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A Study of the Problems of Learning and Translating Idioms

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
Sun Jan 01 2012
Journal Name
International Journal Of Contemporary Mathematical Sciences
Pre-Topology Generated by the Short Path Problems

Let G be a graph, each edge e of which is given a weight w(e). The shortest path problem is a path of minimum weight connecting two specified vertices a and b, and from it we have a pre-topology. Furthermore, we study the restriction and separators in pre-topology generated by the shortest path problems. Finally, we study the rate of liaison in pre-topology between two subgraphs. It is formally shown that the new distance measure is a metric

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Publication Date
Sat Feb 09 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of The College Of Education For Women
The Infertility problems HS Effects on human development
  • The problem of infertility considers one of the chronic problem a which faced the
    individual & families equally . This problem causes a negative effects in psychological ,
    social and development fields. The infertility contributes in weakening the human
    development, when the human development has become as a centre point which centered
    about individual preparing , rehabilitation, training and knowledge toreach to the required
    excellence.
    We think that , the infertility destroys the socially development; therefore the socially and
    scientific institutions are working hard to find successful solution to resolve the problem
    infertility through sophisticated and scientific methods. This problem
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Publication Date
Thu Jan 01 2015
Journal Name
Political Sciences Journal
Fiscal federalism: a study of the concept and models

يمثل الأخذ بالنظام الفيدرالي أطاراً تنظيمياً لشكل الدولة و مرحلة تحول مهمة في بنية الدولة العامة في مختلف مجالاتها، فالانتقال من المركزية في أدارة الشؤون العامة للدولة الى النمط الفيدرالي يمثل تحولا بنيوياً وسيكولوجياً ،حيث يكون هنالك توزيع مكاني - عمودي للسلطة والثروة بين الوحدات المكونة للدولة بشكل يختلف كليا عن الحالة المركزية، ونجد صور تنظيمية عديدة تتأسس ضمن اطار الفيدرالية العام ،

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Publication Date
Wed Jun 03 2020
Journal Name
Political Sciences Journal
Transitional justice: a study of the concept and mechanisms

The concept of transitional justice is newly emerging, as it was mainly associated with addressing issues of serious breaches and abuses of human rights during conflicts and situations resulting from violence and the use of force in societies that are in the process of democratization, as transitional justice aims primarily to restore civil peace and rebuild institutions The state needs multidimensional justice: a judicial system that achieves the rule of law, corrective restoration of the wounds of the past, and a distributive characteristic of the redistribution of wealth.

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Publication Date
Wed Mar 16 2022
Journal Name
Journal Of Educational And Psychological Researches
The Problems Facing Primary School Students from the Point of View of Their Teachers

The purpose of the current research is to identify the most important problems that primary school students suffer from inside and outside the classroom from the point of view of their teachers. A sample of (100) male and female teachers was chosen from the Rusafa\ second Directorate for the academic year (2018-2019). The research tool was prepared after reviewing literature related to the issue of problems and difficulties facing students or students in the school stage and even at university. The researcher reached several results that were discussed in the fourth chapter, with a set of conclusions based on the results of the research, and come up with several recommendations and suggestions.

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Publication Date
Wed Sep 30 2015
Journal Name
Iraqi Journal Of Chemical And Petroleum Engineering
Problems of Heavy Oil Transportation in Pipelines And Reduction of High Viscosity

Drag has long been identified as the main reason for the loss of energy in fluid transmission like pipelines and other similar transportation channels. The main contributor to this drag is the viscosity as well as friction against the pipe walls, which will results in more pumping power consumption.

   The aim in this study was first to understand the role of additives in the viscosity reduction and secondly to evaluate the drag reduction efficiency when blending with different solvents.

   This research investigated flow increase (%FI) in heavy oil at different flow rates (2 to 10 m3/hr) in two pipes (0.0381 m & 0.0508 m) ID By using different additives (toluene and naphtha) with different concent

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Publication Date
Mon Apr 01 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of Educational And Psychological Researches
Dogmatism and Its Relation to Behavioral Problems of Preparatory School Students

 The study aims to identify the relationship between Dogmatism and the behavioral problems among preparatory school students. To do this, the researcher adopted Rokeach’s scale of dogmatism, which was modified to be more appropriate of the Iraqi context. A sample of (300) students was chosen randomly to collect the needed data for the current study. To process the data, the researcher employed T-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Weighted Mean. The finding revealed that the study sample experience too many behavioral problems, as well as there is a positive strong relationship between Dogmatism and behavioral problems. To conclude, the researcher recommended holding counseling sessions targeting school students to mitigate

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Publication Date
Fri Nov 09 2018
Journal Name
Iraqi National Journal Of Nursing Specialties
Psychological Problems of Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Objective: Assessment the psychological problems in patients with colorectal cancer, and to find out the
relationship between socio-demographic characteristics such as (age, sex, marital status, educational level,
and occupation) and psychological problems for those patients.
Methodology: A descriptive design is employed through the present study from 1
st July 2011 to 25
th December
2011 in order to study the quality of life in colorectal cancer patients with psychological problems.
A purposive (non probability) sample is selected for the study which includes (60) patients diagnosed with
colorectal cancer were treated in Mosul Oncology and Nuclear Medicine hospital or the patients who visited
the outpatient cl

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Publication Date
Sat Dec 01 2018
Journal Name
Al-khwarizmi Engineering Journal
pH-Control Problems of Wastewater Treatment Plants

Experimental investigations have been carried out to investigate the pH-control problems of industrial electroplating wastewater treatment plants. The accurate and sensitive PID control system could treat most problem and disturbances in the normal operation of the water treatment. However, conventional treatment was replaced by proprietary treatment agent called a QUASIL which was found to be more effective for a wide range of pH.

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Publication Date
Sun Oct 02 2016
Journal Name
Journal Of Educational And Psychological Researches
Teaching Problems facing the first three class teachers in the city of Buraimi

The present study aimed to identify teaching problems which facing the teachers for first three grades classes, and if these problems different according to some variables teacher qualification, experience period, class grade). The study sample consist of (137 )

 female teachers who teach the first three grades in Braimy city in Oman, teachers spread in five government schools. Both researchers developed questionnaire to measure problems faced by the mentioned teachers, consist of 50 questions distributed into 4 dimensions (teacher, students, the curriculum, the evaluations), Also researchers checked questionnaire validity and stability. The results indicate to: The most common probl

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