Processing of Idiomatic Expressions: Evidence for a New Hybrid View

Caillies, Stéphanie; Butcher, Kirsten R.

doi:10.1080/10926480709336754

Cited by 69 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…The authors concluded that idioms have identical lexical representations when they enter the production process. Nonetheless, the IDH continues to be viewed favorably in current research (Caillies & Butcher, 2007;Caillies & LeSourn-Bissaoui, 2006;Mateu & Espinal, 2007). Our findings corroborate and extend the evidence against the claim that decomposable and nondecomposable idioms are processed differently.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 81%

Why are idioms recognized fast?

2009

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It is an established fact that idiomatic expressions are fast to process. However, the explanation of the phenomenon is controversial. Using a semantic judgment paradigm, where people decide whether a string is meaningful or not, the present experiment tested the predictions deriving from the three main theories of idiom recognition-the lexical representation hypothesis, the idiom decomposition hypothesis, and the configuration hypothesis. Participants were faster at judging decomposable idioms, nondecomposable idioms, and clichés than at judging their matched controls. The effect was comparable for all conventional expressions. The results were interpreted as suggesting that, as posited by the configuration hypothesis, the fact that they are known expressions, rather than idiomaticity, explains their fast recognition.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 81%

Why are idioms recognized fast?

2009

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“…There was also no reliable effect of compositionality. This contrasts with the finding of Caillies and Butcher (2007), who observed an effect of this variable in adults' sentence reading.…”

Section: Scoring Of the Rt Datacontrasting

confidence: 55%

“…Caillies and Le Sourn-Bissaoui (2008) have shown that whereas young children (5 years old) can quickly understand decomposable idiomatic expressions in context, it is not until the age of 7-8 that they are able to understand nondecomposable idioms. Furthermore, in adult sentence reading, Caillies and Butcher (2007) found that decomposable idioms were processed sooner than nondecomposable ones. The compositionality of idioms is an interesting property that has been used to test several hypotheses related to the verbal processing of idioms.…”

Section: Theoretical Issues Addressed In the Processing Of Idiomatic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a theoretical point of view, the collection of psycholinguistic norms has helped to delineate the processes and the representations that are involved in different lexical processing tasks, such as object naming (Alario et al, 2004;Bonin et al, 2002), lexical decision (Ferrand et al, 2011;Keuleers, Lacey, Rastle, & Brysbaert, 2012), or word reading (Ferrand et al, 2011). As far as idiomatic expressions are concerned, the collection of norms is also helpful when designing experimental studies aimed at investigating the processes underpinning idiomatic comprehension (e.g., Caillies & Butcher, 2007) or production (e.g., Cutting & Bock, 1997;Sprenger et al, 2006). On the basis of the use of norms for idiomatic expressions, as briefly reviewed above, several studies have been conducted to test a number of hypotheses pertaining to the mechanisms and the representations involved in the comprehension (and in the production) of idiomatic expressions and the way these are represented in memory.…”

Section: Theoretical Issues Addressed In the Processing Of Idiomatic mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In psycholinguistics, a number of studies have attempted to investigate how idiomatic expressions are processed in different populations, such as healthy adults, patients (e.g., Hillert, 2004;Papagno & Caporali, 2007), or children (e.g., Caillies & Le Sourn-Bissaoui, 2008;Levorato, Nesi, & Cacciari, 2004), as well as in different tasks, such as comprehension (e.g., Caillies & Butcher, 2007;Caillies & Declercq, 2011) and production (e.g., Conner et al, 2011;Sprenger et al, 2006). The neural correlates of idiom processing have also been investigated (e.g., Hillert & Buracas, 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Norms and comprehension times for 305 French idiomatic expressions

2013

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We report psycholinguistic norms for 305 French idiomatic expressions (Study 1). For each of the idiomatic expressions, the following variables are reported: knowledge, predictability, literality, compositionality, subjective and objective frequency, familiarity, age of acquisition (AoA), and length. In addition, we have collected comprehension times for each idiom (Study 2). The psycholinguistic relevance of the collected norms is explained, and different analyses (descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regression analyses) performed on the norms are reported and discussed. The entire set of norms and reading times are provided as supplemental material.

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Developing Idiomatic Competence in the ESOL Classroom: A Pragmatic Account

Liontas

2015

TESOL J

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Building on previous theoretical constructs and empirical findings on idioms, this article advances an integrated theoretical and methodological framework for developing idiomatic competence in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). Beginning with a definition of the term idiomatic competence, the author then presents a framework of theory and pedagogy not to theorize research findings to date but to advocate for learning idioms in an explicit and systematic way befitting natural use in comprehending and producing idioms effectively and appropriately in actual context-sensitive social situations without violating the conventions of social appropriacy. Throughout the explication of this pragmatic account, a series of insights are offered to help readers reexamine their contexts of teaching and pedagogical practices. It is suggested that for idiom instruction to achieve social immediacy, that is, attain communicative reality and social relevance in everyday discourse, the conditions for optimal idiom learning need to be made compatible with and supportive of the way English language learners learn best. The author concludes with implications for practicing and testing idiomatic competence across the curriculum, even at the tertiary level, in a supportive environment that values active, real-life participation and engagement in English language learning both inside and outside the language class.

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Processing of Idiomatic Expressions: Evidence for a New Hybrid View

Cited by 69 publications

References 27 publications

Why are idioms recognized fast?

Why are idioms recognized fast?

Norms and comprehension times for 305 French idiomatic expressions

Developing Idiomatic Competence in the ESOL Classroom: A Pragmatic Account

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