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CUTTING THE MUSTARD:
AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN THE
LEXICON
by
Edward M. Holsinger
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(LINGUISTICS)
December 2011
Copyright 2011 Edward M. Holsinger
Object Description
| Title | Cutting the mustard: an experimental investigation of idiomatic expressions in the lexicon |
| Author | Holsinger, Edward M. |
| Author email | eschlon@mac.com;eschlon@mac.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Linguistics |
| School | College of Letters, Arts And Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-04-29 |
| Date submitted | 2011-11-15 |
| Date approved | 2011-11-15 |
| Restricted until | 2011-11-15 |
| Date published | 2011-11-15 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Kaiser, Elsi |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Mintz, Toben Schein, Barry Tjan, Bosco S. |
| Abstract | Much of the work in theoretical and experimental linguistics has focused upon compositional language, viewing non-compositional expressions such as idioms (e.g. kick the bucket) as exceptional cases in the language system. Early research into these expressions treated them as unanalyzed words-with-spaces (Bobrow & Bell, 1973; Swinney & Cutler, 1979), while more recent work places more emphasis upon their structural properties (Cacciari & Tabossi, 1988; Cutting & Bock, 1997; Sprenger, Levelt & Kempen, 2006). However there is still disagreement regarding the representation of idiomatic expressions in the lexicon, and the role of literal processing in the processing of idioms. This dissertation examines three primary questions (i) how are idioms represented structurally, (ii) how are idioms stored in the lexicon, and related to other elements in lexical space, and (iii) how do individuals process expressions ambiguous between an idiomatic and literal sense. We report the results of three distinct experimental investigations designed to address these questions. The results of our experiments suggest that idiomatic expressions are represented as structural frames in the lexicon and are sensitive to syntactic context during on-line processing (Exp 3a, 3b) and that idiomatic expressions, such as kick the bucket, are lexically related to their literal components kick and bucket such that access to the idiomatic representation is mediated by activation of its literal pieces (Exp, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b). Additionally, we present evidence that some degree of literal processing of idiomatic expressions is obligatory (Exp 1, 2, 4a, 4b) even in semantic contexts that strongly disfavor the literal interpretation of these strings. We present our results as they apply to models of idiom representation and processing. |
| Keyword | idioms; psycholinguistics; eye-tracking |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Holsinger, Edward M. |
| Physical access | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
| Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
| Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume71/etd-HolsingerE-407.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | CUTTING THE MUSTARD: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN THE LEXICON by Edward M. Holsinger A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (LINGUISTICS) December 2011 Copyright 2011 Edward M. Holsinger |
