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.
MR Younus…, 2020 - Cited by 2
The researcher studies and explains the content of some pictures that are published in al-Mada newspaper. The research is important as it deals with a topic that has a relation with visual culture and its role to transfer the press letter to the audience. The researcher finds that cartoonist exposed the security services through important people who have a major role in state policy and reveals the level of corruption and the weak treatments for this phenomenon and its reflection on the whole society and individuals. In addition to that, cartoonists try to encourage the public for going on the peaceful demonstrations since it is a good tool to make pressure on the government to punish the corrupts.
This paper presents the intricate issues and strategies related to the translation of children's books, and it particularly focuses on the comparative analysis of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter and "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The study finds that the typical problems in translation are, idiomatic expressions, cultural reference, and the voice preservation, along side-sheet-specific challenges which each of the text faces. The translator of Potter's work should have skills of transposing all culturally oriented peculiarities of the UK land to the international audience to keep it accessible. On the contrary, "Le Petit Prince" translation will be the process of capturing the abstra
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A Factorial Study for separation anxiety in students, of Baghdad City
Background: Fiber-optic endoscopy is an important
investigation of the large intestine, whether or not the
radiologist (barium enema) has discovered a lesion in
the bowel. Colonoscopy affords a unique opportunity
to direct visualization of entire colonic mucosa. At
the same time, the physician can obtain biopsy specimens, remove polyps, and decompress volvuli.
Most experienced endoscopists and well prepared
patients can reach the cecum in over 90% of patients.
If colonoscopy is properly performed, it has a low
risk of complications, such as perforation and bleeding.
Methods: A total of 70 consecutive patients admitted
to Endoscopy department at Al-Kindy Teaching hospital from September- 2008 to July-2009.
KE Sharquie, GA Ibrahim, AA Noaimi, HK Hamudy, J Saudi Soc Dermatol Dermatol Surg, 2010 - Cited by 2
This study explores the semiotic aspects of American slang, specifically focusing on the phenomenon of reduplicative expressions in informal speech. Despite the extensive research on American slang, limited attention has been given to the cultural and mythical meanings embedded within reduplicative expressions. To address this gap, the study investigates how these expressions convey denotative, connotative, and mythical meanings within casual American discourse. The objectives of the study include: 1. To what extent does Barthes’ semiotic model hold potential for application in this study? 2. How are reduplicative slang expressions widely used in everyday American life? 3. To what extent do qualitative and quantitative methods hav
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Background: Fiber-optic endoscopy is an important
investigation of the large intestine, whether or not the
radiologist (barium enema) has discovered a lesion in
the bowel. Colonoscopy affords a unique opportunity
to direct visualization of entire colonic mucosa. At
the same time, the physician can obtain biopsy specimens, remove polyps, and decompress volvuli.
Most experienced endoscopists and well prepared
patients can reach the cecum in over 90% of patients.
If colonoscopy is properly performed, it has a low
risk of complications, such as perforation and bleeding.
Methods: A total of 70 consecutive patients admitted
to Endoscopy department at Al-Kindy Teaching hospital from September- 2008 to July-2009.
The present paper is a qualitative descriptive study. It aims to examine the macro-cultural schemata addressing the concept of violence against women in Iraq from a cognitive linguistic point of view. To meet this objective, a number of Iraqi social caricatures have been selected from two popular and active Iraqi caricaturists, Odeh Al-Fahdawi and Nasser Ibrahim. The selection and the analysis of data have been achieved following the validity and reliability procedures and the ethical considerations. To meet this objective, Sharifian’s Model (2011) of Cultural Schemata has been adopted in data analysis. The study has concluded that the macro-cultural schemata regarding the concept of violence in the selected panels reveals that violenc
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