Spoken idiom recognition: meaning retrieval and word expectancy.
Tabossi, Patrizia;Fanari, Rachele;Wolf, Kinou;
Journal of psycholinguistic research2005Vol. 34pp. 465-95
278
tabossi2005spokenjournal
Abstract
This study investigates recognition of spoken idioms occurring in neutral contexts. Experiment 1 showed that both predictable and non-predictable idiom meanings are available at string offset. Yet, only predictable idiom meanings are active halfway through a string and remain active after the string's literal conclusion. Experiment 2 showed that the initial fragment of a predictable idiom inhibits recognition of a word providing a congruous, but literal, conclusion to the expression. No comparable effects were obtained with non-predictable idioms. These findings are consistent with the view that spoken idiom identification differs from word recognition and occurs word-by-word, just as with other familiar, multi-lexical phrases.