Same Difference: Literal and Idiomatic Interpretations of Verb-Object Constituents

Autor/in	Lares, Erwin
Titel	Same Difference: Literal and Idiomatic Interpretations of Verb-Object Constituents
Quelle	(2022), (276 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
ISBN	979-8-4387-6681-0
Schlagwörter	Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; Figurative Language; Spanish; Verbs; Form Classes (Languages); Sentences; Comparative Analysis; Language Processing; Cues; Intonation; Speech Communication; Task Analysis; Decision Making + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Thesis; Dissertations; Academic thesis; Spanisch; Analytischer Sprachbau; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Sprachverarbeitung; Stichwort; Aufgabenanalyse; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung
Abstract	Verb-object idioms such as "kick the bucket" are very common in Spanish. This research set out to find what systematic differences exist between the literal and idiomatic interpretations of idioms of this kind from three different experimental perspectives: production, perception, and acceptability judgments focused on verbal aspect. From a production perspective, it is commonly assumed that speakers make no distinctions when they produce a sentence containing an idiom whether their intent is literal or idiomatic. By means of an experiment, this research compared literal-idiomatic minimum pairs using a corpus of 20 Spanish verb-object idioms and found that the 13 speakers in the sample systematically produced idiomatic sentences with shorter duration and with narrower F0 ranges than their literal counterparts. From a perception point of view, the assumption is that interlocutors hearing a sentence containing an idiom must rely on context to tell intent apart. A second experiment was conducted where more than 400 participants listened to minimal pairs of literal-idiomatic sentences stripped of context. The participants in this were asked to judge the intent of the speaker by means of a forced-choice task. The experiment showed that a subset of the participants successfully judged intent without the need for context. The acceptability judgment experiment shows that participants can and do perceive aspectual differences between the two interpretations. By doing so, the experiment brings experimental data to bear on the claim that the aspectual structure of the literal interpretation conditions that of the idiomatic interpretation and finds evidence that suggests that the event resulting from the idiomatic interpretation stands in a "defective relationship" to the literal event. The combined results show that (a) speakers of Spanish may be employing intonational strategies to mark idiomatic intent in their speech, (b) some speakers are capable of picking on these cues to judge intent reliably, and (c) speakers perceive aspectual differences between the literal and idiomatic interpretations of sentences containing idioms of the verb-object type and these differences may be conditioned. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01