What can L1 speakers tell us about killing hope? A novel behavioral measure for identifying collocations

Sydelle de Souza, Francis Mollica, Jennifer Culbertson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Collocations, semi-productive lexical combinations with onefigurative and one literal word, are said to be a “pain in theneck” for researchers and L2 learners. The present study aims:(i) to conceptually replicate the processing costs incurred byL1 speakers when processing collocations using a larger andmore diverse set of items, (ii) to use literalness judgementsto test whether L1 speakers are aware of the semi-transparentmeaning of a collocation, and (iii) to test whether the pres-ence of processing costs associated with collocations can bepredicted from literalness judgements. If so, we propose thatliteralness judgements could be used as a diagnostic for reli-ably identifying collocations. We replicate the L1 processingcosts with a larger stimulus set and demonstrate that speakersare aware of the semi-transparent meaning of the collocation.We further show that L1 speaker judgements about the literal-ness of a word combination can be used to predict its status asa collocation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
EditorsLarissa K Samuelson, Stefan Frank, Mariya Toneva, Allyson Mackey, Eliot Hazeltine
PublishereScholarship University of California
Pages2519-2526
Number of pages8
Volume46
Publication statusPublished - 2024
EventThe 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society - Postillion Hotel & Conference Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 24 Jul 202427 Jul 2024
https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/cogsci-2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
PublishereScholarship University of California
Volume46
ISSN (Electronic)1069-7977

Conference

ConferenceThe 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Abbreviated titleCOGSCI 2024
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityRotterdam
Period24/07/2427/07/24
Internet address

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • semi-productive language
  • collocations
  • literalness judgements

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