Abstract

This work analysed the comprehension of three types of idioms of the V+NP form (e.g., bite the dust) in seven patients with aphasia and two patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease, frontal variant. The aphasic patients included in the study had a severe semantic disorder or a mild semantic deficit, or only a lexical disturbance. Participants with dementia showed a moderate deterioration in their executive functions and no impairment in their psycholinguistic performance. In this study, we used an idiom–word matching task, administered in two versions. The results indicate dissimilar performance patterns, according to patients’ neuropsychological impairment. In particular, patients with a severe semantic disorder showed a poor understanding of the figurative meanings of idioms, especially if those idioms were not fully transparent or opaque. Participants with a mild semantic deficit accessed the non-literal meanings of the idioms showing less difficulty in the case of certain idiomatic expressions. Patients with executive function deficit showed a double interference effect, and although they could activate the figurative and literal meanings of idioms according to the context in which they were presented, it was difficult for them to inhibit those meanings whenever necessary and activate the alternative meaning. This effect was more pronounced the less transparent the idiom was.

摘要

这项工作分析了三种类型的 V+NP 形式的习语（例如，咬住灰尘) 在七名失语症患者和两名可能患有阿尔茨海默病的患者中，额叶变异。纳入研究的失语症患者有严重的语义障碍或轻度语义缺陷，或仅有词汇障碍。患有痴呆症的参与者的执行功能出现中度恶化，并且他们的心理语言表现没有受损。在这项研究中，我们使用了一个习语-词匹配任务，在两个版本中进行管理。根据患者的神经心理障碍，结果表明不同的表现模式。特别是有严重语义障碍的患者对习语的比喻意义理解很差，尤其是当这些习语不完全透明或不透明时。有轻度语义缺陷的参与者访问成语的非字面含义，在某些成语表达的情况下显示出较少的难度。执行功能障碍患者表现出双重干扰效应，虽然他们可以根据出现的上下文激活成语的比喻意义和字面意义，但他们很难在必要时抑制这些意义并激活替代意义。习语越不透明，这种效果就越明显。他们很难在必要时抑制这些含义并激活替代含义。习语越不透明，这种效果就越明显。他们很难在必要时抑制这些含义并激活替代含义。习语越不透明，这种效果就越明显。