When a non-native English speaker produces an idiom incorrectly (e.g., "hit the nail on the nose with a hammer"), which cognitive mechanism most likely causes the pragmatic failure?

💡 Explanation

The pragmatic failure stems from incomplete chunked lexical representation, because idioms are processed as single units rather than individual words. Therefore, the idiom is produced incorrectly, rather than through phonological, syntactic, or declarative memory issues.

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