Idioms have long been of interest to research in linguistics as well as literary studies. In the existing research, however, the aesthetic productivity of idiomatic ambiguity has never been in focus. The present study on Idioms and Ambiguity in Context fills this gap by analyzing a corpus of children's literature--traditionally characterized by a high measure of wordplay and ambiguity--both in a linguistic and literary perspective. Looking at the connection between context and understanding of idiomatic expressions in either their phrasal or their compositional reading, the study explores how ambiguity is activated, if, how, and when it is perceived on the different levels of communication, and how literary texts use this ambiguity in playful ways.

The present study explores the aesthetic productivity of idiomatic ambiguity in children's literature. Looking at the connection between context and understanding of idiomatic expressions in either their phrasal or their compositional reading, the study investigates how ambiguity is activated, if, how, and when it is perceived on the different levels of communication, and how literary texts use this ambiguity in playful ways.

• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I: Idioms, Ambiguity, and the Role of Context: State of the Art
• Introduction
• 1 Idioms: Deriving a Working Definition
• 2 The Ambiguity Model and the Analysis of Idioms
• 3 Ambiguity and Context
• Part II: Ambiguous Idioms in Context: A Theoretical Contribution
• Introduction
• 4 Idioms in Context: Four Types of Ambiguity Use
• 5 TInCAP: A Corpus for Annotating Ambiguity
• 6 Annotation of Idioms in Literary Texts with TInCAP
• Part III: Ambiguous Idioms in Context: Exemplary Analyses
• Introduction
• 7 Idioms in Attested Contexts
• 8 Compiling a Corpus
• 9 Patterns of Ambiguous Use of Idioms
• Conclusion and Outlook
• Works Cited
• Appendix: Corpus
• Abstract
• Résumé
• Index