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.
The present paper applies Fanon Psychological reading of the problem of the Black introduced in his book Black Skin White Mask to Crooks, The black Character in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The analysis of this character infers three essential points regarding the artistic achievement of the author. First, he uses a fictional character that offers a psychological interpretation of the black problem of alienation and loneliness in a way that does not disgrace the black. Second, he applies Fanon’s way of showing the various attitudes that the black adopts in contact with the white society. Third, he affirms that the black inferiority complex comes as a result of double proc
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This study aims to Statement of the relationship between Total Quality Management philosophy and Organizational performance from the point of view of the internal customer. A comparison has been made between two companies, one of which applies the requirements of TQM well and the other does not apply these requirements as the (General Company for Electrical Industries/ Diyala) and (General Company for Electrical Industries/ Baghdad) to conduct the search, During the questionnaire prepared for this purpose and distributed to a sample of 30 employees in the General Company for Electric Industries/ Diyala and (20) employees of the General Company for Electrical Industries/ Baghdad. Their answers were analyzed using a simple correlation coef
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The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between organizational ethnography and resonant leadership in the University of Kufa, importance of research includes rare of studies that investigated the relationship between organizational ethnography and resonant leadership. Moreover, it comes as an attempt to reduce or bridge the knowledge gap between the variables of the research. As well as try to put the right foundations and appropriate for industry leaders of various Iraqi organizations aimed at profit or service. Based on the random sampling, 450 questionnaires were distributed to employees at the University of Kufa. Only 392 questionnaires were returned. Out of which 104 questionnaires we
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Logic is one of the sciences that have receded and regressed in the field of Islamic sciences. This regression is the result of several factors, the most important of which are:
1- The Aristotelian logic, concerned with the seemingly essential shape and the underlying truth in the text, which has been translated into Arabic, is no longer able to keep pace with scientific revelations and epistemological spaces of our time.
2- The existence of logic in the curricula of Islamic studies was not subject to a study linking logic and Islamic sciences. Therefore, we find that the student studies logic as if it were a strange subject that has nothing to do with the subjects of Islamic studies and even Islamic philosophy.
3- Logic is
The study found a number of results. The most prominent were the low married during the years of the study in 1997-2012. The study also showed the level of administrative units that the percentage of widows and single rise in urban and rural decline. This is due to the different nature of urban and rural society of the behavior and social habits and traditions.As the proportion of divorced and unmarried are decreased in urban and increase proportion in the countryside, and this is due to the influence of the rural population in the urban centers. As well as the study showed that there was a significant effect of the economic and social factors and other factors on marital status on its parts in the study area.
The research seeks to identify the contemporary events that face the use of electronic payment methods to localize the salaries of state employees and its impact in enhancing the mental image of customers, and to achieve this purpose from the fact that a questionnaire was designed and distributed to an optional sample of (31) individual customers (employees) dealing With the researched private banks, it has been analyzed and reached a number of conclusions and recommendations, the most prominent of which is the lack of modernity of electronic payment methods by customers, which is reflected in the mental image of customers and the achievement of their satisfaction, in the Emiratization project for salaries needs an advanced leade
... Show MoreThree hundred Iraqi people participated in demographic and attitudes study about red and white meat consumption. The mean age of the participants was 50 SD ± 11 years (mean 30-72); 51% were females and 49% males, mostly in forties who lived ≥ 5 years in Baghdad. The results showed that 80% of individuals prefer red meat. A 90% of people prefer fresh meat compared to frozen and processed meat. A 60% of people buy meat from popular markets. Nearly 87% of respondents believe the improving of livestock sector is essential and 80% of people confirmed there are obstacles to development this sector. An 80% of participates thought the reasons of the high prices of local fresh meat is the lack of plann
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