Doctoral Dissertation Research: Psycholinguistic and Neurocognitive Indices of Prediction in Processing Nonliteral and Fixed Expressions

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

In its most successful form, language connects people. Through communication, people of different backgrounds are able to share ideas and experiences and ultimately bridge gaps across cultures. A challenge presents itself, however, when communication is not successful and the inability to understand language creates a barrier. Idioms are an excellent example of an environment where misinterpretations can arise. For the average literate adult speaker, a highly familiar idiom, such as "a slap in the face" or "kick the bucket," is one where, once a particular ordering of words is recognized and the surrounding context is informative enough, the nonliteral meaning becomes most probable, and the nonliteral meaning can easily be retrieved. As these expressions communicate more than what is explicitly said, they are often difficult for second-language speakers to master. Further, as many idioms also have a plausible literal interpretation, it can be rather ambiguous for a learner to determine whether the literal interpretation was meant, or whether a nonliteral meaning was intended (e.g. "The man kicked the bucket that was full of water"). While native speakers benefit from their daily exposure to these expressions in conversational speech, second-language learners are disadvantaged due to their lack of exposure, and often interpret idiomatic language literally, or attempt to translate and use idioms from their native language. Under the direction of Drs. Darren Tanner and Kiel Christianson, Nyssa Bulkes will conduct doctoral dissertation research with two primary goals: 1) to identify in closer detail how idioms are processed in real-time during reading, and 2) to understand how second-language learners process formulaic, fixed expressions. This research compares idiomatic expressions to literal collocations (e.g. "watch a movie" or "walk the dog"), both of which are familiar types of language to native speakers, due to their frequent co-occurrence. While more experience with the language facilitates recognition of these types of expressions in native speakers, no research to date has compared how these expressions are read during sentence processing, and whether one type of "chunk-like" expression is processed by the brain any differently. The current project will use measures of eye movements and real-time neural activity during native and nonnative reading in an effort to better compare how these populations process literal and nonliteral language. Specifically, understanding how highly familiar idiomatic expressions (e.g. idioms, "kick the bucket") compare to highly familiar literal expressions (e.g. collocations, "watch a movie") has the potential to illustrate how idiomatic, nonliteral expressions are represented in the minds of native speakers. Additionally, understanding how second-language learners process these different types of fixed expressions during natural reading has the potential to help to inform second-language instruction. By tying language comprehension processes to the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting them, we are afforded a deeper understanding of what information second-language learners make use of as they comprehend language in real time. This understanding will ultimately better support the formulation of effective teaching interventions, working to promote fluency and successful acquisition in second-language classrooms.