The Reflexion of Spatial Reality in the Creation, Understanding and use of Idioms
The Reflexion of Spatial Reality in the Creation, Understanding and use of Idioms

Summary/Abstract: The understanding and use of idiomatic expressions are bound to the cultural or geographical space where they are originally produced. While knowledge of the meaning of idioms is acquired naturally by the native speakers of a particular language, different types of cognitive processes are employed by non-native speakers in order to decode the significance of unfamiliar expressions, as well as cultural knowledge, contextual information and geographical clues. The ability to decode the figurative meaning of idioms creates complicity between speakers and brings them together as members of a shared community created by geographic proximity or cultural kinship. This paper presents the results of a sociolinguistic experiment that aims to investigate the relationship between idioms and spatial reality, focusing on the contrast between familiarities and peculiarities and on the importance of the speakers’ surrounding environment, cultural background.

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