Idiom Variation: Experimental Data and a Blueprint of a Computational Model.
Corpus surveys have shown that the exact forms with which idioms are realized are subject to variation. We report a rating experiment showing that such alternative realizations have varying degrees of acceptability. Idiom variation challenges processing theories associating idioms with fixed multi-word form units (Bobrow & Bell, 1973), fixed configurations of words (Cacciari & Tabossi, 1988), or fixed superlemmas (Sprenger, Levelt, & Kempen, 2006), as they do not explain how it can be that speakers produce variant forms that listeners can still make sense of. A computational model simulating comprehension with naive discriminative learning is introduced that provides an explanation for the different degrees of acceptability of several idiom variant types. Implications for multi-word units in general are discussed.
Department of Linguistics, KU Leuven.
Kristina
K
Geeraert
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta.|School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University.
John
J
Newman
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta.|Department of Linguistics, University of Tübingen.
R Harald
RH
Baayen
D032882:Comprehension; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D012660:Semantics
Acceptability ratings; Computational modeling; Idiom variation; Naive discriminative learning; Salience