Comprehension of Idioms and Proverbs in the context of Language Loss

Abstract

Formulaic language consists of idioms, proverbs, expletives, collocations and so on. It is part and parcel of everyday life. Formulaic language is made up of fixed phrases that function as a single lexical item which are preserved in long-term memory (Wary,2002). Earlier research attributed the processing of formulaic language (FL) to right hemisphere; however, recently whole brain representations have also been reported. Theories on comprehension of FL like Bobrow & Bell,1973; Swimmey & Cutler,1979; Gibbs & Nayak,1989 and Abel,2003 have dealt with different levels of representation and processing. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the processing of formulaic language especially idioms and proverbs in Telugu in the context of brain damage. Telugu idioms and proverbs from ‘Tests of Language Proficiency Telugu’ , CIIL, Mysore, were given to six Telugu speaking adults to rate for familiarity and frequency. Five persons with brain damage were then asked to select the correct response from a choice of four (literal meaning, lexically matching, distractor and correct response) for each item. The items were also listed as decomposable and non-decomposable Idioms and Proverbs. Findings revealed that the persons with brain damage gave around 60% correct responses. Familiarity played a dominant role as compared to frequency. More correct responses for decomposable items were noted. Dual Idiom Representation Model (Abel,2003) was found to account for the results. It can be concluded that FL is stored in long term memory, and preserved even in the context of language loss. The processing of formulaic language in language disorders would thus help in understanding the complexities of language storage and retrieval. This could also have both clinical and theoretical implications.