Familiarity in Chinese and English Idiom Comprehension: An Event Related Potential Study from Chinese English Learners
-
Shen Haibo
SHEN Haibo is a PhD candidate in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is holding a joint scholarship awarded by the China Scholarship Council and Western Sydney University. Her research interests are second language acquisition and language education.
,
Wang Yan
WANG Yan is Lecturer of Psychology at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, in China. Her research efforts have focused on cognitive neuroscience and decision-making.
LIU Wenyu is Professor of English (applied linguistics) in School of Foreign Languages at Dalian University of Technology, in China. His research focuses are neurolinguistics and social linguistics.
Abstract
Idioms have attracted great attention over recent decades. Nevertheless, controversies still remain in regard of the most plausible cognition mechanism for idiom comprehension, especially concerning non-Indo-European languages and second/foreign language users. Event Related Potential (ERP) experiments on proficient English learners whose native language was Mandarin Chinese were conducted to test the influences of idioms’ familiarity on both Chinese and English (as foreign language) idiom comprehension. Data including accuracy rates, reaction time, and latency and peak amplitudes of N400 were recorded and analyzed, indicating that familiarity might play a significant role in idiom comprehension in both native and foreign languages. Further, idioms, should they have similar familiarity levels, may be easier to process in the native language (Chinese) than in the foreign language (English).
About the authors
SHEN Haibo is a PhD candidate in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is holding a joint scholarship awarded by the China Scholarship Council and Western Sydney University. Her research interests are second language acquisition and language education.
WANG Yan is Lecturer of Psychology at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, in China. Her research efforts have focused on cognitive neuroscience and decision-making.
LIU Wenyu is Professor of English (applied linguistics) in School of Foreign Languages at Dalian University of Technology, in China. His research focuses are neurolinguistics and social linguistics.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Social Sciences Fund Program “Critical discourse analyses of the cyber language violence” under Grant 15BYY057, and the Fundamental Research Funds for Dalian University of Technology under Grant DUT13RW303.
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Appendix Selected Idiom Stimuli for the ERP Experiment
Familiar English Idioms for ERP Experiment
| Familiar English Idioms for ERP Experiment | ||
|---|---|---|
| a drop in the ocean | a piece of cake | a thorn in one’s flesh |
| a wolf in lamb’s skin | castle in the air | an old story |
| tower of ivory | add fuel to the fire | teach a dog to bark |
| beat about the bush | walk on eggshells | turn up one’s sleeves |
| skate on thin ice | go off the rails | bite one’s nails |
| break the ice | kick the bucket | pave the way |
| a white elephant | the tip of the iceberg | throw sb. to the lions |
| think out of the box | be in one’s shoes | the other side of the coin |
| slip through the net | slip through one’s fingers | jump out of one’s skin |
| do one’s homework | lick one’s wounds | a link in the chain |
| Pandora’s box | pick one’s pocket | play with fire |
| pull one’s leg | scratch one’s head | Achilles' heel |
| know all the answers | give sb. the green light | follow in one’s footsteps |
| flesh and blood | fan the flames | keep one’s eyes open |
| the eleventh hour | crocodile tears | burst one’s bubble |
| be in the same boat | a stone’s cast/throw | climb up the ladder |
| hit the ceiling | a lion in the way | kill the golden goose |
| bark up the wrong tree | birds of a feather | cast pearl before swine |
| melt into thin air | blow one’s own horn | bite one’s tongue |
| go with the crowd | play the game | shake one’s fist |
Unfamiliar English Idioms for ERP Experiment
| Unfamiliar English Idioms for ERP Experiment | ||
|---|---|---|
| the carrot and the stick | pour cold water on sth. | have ants in one’s pants |
| carry coals to Newcastle | throw mud at sb. | flog a dead horse |
| fish in the air | fish in muddy waters | burn one’s fingers |
