The comprehension of familiar and less familiar idioms

Schweigert, Wendy A.

doi:10.1007/bf01067390

Cited by 94 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown, for example, that familiarity is one of the variables that render idiomatic expressions a heterogeneous class (Glass, 1983;Schweigert, 1986). Also, familiarity can explain the greater ease with which people typically process literal idiomatic expressions in their figurative rather than literal interpretation (Popiel & McRae, 1988;Schweigert, 1986). Finally, it is well known that familiarity modulates the processing time of idioms, since highly familiar idioms are processed faster than are less familiar ones (Cronk & Schweigert, 1992;Schraw, Trathen, Reynolds, & Lapan, 1988;Schweigert & Moates, 1988).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in the studies assessing speed of idiom processing, the matched literal sentences with which idiomatic expressions are compared are typically fairly novel, whereas idioms are typically very familiar. One way to capture this distinction is to note that the two types of expressionsidioms and controls-differ in terms of familiarity, a variable well known to influence the processing of both individual words and idioms (Connine, Mullennix, Shernoff, & Yelen, 1990;Gernsbacher, 1984;Schweigert, 1986). Obviously, not all idioms are equally familiar; some are more familiar than others, and there is evidence that more familiar idioms are processed faster than less familiar ones are (Cronk, Lima, & Schweigert, 1993;Cronk & Schweigert, 1992).…”

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confidence: 99%

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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: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why are idioms recognized fast?

2009

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“…In a simultaneous processing of both literal and figurative meanings, it's the context which determines the winner. The third model, the direct access model (Gibbs, 1980;Schweigert, 1986), is not far from the lexical representation model. Accordingly, we usually disregard the literal meaning of an idiomatic expression and the figurative meaning is directly derived from the mental lexicon.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Context on the EFL Learners’ Idiom Processing Strategies

Rohani¹,

Ketabi²,

Tavakoli³

2012

ELT

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The present study investigated the effect of context on the strategies the EFL learners utilized to process idioms. To do so, ten Iranian intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to two groups who then attended a think-aloud session. The 5 subjects in the first group were exposed to an animated cartoon including 23 unfamiliar idioms while their counterparts in the second group were exposed to the written version of the same material. The subjects of the two groups were asked to verbally report their thought processes when trying to define the unfamiliar idioms. The data thus gathered form the small sample revealed 8 major strategies which were then used to prepare a questionnaire to be administered to a larger sample. The new sample included 60 subjects randomly assigned to two groups of 30.The first group as in the think-aloud session was exposed to the animated cartoon while the other read the respective script. The subjects in both groups were asked to check the strategies they resorted to when guessing the meaning of unfamiliar idioms. The results of the study showed both inter and intra-group differences confirming the effect of context on the strategies applied in processing unfamiliar idioms.

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“…Familiarity is then a measure of how well a person considers they know the phrase, regardless of their knowledge of its actual meaning. Familiar idioms (e.g., kick the bucket) have been found to be easier to comprehend than unfamiliar idioms (e.g., a pig in a poke), ostensibly because they can be directly retrieved from memory quite quickly (e.g., Schweigert 1986).…”

Section: Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In support of multiword unit classifications: Corpus and human rating data validate phraseological classifications of three different multiword unit types

Columbus¹

2013

Yearbook of Phraseology

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Multiword units (MWUs) are word combinations which sit within the continuum of formulaic language. Many experimental studies have focused on the online processing of MWUs by native and non-native speakers, and the processing of idioms in particular. However, some studies use a mix of various MWU subtypes, while other studies have varying definitions for the same subtypes. For results from MWU studies to be useful to theories of language processing, storage and access, clearer classifications are needed for MWU subtypes. This study aims to empirically validate MWU categories as described by certain phraseologists in the European tradition. This will be done using MWUs from the British National Corpus, from across the continuum of frequent to infrequent occurrence and co-occurrence. Hence, in this paper I will describe the empirical findings that may validate the classifications for MWU categories of restricted collocations, idioms, and lexical bundles, using corpus-based measures and human ratings.

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The comprehension of familiar and less familiar idioms

Cited by 94 publications

References 7 publications

Why are idioms recognized fast?

Why are idioms recognized fast?

The Effect of Context on the EFL Learners’ Idiom Processing Strategies

In support of multiword unit classifications: Corpus and human rating data validate phraseological classifications of three different multiword unit types

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