Knowledge of idiomatic expressions in the native language: Do emigrants lose their touch?

Abstract

Two studies are presented that investigated whether and to what extent emigration affects the knowledge of idiomatic expressions in the native language. Data on Dutch emigrant idiom knowledge were compared to data on idiom knowledge from two groups of Dutch non-emigrants differing in age. Research questions addressed a) possible differences in idiom knowledge between emigrants and non-emigrants, b) the effect of idiom properties such as familiarity and transparency on idiom knowledge in emigrants and non-emigrants and c) the effect of participant characteristics such as emigration length, use of Dutch, and age on idiom knowledge. The results show that a) when possible effects of age are minimized, only a small difference in idiom knowledge emerges between emigrants and non-emigrants; b) familiarity and transparency positively affect idiom knowledge in both groups and c) idiom knowledge of older non-emigrants is better than that of younger non-emigrants, while for emigrants a facilitatory effect of age is absent. We argue that this effect might have been obscured by that of emigration length, which has a negative effect on idiom knowledge. We discuss the results with respect to those of previous studies and suggest possible avenues for future research.