Collocational processing in light of the phraseological continuum model : Does semantic transparency matter?
Author
Summary, in English
The present study investigates whether two types of word combinations (free combinations and collocations) differ in terms of processing by testing Howarth's Continuum Model based on word combination typologies from a phraseological tradition. A visual semantic judgment task was administered to advanced Swedish learners of English (n = 27) and native English-speaking controls (n = 38). Reaction times and error rates were recorded for free combinations, collocations, and baseline items. There was a processing cost for collocations compared to free combinations, for both groups of participants. This cost likely stems from the semantically semi-transparent nature of collocations as they are defined in the phraseological tradition. Furthermore, phrasal frequency based on corpus values also predicted reaction times. These results lend initial support to the Continuum Model from a processing perspective and suggest that degree of semantic transparency together with phrasal frequency plays an important role in collocational processing.
Department/s
- English Studies
- Language, Cognition and Discourse@Lund (LCD@L)
- Language Acquisition
Publishing year
2016-04-29
Language
English
Pages
296-323
Publication/Series
Language Learning
Volume
66
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Languages and Literature
Keywords
- collocation
- free combination
- phraseology
- advanced learners
- second language
Status
Published
Project
- Phraseological Processing and Representation in a Second Language
Research group
- Language, Cognition and Discourse@Lund (LCD@L)
- Language Acquisition
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1467-9922