Idioms in Context: Evidence from a Time Cloze-Response Study
-
Hanna Kędzierska
,
Joanna Błaszczak
Summary
This article reports on two timed cloze-response experiments which examine the impact of context on idiom recognition. Study 1 presented participants with the beginnings of Polish VP idioms without any prior context. Cloze probabilities and response times for idiom continuations were measured to establish the idiom recognition point (IRP) for each idiom. In Study 2, we used the same idioms in two kinds of contexts: (i) supporting a figurative meaning and (ii) supporting a literal meaning. Cloze probability and response times were measured at the IRP and one word before and after it. The figurative meaning of idioms was automatically activated at the IRP independently of the type of context. Additionally, the figurative context did not move the IRP to an earlier position, whereas in the literal context the responses were significantly slower at the IRP as compared to the figurative context condition. Such a finding indicates that, irrespective of the literal context, the comprehenders automatically activated the figurative meaning of an idiom at the IRP, but they had to discard it later. The literal meaning was computed from the literal meanings of idiom constituents stored in idiom lexical representation, which was computationally costly.
Acknowledgements
This research has been conducted within the DAAD Programme for Project-Related Personal Exchange, as part of the research project “Linguistic predictions in context: Collocations and selection from a psycholinguistic and corpus linguistic perspective”, 2017–2018, University of Wrocław and Humboldt University of Berlin.
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Appendix
Idioms used in the study followed by their literal translations and the collected results for idiom cloze probabilities (CPs) and response times (RTs) in the three PROMPT LOCATION conditions (i. e., IRP-1, IPR, IRP+1).[6]
| Idiom in Polish | Literal trans-lation in English | FIGURATIVE CONTEXT | LITERAL CONTEXT | NO CONTEXT |
| budować zamki na piasku | ‘to build castles in the sand’ | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1200 IRP: 60, RT: 1400 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: 50, RT: 1400 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: 71.4, RT: 900 |
| chować głowę w piasek | ‘to hide your head in the sand’ | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1100 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 29, RT: 1000 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 1000 |
| chwycić byka za rogi | ‘to take the bull by the horns’ | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1500 IRP: CP 80, RT: 700 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 700 IRP+1: CP 86, RT: 600 |
| dolewać oliwy do ognia | ‘to add olive to the fire’ | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 1000 IRP: CP 80, RT: 600 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 40, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 17, RT: 800 IRP: CP 100, RT: 600 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 |
| dzielić włos na czworo | ‘to split a hair into four parts’ | IRP-1: CP 50, RT: 800 IRP: CP 40, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 80, RT: 1500 | IRP-1: CP 43, RT: 1000 IRP: CP 100, RT: 700 |
| kuć żelazo póki gorące | ‘to forge the iron while it is hot’ | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1300 IRP: CP 100, RT: 600 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 60, RT: 1200 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 29, RT: 800 IRP: CP 86, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 |
| kupować kota w worku | ‘to buy a cat in a sack’ | IRP-1: CP 40, RT: 1600 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 75, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 83, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 700 |
| mieć asa w rękawie | ‘to have an ace up a sleeve’ | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 60, RT: 1200 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 500 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 |
| mieć głowę na karku | ‘to have a head on the neck’ | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 1300 IRP: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 25, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 60, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 57, RT: 800 IRP: CP 100, RT: 700 |
| mieć klapki na oczach | ‘to have blinkers on one’s eyes’ | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1200 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 86, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 86, RT: 600 |
| postawić kropkę nad i | ‘to put a dot above an i’ | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1100 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1600 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 75, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 700 IRP+1: CP 83, RT: 700 |
| prowadzić kogoś za rękę/ rączkę | ‘to lead somebody by their hand’ | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1400 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 1000 | IRP-1: CP 75, RT: 1500 IRP: CP 60, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 83, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 86, RT: 900 |
| rozstawiać kogoś po kątach | ‘to order somebody into a corner’ | IRP-1: CP 50, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 80, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1600 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1100 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 71, RT: 1000 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 1200 |
| szukać dziury w całym | ‘to look for a hole in the whole’ | IRP-1: CP 60, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 25, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 60, RT: 1000 | IRP-1: CP 14, RT: 700 IRP: CP 86, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 |
| trzymać coś w garści | ‘to hold something in the palm of one’s hand’ | IRP-1: CP 0 | IRP-1: CP 40, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 14, RT: 900 |
| trzymać język za zębami | ‘to hold one’s tongue behind one’s teeth’ | IRP-1: CP 40, RT: 1000 IRP: CP 60, RT: 1300 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1300 IRP: CP 40, RT: 1200 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 16, RT: 2000 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 500 |
| trzymać kogoś pod kloszem | ‘to hold somebody under a cloche’ | IRP-1: CP 80, RT: 1200 | IRP-1: CP 25, RT: 800 | IRP-1: CP 57, RT: 1500 |
| urabiać ręce po łokcie | ‘to mould one’s hand up to the elbows’ | IRP-1: CP 50, RT: 1100 IRP: 100, RT: 1000 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: 100, RT: 1700 | IRP-1: CP 43, RT: 1500 IRP: 83, RT: 700 |
| wrzucić coś na ruszt | ‘to throw something onto the grill’ | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 50, RT: 700 |
| wsadzić kij w mrowisko | ‘to put a stick into an anthill’ | IRP-1: CP 60, RT: 1900 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 50, RT: 1100 IRP: CP 100, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 80, RT: 600 | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 83, RT: 900 IRP+1: CP 71, RT: 800 |
| wyłożyć karty na stół | ‘to lay one’s cards on the table’ | IRP-1: CP 0 IRP: CP 100, RT: 1200 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 900 | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1900 IRP: CP 100, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 17, RT: 1500 IRP: CP 71, RT: 800 IRP+1: CP 86, RT: 800 |
| zadać cios poniżej pasa | ‘to punch somebody below the belt’ | IRP-1: CP 40, RT: 1000 IRP: 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 20, RT: 1100 IRP: 100, RT: 700 | IRP-1: CP 14, RT: 800 IRP: 100, RT: 700 |
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- Die Nominalisierung von Nebensätzen im Tschechischen
- Notes on the Phonetics, Phonology and Prosody of the Čakavian Dialect of Susak
- Idioms in Context: Evidence from a Time Cloze-Response Study
- Misplaced in Contexts, Lost in Meaning
- Between Power and Love: Pilate’s Transformation in The Master and Margarita
- Polen unter anderen. Literarische Außen- und Innenansichten der polnischen Arbeits- migration in Großbritannien seit 2004
- Buchbesprechung
- Sirenen des Krieges
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze
- Die Nominalisierung von Nebensätzen im Tschechischen
- Notes on the Phonetics, Phonology and Prosody of the Čakavian Dialect of Susak
- Idioms in Context: Evidence from a Time Cloze-Response Study
- Misplaced in Contexts, Lost in Meaning
- Between Power and Love: Pilate’s Transformation in The Master and Margarita
- Polen unter anderen. Literarische Außen- und Innenansichten der polnischen Arbeits- migration in Großbritannien seit 2004
- Buchbesprechung
- Sirenen des Krieges
