INTUITIONS OF THE TRANSPARENCY OF IDIOMS - CAN ONE KEEP A SECRET BY SPILLING THE BEANS

The meanings of many idioms are perceived as relatively transparent, that is, we see a connection between the expressions and their meanings. We propose that an important source of these intuitions is language users' attempts to make sense of conventional expressions. In two experiments, subjects learned either the original meaning of an unfamiliar idiom or its conceptual opposite, e.g., for the idiom The goose hangs high, either ''things look good'' or ''things look bad.'' The learned meaning was perceived as more transparent and the nonlearned less transparent, regardless of whether subjects learned the original meaning or its opposite. In addition, the nonlearned meaning became less transparent with increased use of the idiom. Theories of idioms must be able to distinguish between transparency that results from conventional use and transparency which is more conceptually motivated. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.