Cross language lexical priming extends to formulaic units: Evidence from eye-tracking suggests that this idea ‘has legs’

Abstract

Idiom priming effects (faster processing compared to novel phrases) are generally robust in native speakers but not non-native speakers. This leads to the question of how idioms and other multiword units are represented and accessed in a first (L1) and second language (L2). We address this by investigating the processing of translated Chinese idioms to determine whether known L1 combinations show idiom priming effects in non-native speakers when encountered in the L2. In two eye-tracking experiments we compared reading times for idioms vs. control phrases (Experiment 1) and for figurative vs. literal uses of idioms (Experiment 2). Native speakers of Chinese showed recognition of the L1 form in the L2, but figurative meanings were read more slowly than literal meanings, suggesting that the non-compositional nature of idioms makes them problematic in a non-native language. We discuss the results as they relate to crosslinguistic priming at the multiword level.

Wordn + 2 preview effects in three-character Chinese idioms and phrases

“…First of all, the terminal word of our items received shorter fixations when they were part of an idiom as opposed to part of a phrase. This replicates an effect that has previously been observed in English idioms (see Underwood, Schmitt, & Galpin, 2004) and translated Chinese idioms (see Carrol & Conklin, 2015). Furthermore, idioms as a whole received shorter gaze durations than phrases, an effect that has also previously been observed in English (Siyanova-Chanturia, Conklin, & Schmitt, 2011).…”

“…1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r P e e r R e v i e w O n l y One prior study has used eye-tracking methodology to examine the processing of Chinese idioms. Carrol and Conklin (2015) presented four-character Chinese idioms, which were translated into English, to bilingual native Chinese speakers. It was found that the final word of these translated idioms received shorter fixations than the final word of a matched phrase.…”

The tug of war between an idiom's figurative and literal meanings: Evidence from native and bilingual speakers

“…This makes our account task-dependent in the light of timing differences between research paradigms. In many studies, it is the sentence-final word that is the focus of investigation (e.g., Carrol & Conklin, 2017; Carrol et al, 2016, Rommers et al, 2013). When this word is processed, both the idiomatic sentence interpretation and the literal sentence intepretation are still under development.…”

Cross-linguistic priming in bilinguals: Multidisciplinary perspectives on language processing, acquisition, and change

“…The final paper is by Carrol and Conklin (2017), who focus on cross-linguistic priming in the processing of idioms in Chinese–English bilinguals. Based on two eye-tracking experiments in which bilinguals read English sentences that contained Chinese idioms (translated in English), they find that idioms modulate reading times, and that figurative meanings of the idioms are processed slower than literal meanings.…”