| swallow the bait | turn the corner | tie the knot |
| the sword of Damocles | a straw in the wind | a skeleton in the closet |
| leave the door | open the lion’s den | take one’s medicine |
| a bag of bones | grit one’s teeth | fight fire with fire |
| bring sb. down to the earth | a dark horse | go round in circles |
| seize the nettle | a storm in a cup | tighten one’s belt |
| be food for fishes | spill the beans | miss the boat |
| have clean hands | burn one’s | boats lay on the shelf |
| kick down the ladder | hang by a thread | fly out of the window |
| make bricks without straw | put a spoke in one’s wheel | sail one’s own boat |
| blow the whistle | carry the can for sb. | be cooking with gas |
| a dog’s life | enter one’s head | close one’s eyes to sth. |
| fall flat on one’s face | get off the ground | make one’s hair curl |
| a back-seat driver | walk on air | take a back seat |
| a new broom | have money to burn | cry for the moon |
| let one’s hair down | hold one’s horses | hang one’s head |
| the jewel in the crown | join the club | kick sb. upstairs |
Familiar Chinese Idioms for ERP Experiment
| Familiar Chinese Idioms for ERP Experiment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 五湖四海 | 真刀真枪 | 白纸黑字 | 半斤八两 | 暴风骤雨 |
| 残杯冷炎 | 残兵败将 | 大刀阔斧 | 单枪匹马 | 刀山火海 |
| 凤毛麟角 | 初生牛犊 | 东郭先生 | 断线风筝 | 高山流水 |
| 过街老鼠 | 虎背熊腰 | 虎头虎脑 | 井底之蛙 | 近水楼台 |
| 鸡毛蒜皮 | 狂风暴雨 | 枯枝败叶 | 苦口良药 | 空头支票 |
| 漏网之鱼 | 笼中之鸟 | 明枪暗箭 | 桑田沧海 | 闲云野鹤 |
| 掌上明珠 | 雨后春笋 | 纵虎归山 | 守株待兔 | 拔苗助长 |
| 穿针引线 | 打草惊蛇 | 丢盔弃甲 | 送佛送到西 | 擒贼先擒王 |
| 赶鸭子上架 | 脚踏两只船 | 逼上梁山 | 偷梁换柱 | 放火烧山 |
| 翻箱倒柜 | 翻山越岭 | 关门打狗 | 画饼充饥 | 磨杵成针 |
| 骑驴觅驴 | 顺藤摸瓜 | 杀鸡取卵 | 煽风点火 | 添油加醋 |
| 偷梁换柱 | 坐冷板凳 | 砸锅卖铁 | 唱独角戏 | 打落水狗 |
Unfamiliar Chinese Idioms for ERP Experiment
| Unfamiliar Chinese Idioms for ERP Experiment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 龟毛兔角 | 冰壶玉尺 | 雕梁画栋 | 东鱗西爪 | 壶中日月 |
| 方枘圆凿 | 壁间蛇影 | 冬扇夏炉 | 釜中游鱼 | 饿虎饥鹰 |
| 风中之烛 | 飞鹰走狗 | 风云月露 | 腹背之毛 | 孤云野鹤 |
| 纶巾羽扇 | 槁木死灰 | 过河卒子 | 过江之鲫 | 尚岸深答 |
| 黄卷青灯 | 鸡头鱼刺 | 金石丝竹 | 英丝牛毛 | 家鸡野雉 |
| 金枷玉锁 | 快犊破车 | 枯木朽株 | 落汤螃蟹 | 木雕泥塑 |
| 泥足巨人 | 鼠肝虫臂 | 水晶灯笼 | 兔丝燕麦 | 冢中枯骨 |
| 竹头木屑 | 云中白鹤 | 抽薪止沸 | 捉刀代笔 | 得鱼忘签 |
| 叠床架屋 | 抱火卧薪 | 放龙人海 | 扶墙摸壁 | 分香卖履 |
| 焚琴煮鹤 | 放牛归马 | 焚骨扬灰 | 过桥抽板 | 关门落闩 |
| 怀瑾握瑜 | 解衣卸甲 | 积玉堆金 | 见兔顾犬 | 泼油救火 |
| 茹毛饮血 | 让枣推梨 | 挑雪填井 | 握蛇骑虎 | 寻枝摘叶 |
© 2017 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy
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- Frontmatter
- Intercultural Communications & Language Teaching
- Language Attitude Education as ICC Facilitation: An Explorative Class
- Intercultural Communications & Language Teaching
- Cultural Flows and Pedagogical Dilemmas: Teaching with Collaborative Learning in the Chinese HE EFL Context
- Second Language Acquisition
- Multi-Faceted Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Knowledge in English as a Second Language Learners: A Multivariate Analysis
- Second Language Acquisition
- Assessing the Effects of Word Exposure Frequency on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from Reading and Listening
- Language and Cognition
- Familiarity in Chinese and English Idiom Comprehension: An Event Related Potential Study from Chinese English Learners
- English as a Lingua Franca
- Functions of So in English as a Lingua Franca and Native Speech: A Corpus-Based Study
- English as a Lingua Franca
- English Language Teaching in Iran: Tradition versus Modernity
- Chinese Abstracts
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Intercultural Communications & Language Teaching
- Language Attitude Education as ICC Facilitation: An Explorative Class
- Intercultural Communications & Language Teaching
- Cultural Flows and Pedagogical Dilemmas: Teaching with Collaborative Learning in the Chinese HE EFL Context
- Second Language Acquisition
- Multi-Faceted Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Knowledge in English as a Second Language Learners: A Multivariate Analysis
- Second Language Acquisition
- Assessing the Effects of Word Exposure Frequency on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition from Reading and Listening
- Language and Cognition
- Familiarity in Chinese and English Idiom Comprehension: An Event Related Potential Study from Chinese English Learners
- English as a Lingua Franca
- Functions of So in English as a Lingua Franca and Native Speech: A Corpus-Based Study
- English as a Lingua Franca
- English Language Teaching in Iran: Tradition versus Modernity
- Chinese Abstracts
