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A Study of the Problems of Learning and Translating Idioms
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Idioms are a very important part of the English language: you are told that if you want to go far (succeed) you should pull your socks up (make a serious effort to improve your behaviour, the quality of your work, etc.) and use your grey matter (brain).1 Learning and translating idioms have always been very difficult for foreign language learners. The present paper explores some of the reasons why English idiomatic expressions are difficult to learn and translate. It is not the aim of this paper to attempt a comprehensive survey of the vast amount of material that has appeared on idioms in Adams and Kuder (1984), Alexander (1984), Dixon (1983), Kirkpatrick (2001), Langlotz (2006), McCarthy and O'Dell (2002), and Wray (2002), among others. The paper concentrates on idioms as a learning-translation problem; it makes no claim to be comprehensive or academically rigorous. Leech (1989) defines an idiom as follows: “An idiom is a group of two or more words which we have to treat as a unit in learning a language. We cannot arrive at the meaning of the idiom just by adding together the meanings of the words inside it. E.g.John and Mary usedto be hardup (='They had very little money'.)”(P.186) To be more exact, an idiom is a sequence of words which is semantically and syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit. From a semantic point of view, the meanings of the individual words cannot be summed to produce the meanings of the idiomatic expression as a whole. Thus, fly off the handle, which means lose one's temper, cannot be understood in terms of the meanings of fly, off, or handle. The idiom phrase hot air, which means empty or boastful talk, is neither hot nor air; with hot air we are dealing with a set phrase where the meaning cannot be suggested on the basis of the two constituent words. The idiomatic meaning of spill the beans in So who spilt the beans (=told the secret) about her affair with David? has nothing to do with beans or with spilling in its literal sense. The foreign-language learner is left trying to figure out where and how the beans were spilt. From a syntactic viewpoint, the constituent parts of an idiom often do not permit the usual variability they display in other contexts. The point to be emphasized here is this: most idioms do not lend themselves easily to manipulation by speakers and writers; they are invariable and must be learned as wholes, but concord ofnumber, person and gender in the idiom phrase is still necessary, i.e. the verbs must be put into the correct form, and pronouns must agree with their antecedents: I don't give a hoot for her opinion! 2 • She doesn't give a hoot for my opinion! etc.)║He won, but only by the skin of his teeth2• She won, but only by the skin of her teeth• Iwon, but only by the skin ofmy teeth,I had to run for the train, and caught it by the skin of myteeth, etc.║He kept pullingmy arm, throwing me off my balance 2 • She kept pulling his arm, throwing him off his balance • We kept pullingher arm, throwingher offher balance, etc.2 The present paper is divided into five parts, as follows: Part I: An Overview; PART II: Learner’s Difficulties with Idioms; PART III: Some Pedagogical recommendations and Suggestions about Idioms; Part IV: Activities to Practice Idiomatic Expressions; Part V: Summary and Conclusion.

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
Journal Of Stomatology
Association of self-reported symptoms of xerostomia with vaping and cigarette smoking: a cross-sectional study
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Publication Date
Sun Jun 03 2012
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
A Biochemical Study for Evaluation and Analysis of Serum Protein of Patients with Different Kidney Tumors
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The amount of protein in the serum depends on the balance between the rate of its synthesis, and that of its catabolism or loss. Abnormal metabolism may result from nutritional deficiency, enzyme deficiency, abnormal secretion of hormones, or the actions of drugs and toxins. Renal cancer is the third most common malignancy of the genitourinary system, and accounts for 3% of adult malignancies globally. Total serum proteins were measured in malignant kidney tumor, benign kidney tumors, and non tumoral kidney diseases patient groups, as well as in healthy individuals. A significant decrease (p< 0.001) of total serum protein levels in patients with malignant kidney tumors when compared with those of benign tumors, non tumoral diseases, and hea

