | 1.78 (0.91) | 5.62 (0.56) | 5.28 (0.77) | 5.25 (1.02) |
| Valence RT | 1279 (213) | 1390 (182) | 1426 (237) | 1351 (131) | 1432 (220) | 1495 (200) |
*SUBTLWF values from Brysbaert and New (2009).