Idiom Comprehension and Prototypicality Effect in Monolingual Children

Abstract

Categorization, a problem of linguistics and psychology, is enlightened by language acquisition studies. According to the Prototype Theory, which supports a graded structure, prototypicality has an effect on recall and comprehension. The present study investigates the relationship between the prototypicality of component nouns and idiom comprehension. The target group comprises Turkish monolingual preschoolers, 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders. A questionnaire was administered to assess the prototypicality values of the concepts in the superordinate category BODY PART according to different age levels. The selected idioms were ranked based on the prototypicality of component nouns, and were presented in a comprehension test with short stories and pictures. Accuracy and reaction time were the variables taken into account during the analysis. It was found out that the preschoolers and 3rd graders mostly relied on literal meaning, while the older groups had a tendency for gurative meaning. The ndings from the participants who are competent in comprehending idioms support a prototypicality effect, whilst showing negative evidence regarding the views that consider idioms frozen, and component words having no impact on idiomatic meaning.

Keywords

• Değişmeceli Dil
• Deyim
• Dil Edinimi
• Dil Gelişimi
• Dil İşleme
• Öntür Kuramı
• Öntürlük Etkisi