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 target of this study was to synthesize several new Ciprofloxacin drug analogs by providing a nucleophilic substitution procedure that provides new functionality at the carboxylic group location. The analogs were synthesized, designed, and characterized by 1HNMR, and FTIR. The synthetic path began from the reaction of ciprofloxacin drug with morpholine to give compound[B], ciprofloxacin derivative was linked with a variety of primary and secondary amines to give compounds[B1-B9]. The above-mentioned prepared compounds [B3 and B5] were applied to liver enzymes, and the increase in the activity of these enzymes was observed. In addition, a theoretical study was conducted to study the energies and properties of the prepared co
... Show MoreUse of lower squares and restricted boxes
In the estimation of the first-order self-regression parameter
AR (1) (simulation study)
The study aimed to reveal the role of social capital represented by its dimensions (structural, relational, and cognitive) in strengthening the management of excellence in Azadi Hospital / Duhok. In order to reach the goal of the study, the study variables were highlighted in theory through framing concepts and literary contributions for researchers in this field, In the field, the questionnaire was used as a basic tool to collect data from the individuals in the research sample who were represented by officials and individuals working from administrators and technicians, as (120) forms were distributed to the respondents, and (110) were retrieved from them in a way that is valid for analysis. Several statistical methods have bee
... Show MoreBackground: Ceramic veneers represent the treatment of choice in minimally invasive esthetic dentistry; one of the critical factors in their long term success is marginal adaptation. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the marginal gap of ceramic veneers by using two different fabrication techniques and two different designs of preparation. Material and methods: A typodont maxillary central incisor used in the preparation from which metal dies were fabricated, which were in turn used to make forty stone dies. The dies divided into four experimental groups, each group had ten samples: A1: prepared with butt-joint incisal reduction and restored with IPS e.max CAD, A2: prepared with overlapped incisal reduction and restored with IPS e.
... Show MoreObjective: In this study ,the effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs)were investigated on the liver and kidney tissues. Methodology: The produced nanoparticles have an average particle size of about 30 nm. Eighteen male albino rats were used by dividing them into three groups, each group comprise 6 rats. First group(control group) given food and water like other groups by liberty. Second group was tail injected by (AgNPs) at dose of (0.4 mg/kg. body weight/day). Third group was injected by (AgNPs) at dose of (0.6 mg/kg. body weight/day) for 15 days. All animals were sacrified at the end of experiment. The liver and kidney tissues specimens were fixed in 10% formalin and histological preparations were carried out then stained with H&E. Path
... Show MoreThis study was aimed to explore the impact of social concepts about tribe, clan and women, on internal audit performance. These concepts are considered to be components of the organizational culture and performance of internal audit practice, with respect to the individual and collective performance within the institution. The study, furthermore, was intended to investigate and understand the role of the organizational culture of the tribal, clan and women components with regard to their role in society, in Qatar.
To achieve these objectives, the researcher followed the descriptive analytical approach, using a questionnaire directed to experts and staff working in the banking sector, with the view to test
... Show MoreThis research aims to study the mechanism of application of international specification requirements (ISO 9001: 2015) at the Iraqi Center- Korean Vocational Training return to vocational training department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs for the purpose of preparing and creating the center to get a certificate of conformity with the requirements of the standard (ISO 9001: 2015) that would elevate the level of performance and services provided in the respondent Center after it is identified and the study of the reality of the quality management system by identifying strengths and weaknesses in the system to diagnose the gap and find ways to address that gap, and adopted the researchers the case study method to conduc
... Show MorePraise be to God who created the soul, perfected it, and inspired it with its immorality and piety. He says in His Noble Book: ﭤ Fajr: 27-30 Glory be to You, O God! O Lord, on whom I have chosen for You as a beloved from myself and the soul of the two worlds, may our master Muhammad be sacrificed for him, who enlightened the horizons with his introduction to enlightenment. It soon ends with the end of pleasure, which is the opposite of the pleasure of thought and meaning, as it is permanent and continuous, and from here we see that the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, urges us in various places to seek knowledge and fortify the soul and thought in a way that raises one’s status and protects him from the st
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