Abstract :
In the current study, idiom understanding was analyzed in relation to the ability to process the linguistic
context in which the idiom is embedded with the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between
text and idiom comprehension. This hypothesis was derived from the global elaboration model. Nonfamiliar
idioms, both transparent and opaque, were presented in the context of a story to 20 participants
with Down syndrome aged between 9 years, 9 months (9;9) and 18;1 and to 20 first-grade typically
developing children aged between 6;3 and 7;3 who had the same level of text comprehension. Results
show that for both groups differences in idiom understanding can be accounted for by differences
in text comprehension: the same relationship holds between idiom and text comprehension in Down
syndrome and in typical development and is not influenced by idiom type (semantic analyzability)
or by sentence comprehension. The results provide support to the global elaboration model and are
discussed in light of it.
