Levorato's Global Elaboration Model
Idioms are defined as phrases whose individual word meanings are not equal to their total figurative meaning (Swinney & Cutler, 1979). As the definition suggests, literal processing of the words is not enough for comprehending most of the idioms. Yet for some them, it is possible for literal meanings to lead the final figurative meaning. Decomposability refers to the degree of the contribution that words of an idiom make to the overall meaning of an idiom (Gibbs 1993). Non-decomposable idioms are, then, idioms that their individual literal word meanings do not contribute to their final intended meaning.
There are many theories intended to explain the processes involved in idiom comprehension. Traditional models, or non-compositional models …show more content…
The model stated that figurative language processing developed along with normal language processing and the reason behind the failure of young children to comprehend idioms was their word-to-word literal processing of idioms. Levorato and Cacciari (1995) stated that children first processed idioms literally, then figuratively, and at the final step, idiomatically and this procedure did not change for comprehension and production. They supported this claim by an experimental design (Levorato and Cacciari,1995) and the results showed that second graders relied on more literal processes compared to fourth graders while processing idioms, which was an evidence for the tenet that children’ figurative language processing develops greatly around eight years old. Another outcome of the study was that idiom comprehension developed before idiom …show more content…
Decomposability has been another topic to receive a lot of attention in idiom research. Gibbs (1991) investigated idiom decomposability with children varying from kindergarten to fourth grade and concluded that the younger children were, the more dominant the effect of decomposability was; younger participants performed better with decomposable idioms. Another outcome of the study was the role of context for older children; they did well for both decomposable and non-decomposable idioms within a context; still, they scored higher with decomposable idioms without a context. Contrary to these findings, Nippold and Rudzinski (1993) stated in their study that higher degree of idiom decomposability facilitated comprehending idioms only for eighth and eleventh graders and not younger
There are many theories intended to explain the processes involved in idiom comprehension. Traditional models, or non-compositional models …show more content…
The model stated that figurative language processing developed along with normal language processing and the reason behind the failure of young children to comprehend idioms was their word-to-word literal processing of idioms. Levorato and Cacciari (1995) stated that children first processed idioms literally, then figuratively, and at the final step, idiomatically and this procedure did not change for comprehension and production. They supported this claim by an experimental design (Levorato and Cacciari,1995) and the results showed that second graders relied on more literal processes compared to fourth graders while processing idioms, which was an evidence for the tenet that children’ figurative language processing develops greatly around eight years old. Another outcome of the study was that idiom comprehension developed before idiom …show more content…
Decomposability has been another topic to receive a lot of attention in idiom research. Gibbs (1991) investigated idiom decomposability with children varying from kindergarten to fourth grade and concluded that the younger children were, the more dominant the effect of decomposability was; younger participants performed better with decomposable idioms. Another outcome of the study was the role of context for older children; they did well for both decomposable and non-decomposable idioms within a context; still, they scored higher with decomposable idioms without a context. Contrary to these findings, Nippold and Rudzinski (1993) stated in their study that higher degree of idiom decomposability facilitated comprehending idioms only for eighth and eleventh graders and not younger