A report is presented on a study that aimed at investigating to what extent the cognitive processes used by five Portuguese L2 speakers to understand ten idiomatic phrases (EIs) in a decontextualized way would be similar to those used for the understanding of the same phrases in a context. The analysis of the data, collected by means of retrospective verbal protocols and protocols of pause, revealed that the use of analogy and associations based on previous knowledge was the preferential strategy for the decontextualized idiomatic phrases, while the use of microtextual signs was the most used one in those EIs on a context. In addition, the data pointed to an approximation only partial of the cognitive processes used by the participants in both contexts of attribution of meaning to new EIs. The results are assessed based on Liontas (2001, 2002), Polónia (2009) and Sadeghi, Dastjerd and Ketabi (2010).
Idiomatic expressions; Iinferential processes; Portuguese as L2