Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Schematic idioms

1.2 Research Significance

1.3 Organization of the Book

Chapter 2

From Idioms to Constructions

2.1 Studies on English Idioms

2.1.1 Traditional Non-compositional View

2.1.2 Compositional/Multidimentional View

2.1.3 Constructional View on Idiomaticity

2.1.3.1 Idioms as Constructions

2.1.3.2 Constructions as Basic Linguistic Unit

2.1.3.3 Features of Construction Grammar

2.1.3.4 Psychological Reality of Constructions in Language Processing

2.1.3.5 Schematic Idioms as Constructional Idioms

2.2 Studies on Chinese Idioms

2.2.1 Features of Chinese Idioms

2.2.1.1 Internal Structure of Chinese Idioms

2.2.1.2 Semantic Opacity of Chinese Idioms

2.2.1.3 Functions of Chinese Idioms

2.2.1.4 Weakness in Current Chinese Idiom Definitions

2.2.2 Studies on Chinese schematic idioms as Constructions

2.2.3 Redefining Chinese idioms

2.3 Summary

Chapter 3

Idiom Acquisition and Usage-Based

Language Learning Theory

3.1 Models on Idiom Representation

3.1.1 The Direct Access Model

3.1.2 The Compositional Model

3.2 Factors in L1 Idiom Comprehension

3.3 Empirical Studies on Chinese Idiom Learning

3.4 A Critique on Current Studies of Idiom Learning

3.5 Usage-based Language Learning Theory --- How Constructions are learned?

3.5.1Schematization and Entrenchment --- Item-based Learning

3.5.2Explanation on Overgeneralization---Entrenchment and Preemption

3.5.3Research Methods in Usage-based Model

3.5.4 Important Factors in Usage-based Model

3.5.4.1 Frequency

3.5.4.2 Complexity

3.5.4.3 Consistency

3.5.4.4 Age

3.6 Summary

Chapter 4

Chinese Schematic Idioms

---Productivity and Constraints

4.1 Semi-fixed Patterns in Chinese Idioms

4.2 Distributional Analysis of XAXB Construction

4.2.1 Types of Relations in Chinese Lexical Words

4.2.2 Features of the Fixed Morpheme X in XAXB Construction

4.2.3 Constraints on Open Morphemes A, B in XAXB construction

4.2.4 Case Study of bu-A-bu-B Schema

4.2.5 Interpretations of XAXB Construction and the Distributional Statistics

4.2.6 Statistical Distribution of XAXB Expressions

4.2.7 Senses of bu-A-bu-B Expressions and the Natural Distribution

4.2.8 Statistical Distribution of bu-A-bu-B Expression in Corpus

4.3 Distributional Analysis of XAYB and AXBY Constructions

4.3.1 Productivity of XAYB construction

4.3.2 Interpretations of XAYB and the statistical distribution

4.3.3 Statistical Distribution of XAYB Expressions in Corpus

4.3.4 Productivity of AXBY Construction

4.3.5 Interpretations of AXBY and the distributional statistics

4.3.6 ABs across the schemas

4.4 Summary of Distributional Analysis

4.5 Research Questions and Design

4.5.1 Research Questions

4.5.2 Age Factor

4.5.3 Instruments

4.5.4 A Summary of Experimental Studies

4.6 Summary

Chapter 5

5.1 Experimental Design and Materials

5.2 Participants

5.3 Procedures

5.4 Scoring

5.5 Results of Study One

5.6 Discussions

Chapter 6

Study Two

6.1 Experimental Design and Materials

6.2 Participants

6.3 Procedure

6.4 Scoring

6.5 Results

6.6 Discussions on Study Two

Chapter 7

Study Three

7.1 Research Instrument

7.2 Design and Materials

7. 3 Participants

7.4 Materials and Procedure

7.5 Results of Study Three

7.6 Summary and Discussions of Study Three

Chapter 8

Study Four

8.1 Research Instrument

8.2 Design and materials

8.3 Participants

8.4 Procedure

8.5 Results of Study Four

8.6 Summary of Study Four

8.7 Summary of Four Experimental Studies

Chapter 9

Error Analysis in Sentence Production Tasks

9.1 Classification of Error Types

9.2 Overall Error Distribution in Sentence Productions

9. 2.1 Syntactic Restriction Violations

9.2.2 Semantic Restriction Violations

9.2.3 Sense Disagreement

9. 2.4 Incomplete Responses

9.3 Patterns in Error Type Distribution

9.4 Summary

Chapter 10

Discussion and Conclusion

10.1 General Results

10.2 Effects of Identified Factors

10.2.1 Input Frequency

10.2.2 Structural Complexity and Internal Semantic Relation

10.2.3 Chunk Selection of Open Morphemes

10.2.4 Age

10.3 Empirical Evidence of Schematic Idioms as Constructions

10.4 Representations of Schematic Idioms

10.4.1 Entrenchment, Schematization and Pre-emption

10.4.2 Emergentist Model on Idiom Learning

10.3.3 Whole-form Frequency Effect

10.4 Implications and limitations

10.5 Conclusion

References

Liu Li is currently an associate professor in the faculty of English Education, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. She completed her PhD degree in linguistics in the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include language acquisition, cognitive linguistics and language pedagogy. She has published extensively in journals such as Cognitive Linguistics, Language and Linguistics, First Language, etc.