idioms and slang Flashcards
idioms
- expressions that can have both a literal and figurative interpretations, depending on the linguistic context.
- ”It’s raining cats and dogs” or “Get off my back”
- Idioms are more formal, and often occur both spoken and written language, as to where slang terms occur mainly in spoken context and may not be as appropriate (“off color”).
slang
- Slang – informal type of figurative expression used by particular subcultures.
- “He drained that tray” and “quit camping at spawn like a newb and rush”
- Slang terms tend to not be culturally fossilized, but some will be.
Idioms in detail
- Idioms function as a unit
- Important in semantic development and in literacy
- Like language, idiom comprehension begins in childhood and continues to improve
- As we grow more cognitively complex, we are capable of decoding abstractions, and idioms become more comprehendible.
Factors in grasping Idioms
- Age
- Context
- Familiarity
- Literacy level
- Inference ability
- Degree of difficulty of idiom
- Understand vs. explaining
Assessment of Idioms
- In assessment of idioms there are several trends:
– Easier to select a meaning (multiple choice) then to explain.
– More common idioms better understood.
– Better deciphered with context.
– The type of context matters (literal, neutral, idiomatic).
– The younger, the less capable of understanding.
Context for idioms
- More context is better for understanding. Idioms are much better understood in a literal context, then idiomatic, then neutral, then isolation.
- Younger children rely on linguistic contextualization more for decoding idioms.
- Those of higher intelligence and better literacy understand idioms better (inferencing) than peers.
Opaque vs. Transparent
- Opaque means little relationship between the literal and figurative aspects (i.e. beat around the bush to not address something directly) Beat around the bush is a beat around the bush idiom, so opaque.
- Transparent = metaphorical extension of the literal meaning. (i.e. skating on thin ice a dangerous situation)
- Transparents easier to understand than opaque
Relativity of Familiarity and Transparency
- Adults who have lived longer and have more life experiences show greater familiarity with -idioms than adolescents.
- Examples:
– “Jim’s a broken record.”
– “Mrs. Jones wears the pants in the family.”
- Cultural factors
– Level of exposure impacts idiom knowledge
– Prevalence of specific idioms
—- “skating on thin ice” (AA) vs. “have a hollow ring” (EA)
Academic Achievement and Idiom Understanding
- Idiom understanding
— Familiarity of expression
— Associated with measures of academic achievement, listening, and reading comprehension
- High academic achievers were better able to discern meanings of unfamiliar idioms and opaque idioms by using contextual clues within stories than low academic achievers.
— Ex: “carry a torch”; “go to pot”; “wet behind in the ears”
mental imagery and idiom understanding
- Nippold and Duthie’s (2003) study of 80 school-age children and adults:
– Adults outperformed children
– Transparent idioms easier to understand
– Easier to produce relevant mental images for transparent idioms than opaque
- Mental imagery undergoes a gradual developmental process and that “the mental images people report for idioms may serve as a barometer of their depth of understanding of those expressions”.
Slang Terms
- Slang terms are unique to peer groups; particularly important in adolescence
- Use slang to:
– promote social interaction
– show that one belongs to a group
– exclude others from a group
– to be playful
– reduce seriousness of a situation
- Occur in the form of metaphors
– Ex: jocks, motorheads, fleabags
Slang terms cont.
- Nelsen and Rosenbaum (1972) study of 1,916 boys and girls (12-18 years of age):
– Results:
—- Boys generated more slang for topics of money and autos
—- Girls outperformed on topics of clothing and appearance, boys, and popular/unpopular people
—- Slang terms increased with grade level
—- Large increases seen in specific topics
——- Ex: Grade 7 mean of 10.4 terms for the topic of girls vs. Grade 12 mean of 24.4 terms for same topic.
- Little is known about the ability of older children and adolescents to use and understand the multiple nonliteral meanings of slang terms.
slang- shorty
- Greycation - Having your grandparents join your vacation.
- Bro-tox - Men getting botox
- Iceman - A friend with nerves of steel
- Tarhead - Someone who is involved in oil-based recreation such as car racing.
- Flamed - To have taken everything too seriously
- Awesomity - The highest state of awesome
Fullerton Language Test for Adolescents
- => Students must explain to examiner the meanings of 20 different idioms presented out of context.
- Idiom interpretation task in the National Educational Development Test
- Figurative Language subtest of Test of Language Competence- expanded edition
- Idiomatic language subtest from CASL
2. Interpreting Ironic Statements subtest from Social Language Development Test Adolescent
- => When 5-year-old Jimmy started pulling his sister’s hair, Dad said, “Jim, you’re not a puppy anymore.” What did he mean?
- => student must explain the idioms and figurative language in a story
