Affective and psycholinguistic norms of animal-based Indonesian idioms

Abstract

Idioms, as a form of figurative language, offer a fascinating glimpse into the interconnectedness of language, culture, and psychology. This research aims to bridge the gap by providing descriptive norms for various psycholinguistic (familiarity, concreteness, figurativeness) and affective (valence, arousal) properties of animal-based Indonesian idioms and exploring the relationship between these properties. Employing a quantitative research design, this study utilized the corpus method to collect data from diverse Indonesian online texts, news articles, short stories, and editorials. A total of 201 Indonesian native speakers rated 129 animal-based idioms using a Likert scale. To ensure robustness of data, data analysis involved descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and partial correlation. The results showed that animal-based Indonesian idioms tend to evoke a neutral emotional response, with moderate familiarity, and are more concrete than figurative, with a moderate arousal level. These findings underscore that animal-based idioms are neutral when describing objects but carry negative connotations when referring to human characteristics. In this case, idioms serve as a politeness strategy to maintain social harmony. The implications of this study open the way for interdisciplinary research in language and culture, especially regarding idioms.