Investigating the effects of transparency and ambiguity on idiom learning

The purpose of this thesis was to learn how transparency and ambiguity affect idiom learning. Experiment 1 was a norming study to measure the transparency, ambiguity, and familiarity levels of translated French idioms into English. Experiment 2 was a training study where 25 native English speakers learned 32 of the normed idioms from Experiment 1. The procedure was distributed over three days and included two learning sessions and one testing session. In addition, each participant completed individual difference tasks for working memory, creativity, and figurative language proficiency. We ran Linear Mixed Effects Regression models which rendered a significant effect of transparency on performance. Given the ceiling effects from Experiment 2, we conducted Experiment 3 which differed from Experiment 2 in that it reduced the amount of time subjects spent learning and practicing the idioms and also included a semantic relatedness test. Experiment 3 showed a significant main effect of transparency and an interaction between transparency and the type of test such that performance was better for high transparency idioms on a recall test but worse on a semantic relatedness test. Across the two training experiments, we found neither an effect of ambiguity nor any significant relation between individual difference tasks and performance

Native and Non-native Idiom Processing: Same Difference

This dissertation looks at idiom processing in native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers. The duality of meaning represented by idioms (e.g., the idiom piece of cake means figuratively very easy but literally describes dessert) poses issues for theories of language processing and composition. While L1 speakers can easily comprehend idioms, L2 speakers have more difficulty in doing so. However, it is still unclear whether these difficulties are evidence of differential processing in L1 and L2 listeners. This work looks at idiom processing in both speaker groups via a collection of experimental studies in order to answer the overarching question: How do L1 and L2 idiom processing compare? In doing so, a number of issues are considered, such as: the timeline of meaning activation for figurative (idiomatic) meaning as well as literal constituent and phrasal meaning; the flexibility in this process during comprehension; the impact of idiomatic properties on processing; recognition memory for equal figurative and literal phrases after learning; and brain activation during comprehension. The work includes a database of American English idioms with L1 and L2 (German L1) norming values as well as experimental methods in L1 and L2 speakers such as cross-modal priming, eye-tracking, self-paced reading, training and recognition, and fMRI. The evidence presented suggests that L1 and L2 idiom processing differ based on general L1 and L2 differences, however, a single idiomatic processing method which considers both figurative and literal meaning is responsible for both speaker groups