Nippold M A, Rudzinski M
University of Oregon, Eugene.
J Speech Hear Res. 1993 Aug;36(4):728-37. doi: 10.1044/jshr.3604.728.
Idioms differ widely in their degree of difficulty for children and adolescents. Two factors that might account for these differences, familiarity and transparency, were examined. Children and adolescents ages 11, 14, and 17 years (N = 150) were asked to explain in writing the meanings of 24 different idiomatic expressions, each presented in a brief story context. Results showed that performance on the task gradually improved as subject age increased and that high-familiarity idioms were generally easier to explain than moderate- or low-familiarity expressions. Easier idioms also tended to be more transparent. The results are consistent with the "language experience" view of figurative development and question the hypothesis that idioms are learned as giant lexical units.
习语对儿童和青少年而言，其难度差异很大。研究了可能导致这些差异的两个因素，即熟悉度和透明度。要求11岁、14岁和17岁的儿童及青少年（N = 150）书面解释24个不同习语表达的含义，每个习语都呈现在一个简短的故事语境中。结果表明，随着受试者年龄的增长，任务表现逐渐提高，而且高熟悉度的习语通常比中等或低熟悉度的表达更容易解释。较简单的习语往往也更具透明度。这些结果与比喻性语言发展的“语言经验”观点一致，并对习语是作为巨型词汇单位来学习的假设提出了质疑。
