成語怎麼這麼難？中文成語的語意透明度

What Makes Chinese Idioms so Difficult to Understand? A Study of the Semantic Transparency of Chinese Idioms

成語的困難度在於其字面意義與象徵意義的差異。語意透明度即在解釋由成語的字面意思能得出多少成語的真正意義。本研究的目的在探討中文四字成語的語意透明度。參照Gibbs與Nayak(1989)對成語的分類，本研究首先將中文成語語意透明度做定義、劃分類別，再設計問卷調查受試者對平常少見成語是否能推敲出其意思，並檢視受試者的答案是否反映出成語語意透明度。研究結果顯示中文成語語意透明度上的差異可藉由成語及其組成份子間的關係來做定義與解釋。研究結果亦發現成語語意透明度的不同會影響受試者對平常較少見成語的理解。

The difficulty of understanding idioms is found in the disparity between the literal and figurative meanings of the idioms. Semantic transparency is a method used to illustrate the extent to which the meaning of an idiom can be derived from the literal meaning of its constituent parts. The purpose of this pilot study is to explore the semantic transparency of Chinese idioms which typically consist of only four characters. By referring to Gibbs and Nayak's (1989) classification of idioms, a scale of semantic transparency for Chinese idioms was developed. A questionnaire with different levels of idioms was then designed to see if participants could speculate on the meaning of unfamiliar idioms and whether their responses would reflect the transparency level of the idioms. The results showed that differences in Chinese idioms' level of transparency could be explained and defined by the relationship between the idioms and their constituent compounds, and that the differences in Chinese idioms' transparency level could also affect participants' comprehension of unfamiliar idioms.