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Publication Date
Thu Dec 15 2022
Journal Name
Arab World English Journal
Investigating Teachers of English Knowledge and Awareness of Dyslexia: A case study in Primary Iraqi Schools
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Dyslexia is a learning disability in which people face difficulty reading though they are intelligent and have motivation for reading. Therefore; it impacts the portion of the brain responsible for processing language. Such a condition compromises the learning efficiency of the affected person, which generally gets unnoticed. Even affected children are unaware of their state. The study investigates the knowledge and awareness of dyslexia among teachers of English in Iraqi primary schools. this study has three objectives: (i) To investigate the amount of awareness and knowledge among the primary school teachers of English in Baghdad City about dyslexia.; (ii) To examine how English teachers’ awareness of dyslexia is affected by the

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Publication Date
Thu Jan 22 2026
Journal Name
Al–bahith Al–a'alami
Students and Watching Specialized Satellite Channels (Applied Study on a Sample of University of Baghdad’s Students
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This research is one of the public research aimed at identifying the communication habits and the implications of the content on the communication process, especially as the audience of specialized media is often characterized by effectiveness, depth and active in tracking the media message and interaction with its content. It means such audience is a positive, very active, dynamic, and very alert audience driven by his interests and psychological needs to watch specific programs meet his desires.

This satisfaction can only be achieved through the use of specialized media capable of producing programs that will communicate and interact between the ideas you present and this audience.

The phenomenon of specialized satellit

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Publication Date
Fri Jan 01 2021
Journal Name
Systematic Reviews In Pharmacy
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS AND ANTI-BACTERIAL EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT ALLIUM CEPA PLANT EXTRACTS
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Publication Date
Thu Nov 01 2007
Journal Name
University Of Baghdad
The Psychic Experience and its Effects on the Creative Process: A Study in Selected Poems By Allen Ginsberg and David Gascoyne
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Evidences indicate that human beings were preoccupied with extreme forms of mental and psychic experiences long before they were recorded in literature. Greek myths and legends appear to include symbolizations of delusions, mania, and other bizarre forms of thought and behaviuor. The figure of the mad man or woman is analogous to the wild man, or the imaginary being who appears in various forms throughout western literature and art. Various studies refer to the notion of the wild man as a response to a persistent psychological urge. This urge gives an external expression and a valid form to the impulses of reckless physical self-assertion which is believed to be hidden in all of us, but is normally kept under control. Such impulses were exp

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Publication Date
Wed Feb 01 2017
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
The development of ethics management system to enhance the social responsibility of government institutions in Iraqi society An analytical study on a sample of top leadership and the presidency of
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Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify the analysis of the ethics of the administration in the development of the social responsibility of one government organizations, and to achieve the objectives of the research was the use of a questionnaire developed for the purpose of data collection and distribution to the research sample, was chosen as a total sample population (50) individuals were relying on statistical package to do a statistical analysis for this research, user, ANSI (SPSS) simple regression analysis, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient.

Research findings show the role of social responsibility in achieving the university's strategy,

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Publication Date
Sun Jan 01 2023
Journal Name
Brazilian Dental Science
Wound healing effect of a one-week Aloe Vera mouthwash: a pilot study
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Publication Date
Thu Mar 18 2021
Journal Name
Review Of International Geographical Education Online
Chomsky&#39;s Political Views as a Case Study in a Critical Discourse Analysis of Ideology in the Iraqi Wars
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APDBN Rashid, Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO), 2021

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Publication Date
Fri Oct 30 2020
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Institutional Performance Assessment using a model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) A case study at an organization
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The study aims to use the European Excellence Model (EFQM) in assessing the institutional performance of the National Center for Administrative Development and Information Technology in order to determine the gap between the actual reality of the performance of the Center and the standards adopted in the model, in order to know the extent to which the Center seeks to achieve excellence in performance to improve the level of services provided and the adoption of methods Modern and contemporary management in the evaluation of its institutional performance.

The problem of the study was the absence of an institutional performance evaluation system at the centre whereby weaknesses (areas of improvement) and st

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