The Effects of Different Tasks on the Comprehension and Production of Idioms in Children

Levorato, Maria Chiara; Cacciari, Cristina

doi:10.1006/jecp.1995.1041

Cited by 149 publications

(143 citation statements)

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“…Context did indeed benefit both groups -in accordance with the GEM (Levorato & Cacciari, 1995), according to which a sensitivity for context develops between the ages of 8 and 9 years. Younger children are said to be more reliant on context in figurative language interpretation than on the information they are able to obtain from a semantic analysis.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

“…It has been proposed that children's comprehension of figurative language differs from that of adults in that children (1) have an amplified need for and reliance on context (see Levorato, Nesi & Cacciari, 1992;Cain, Oakhill, Barnes & Byrant, 2001); (2) lack ontological knowledge and general life experiences, and possess a smaller vocabulary; (3) have a tendency for literal interpretations; and (4) fare better at comprehending figurative language than producing it (Gibbs, 1987(Gibbs, , 1991Vosniadou, 1987;Nippold & Martin, 1989;Levorato & Cacciari, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Twelve-year-old children showed a clear ability to interpret words with more than one meaning, such as cold and warm, which denote temperatures but also personality temperaments (Douglas & Peel, 1979: 116; see also Nippold, 1991;Abkarian, Jones & West, 1992;Levorato & Cacciari, 1999). Levorato and Cacciari's (1995) Global Elaboration Model (GEM) focuses on the finding that figurative language is acquired on the basis of processes underlying lexical, semantic, and cognitive developments. The main questions addressed by the GEM are, firstly, when and how a child first escapes a literal interpretation and seeks a more coherent, global interpretation and, secondly, what linguistic and cognitive abilities are needed in order to facilitate this process (Levorato & Cacciari, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First and second language child speakers of Afrikaans’s knowledge of figurative language

Merwe¹,

Southwood²

2011

Per Ling.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First and second language child speakers of Afrikaans’s knowledge of figurative language

Merwe¹,

Southwood²

2011

Per Ling.

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“…Idiomatic expressions are understood in relation to the context in which they are used. As a result, the skills used to process and understand language in context are thought to be important for the development of idiom understanding (Levorato & Cacciari, 1995).…”

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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“…Quanto à variável língua , com exceção dos estudos feitos em italiano (Cacciari e Tabossi, 1988;Levorato, 1993;Caramelli e Montanari, 1995;Levorato e Cacciari, 1995), a maioria das pesquisas utiliza crianças falantes de inglês como sua população alvo, o que diminui a possibilidade de generalização dos resultados.…”

Section: Evidências Psicolingüísticasunclassified

As metáforas primárias na aquisição da linguagem: um estudo interlingüístico

Siqueira¹,

Lamprecht²

2007

DELTA

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Situated within the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this research focuses on the comprehension of primary metaphors, using a crosslinguisticdevelopmental perspective. Data come from interviews with monolingual Brazilian Portuguese and American English native speakers at the ages of 3 to 10, along with adult native speakers. The results obtained from two tasks (verbal and non-verbal) revealed that the comprehension of primary metaphors is an ability that emerges early in life and is linked to the kind of mapping involved in each conceptual metaphor. The comprehension of primary metaphors followed three stages both for the Brazilian and the American participants. KEY-WORDS: primary metaphors; language acquisition; figurative language development; cognitive linguistics. RESUMO:Este trabalho apresenta um estudo interlingüístico e evolutivo da compreensão de oito metáforas primárias sob a perspectiva da Teoria da Metáfora Conceitual. Os dados foram obtidos através de entrevistas com crianças de 3 a 10 anos de idade, monolíngües, falantes nativas de português brasileiro ou de inglês norte-americano, bem como com adultos das mesmas comunidades lingüísticas. Os resultados de duas tarefas (verbal e não-verbal) aplicadas revelaram que a compreensão de metáforas primárias é uma habilidade que emerge cedo na infância e está relacionada ao tipo de mapeamento envolvido em cada metáfora conceitual. Tanto para os participantes brasileiros quanto para os participantes norte-americanos, a compreensão de metáforas primárias se deu em três estágios. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: metáforas primárias; aquisição da linguagem; desenvolvimento da linguagem figurada; lingüística cognitiva. * Esta pesquisa foi parte integrante da tese de Doutorado da primeira autora, apresentada no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da PUCRS, sob a orientação da segunda autora, com financiamento da CAPES.

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The Effects of Different Tasks on the Comprehension and Production of Idioms in Children

Cited by 149 publications

References 0 publications

First and second language child speakers of Afrikaans’s knowledge of figurative language

First and second language child speakers of Afrikaans’s knowledge of figurative language

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

As metáforas primárias na aquisição da linguagem: um estudo interlingüístico

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