How alliteration enhances conceptual–attentional interactions in reading

Egan, C, Cristino, F ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9366-293X, Payne, JS, Thierry, G and Jones, MW, 2020. How alliteration enhances conceptual–attentional interactions in reading. Cortex, 124, pp. 111-118. ISSN 0010-9452

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Abstract

In linguistics, the relationship between phonological word form and meaning is mostly considered arbitrary. Why, then, do literary authors traditionally craft sound relationships between words? We set out to characterise how dynamic interactions between word form and meaning may account for this literary practice. Here, we show that alliteration influences both meaning integration and attentional engagement during reading. We presented participants with adjective-noun phrases, having manipulated semantic relatedness (congruent, incongruent) and form repetition (alliterating, non-alliterating) orthogonally, as in "dazzling-diamond"; "sparkling-diamond"; "dangerous-diamond"; and "creepy-diamond". Using simultaneous recording of event-related brain potentials and pupil dilation (PD), we establish that, whilst semantic incongruency increased N400 amplitude as expected, it reduced PD, an index of attentional engagement. Second, alliteration affected semantic evaluation of word pairs, since it reduced N400 amplitude even in the case of unrelated items (e.g., "dangerous-diamond"). Third, alliteration specifically boosted attentional engagement for related words (e.g., "dazzling-diamond"), as shown by a sustained negative correlation between N400 amplitudes and PD change after the window of lexical integration. Thus, alliteration strategically arouses attention during reading and when comprehension is challenged, phonological information helps readers link concepts beyond the level of literal semantics. Overall, our findings provide a tentative mechanism for the empowering effect of sound repetition in literary constructs.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Cortex
Creators:	Egan, C., Cristino, F., Payne, J.S., Thierry, G. and Jones, M.W.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	March 2020
Volume:	124
ISSN:	0010-9452
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.11.005 DOI S001094521930382X Publisher Item Identifier 1260201 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	08 Jan 2020 11:20
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:12
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38938

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