The Study of Familiarity, Analyzability, and Context on Chinese Idiom Comprehension

• Main Authors: Cheng, Ya-Feng, 鄭雅丰
• Other Authors: Liang, Yun-Hsia
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/60580498658683681489

博士 === 臺北市立教育大學 === 教育學系博士班 === 100 === The purpose of this study was to explore the factors affecting Chinese idiom comprehension. Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of familiarity, analyzability, and context on idiom comprehension, particularly the effects of familiarity and analyzability with and without context as well as the role of each factor during the comprehension process of adults and children. In Experiment 1, two experimental tasks and only idioms were used to examine the effects of familiarity and analyzability on idiom comprehension in undergraduates. In Experiment 2, a 2(context) x 2(familiarity) x 3(analyzability) design was employed to examine the effects of each factor on idiom comprehension in adults. In Experiment 3, the same design was adopted to examine the effects of each factor on idiom comprehension in elementary school children. The main findings were summarized as follows: 1. Familiarity promoted idiom comprehension among both adults and children, and its effects increased with the age of idiom users. 2. Analyzability also promoted idiom comprehension among both adults and children, and its effects increased with the increase of familiarity. 3. The effects of familiarity and analyzability on idiom comprehension persisted in the presence of contexts. Besides, contexts could help amplify the effects of familiarity and analyzability on idiom comprehension. 4. The effects of analyzability were relatively more consistent among adults and children, suggesting that proper use of analyzability could lead to a higher level of idiom comprehension. This finding also highlighted the importance of analyzability for Chinese idiom comprehension. 5. Chinese idioms are expressions that are essentially more descriptive and analogical. An intermediate level of analyzability had a considerable effect on idiom comprehension of research participants, suggesting that making use of analyzability of idioms is an effective approach to Chinese idiom comprehension. Based on experimental results, this study concluded that mature idiom learners have the ability to make use of familiarity, analyzability, and context to better comprehend idioms, and taking advantage of the analyzability of idioms is especially effective in promoting Chinese idiom comprehension. Finally, this study also provided some suggestions on idioms instruction and research.