idioms by michaela goff, hannah hedegard, anna kenolty, stacey oware and dominic petschak
TRANSCRIPT
Idioms
By Michaela Goff, Hannah Hedegard, Anna Kenolty, Stacey
Oware and Dominic Petschak
Are these idioms?
• Give the game away
YES
• A black look
YES
• Like a duck to water
NO
• To hit the ground running
YES
• A little something something
NO
• The bees-knees
YES
• By and large
YES
• Black sheep
YES
• A little you-know-what
NO
• Point of no return
YES
The definition:
• An expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, such as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language.
Properties Of An Idiom
1) Conventionality
Properties Of An Idiom
2) Inflexibility
Properties Of An Idiom
3) Figuration
Properties Of An Idiom
4) Proverbiality
Properties Of An Idiom
5) Informality
Properties Of An Idiom
6) Affect
Syntax Verb Phrase
Verb Noun Phrase
Determiner Noun
Lexicon
Function (words)
The
These
This
A
Content (words)
Chair
Believe
Interesting
IDIOMS
The Syntax-Lexicon Continuum
Kick
the football
Idioms In Different Languages
• It’s raining cats and dogs, the English idiom
• It’s raining rope/pieces of string or it’s raining like a cow pissing
• It’s raining old women with harrows on their backs
• It’s raining pocket knives or it’s raining ‘pitcher-wise’
• It’s raining a chair leg
Idioms In Different Languages
• The English phrase “To kick the bucket”
• To stretch the paw
• To kick the calendar
• To lay the piece of lead
To conclude…
• By and large
• Kingdom come
• The linguistic anomaly
• The Great Mystery of Language
The future of idioms…?