Young children's idiom comprehension: trying to get the picture.
Young children (3.5-6.5 years of age) were tested for their comprehension of 10 common idioms in context and no-context conditions. Results revealed a significant linear trend for children to make more literal responses with increasing age. Children of this age did not find the story contexts helpful in interpreting the idioms. A range of comprehension scores was found among the individual idioms, but semantic transparency (as judged by adults) was not related to comprehension. Child-internal and methodologic variables influencing idiom comprehension are discussed.
Abkarian
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GG
Department of Communication Disorders, Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80523.
Jones
A
A
West
G
G
D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning