Idiom Comprehension in Children: Are the Effects of Semantic Analysability and Context Separable?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of 7- and 9-year-olds to comprehend idiomatic expressions with respect to the presence of a linguistic context and of the level of semantic analysability of the idiom's meaning. Experiment 1 tested the comprehension of semantically analysable and non-analysable idioms, presented in a linguistic context, using a multiple-choice task. Experiment 2 used an out-of-context presentation with the same types of idioms and task. The results showed that the level of semantic analysability of an idiomatic expression influenced the ability to understand it. Moreover, younger children were more sensitive to the presence of an informative context than older children. The results are discussed with respect to the strategies children use to interpret non-literal expressions.

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