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Submit your presentations before April 15. [Hide] [Help us with translations!] Idiom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about phrases with figurative meaning. For other uses, see Idiom (disambiguation). This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since January 2008. It needs to be expanded. Tagged since January 2008.

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use. In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality; however, this has shown to be a subject of debate. John Saeed defines an idiom as words collocated together happen to become fossilized, becoming fixed over time.[1] This collocation -- words commonly used in a group -- changes the definition of each of the words that exist. As an expression, the word-group becomes a team, so to speak. That is, the collocated words develop a specialized meaning as a whole and an idiom is born. An idiom is a group of words in which the meaning of this group is different than what would be expected. If the actual words of an idiom were understood as they appear, the entire meaning would be changed and the group of words would make no sense in its context as if it was understood as to be an idiom. When a person uses an idiom, the listener might take the actual meaning wrong if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before.[2] An idiom is not really considered to be set in a language. They are more in one's culture.[citation needed] Idioms don't usually cross language boundaries. In some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, the meaning of the idiom is changed or does not make any sense at at as it once did in another language. Idioms are probably the hardest thing for a person to learn in the process of learning a new language.[citation needed] This is because most people grow up using idioms as if their true meanings actually make sense. Contents [hide] 1 Background 2 Idioms and culture 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Background In the English expression to kick the bucket, for example, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the expression's actual meaning, which is to die. Although it can refer literally to the act of striking a specific bucket with a foot, native speakers rarely use it that way. It cannot be directly translated to other languages for example, the same expression in Polish is kopn w kalendarz (to kick the calendar), with the calendar being as detached from its usual meaning as the bucket in the English phrase is. The same expression in Dutch is het loodje leggen (to lay the piece of lead), which is entirely different from the English expression, too. Another kind of idiom is the use of a single word to have multiple meanings, sometimes at the same time, and sometimes one meaning to be discerned from context. This can be seen in the (mostly uninflected) English language in polysemes, the common use of the same word for an ability, for those engaged in it, the product, place, or time of an activity, and sometimes for a verb. Idioms tend to confuse those not already familiar with them; students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions the way they learn its other vocabulary. Many natural language words have idiomatic origins, but have been sufficiently assimilated so that their figurative senses have been lost. [edit] Idioms and culture An idiom is generally a colloquial metaphor a term which requires some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where parties must have common reference. Idioms are therefore not considered a part of the language, but rather a part of the culture. As cultures are typically localized, idioms are often not useful outside of that local context. However some idioms can be more universally used than others, and they can be easily translated, metaphorical meaning can be more easily deduced. While many idioms are clearly based in conceptual metaphors such as "time as a substance", "time as a path", "love as war" or "up is more", the idioms themselves are often not particularly essential, even when the metaphors themselves are. For example, "spend time", "battle of the sexes", and "back in the day" are idiomatic and based in essential metaphors. These "deep metaphors" and their relationship to human cognition are discussed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their 1980 book Metaphors We Live By. In forms like "profits are up", the metaphor is carried by "up" itself. The phrase "profits are up" is not itself an idiom. Practically anything measurable can be used in place of "profits": "crime is up", "satisfaction is up", "complaints are up" etc. Truly essential idioms generally involve prepositions, for example "out of" or "turn into". Interestingly, many Chinese characters are likewise idiomatic constructs, as their meanings are more often not traceable to a literal (i.e. pictographic) meaning of their assembled parts, or radicals. Because all characters are composed from a relatively small base of about 214 radicals, their assembled meanings follow several different modes of interpretation - from the pictographic to the metaphorical to those whose original meaning has been lost in history. It may be a feature that helps everyday life. [edit] See also Linguistics portal List of idioms Clich Collocation Double negative Four-character idiom (Chinese) Kan Malapropism Set phrase [edit] References ^ Saeed, John I. (2003), Semantics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Page 60. ^ Saeed, John I. (2003), Semantics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

[edit] External links This article's external links may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. Look up idiom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wiktionary Idioms category Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions Library of Phrases Extensive list of American idioms arranged alphabetically Phrase Finder Figures of Speech by Rob Bradshaw Examples of how the Bible uses idioms. Self-study Idiom Quizzes by The Internet TEAL Journal [hide]v d eLexicography Types of reference worksDictionary Glossary Lexicon Thesaurus Types of dictionariesBilingual Biographical Conceptual Defining Electronic Encyclopedic LSP Machine-readable Maximizing Medical Minimizing Monolingual learner's Multi-field Phonetic Picture Reverse Rhyming Rime Single-field Specialized Sub-field Visual Vocabulary topicsFocal vocabulary Function word Headword Holonymy Hyponymy Idiom International Scientific Vocabulary Lemma Lexeme Meronymy Morphology Synonym Vocabulary size Word Lexicographic topicsControlled vocabulary English lexicology and lexicography Lexicographic error Lexicographic information cost Linguistic prescription Specialised lexicography Lexicographic projectsLexigraf WordNet OtherList of lexicographers List of online dictionaries Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom" Categories: Idioms | Lexical units Hidden categories: Articles lacking reliable references from January 2008 | Articles to be expanded since January 2008 | All articles to be expanded | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2009 | Wikipedia external links cleanup ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Personal toolsLog in / create account Navigation Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Search Interaction About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia Donate to Wikipedia Help Toolbox What links here

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