Continuing my exploration of idioms, I want to bridge the research I have been doing with the association tests with my interest in observing language through idioms. I have been interested in idioms because they don't always make sense literally, unless you have prior knowledge of the idioms' purpose of expression, you are just left to figure out its meaning on your own or ask someone else what it means. In that sense it is kind of this instinctual or inscripted interpretation of language which can look different from person to person.
Process: For my idiom interpretation tests I have a couple ideas of how I could go about collecting data and visualizing peoples interpretations, while trying to keep order and make sense of the madness.
Step One:I explore one idiom and test it’s interpretation as a whole and broken into its single words.
I ask about 5 people their first association with an idiom and record their response
Step Two:A couple of days later, I test them with another association list of about ten words - with the idiom hidden in the list, so their responses are not skewed from their previous answer.
Step Three:I am hypothesizing that with the first test the participants will give me an answer relating to the idioms understood meaning. In the second test, their response to the idioms parts will most likely have nothing to do with its understood meaning.
Step Four: I will then take the answers from the second test and compare them to the idiom, the understood meaning, and the participants' associated meaning.
Idioms I am considering using, I am open to suggestions too:
Bite the bullet
Cutting corners
back to the drawing board
Miss the boat
Everything but the kitchen sink
Off the wall
Whatever floats your boat, One man's trash is another man's treasure, fight fire with fire, beating a dead horse, your ass is grass, drink the Koolaid, eat my dust, you've got a full plate, that's a slippery slope, A sticky situation, "what are you an idiot sandwich?", Eat the frog, Bleed me dry, chewing on the fat, set fire to the rain, A window of opportunity, Bring home the bacon, chip off the shoulder, Your silence speaks volumes, A drop in the ocean...
ReplyDeleteOkay maybe I'll bother you with more later