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.
This paper presents the ability to use cheap adsorbent (corn leaf) for the removal of Malachite Green (MG) dye from its aqueous solution. A batch mode was used to study several factors, dye concentration (50-150) ppm, adsorbent dosage (0.5-2.5) g/L, contact time (1-4) day, pH (2-10), and temperature (30-60) The results indicated that the removal efficiency increases with the increase of adsorbent dosage and contact time, while inversely proportional to the increase in pH and temperature. An SEM device characterized the adsorbent corn leaves. The adsorption's resulting data were in agreement with Freundlich isotherm according to the regression analysis, and the kinetics data followed pseudo-first-or
... Show MoreBACKGROUND: Diffuse astrocytomas constitute the largest group of primary malignant human intracranial tumours. They are classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) into three histological malignancy grades: diffuse astrocytomas (grade II), anaplastic astrocytomas (grade III) and glioblastoma (grade IV) based on histopathological features such as cellular atypia, mitotic activity, necrosis and microvascular proliferation. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a 170-kDa transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor expressed in a variety of normal and malignant cells regulating critical cellular processes. When activated, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) triggers several signalling cascades leading to increased proliferatio
... Show MorePeripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with increased oxidative stress and impaired endothelial function. Ticagrelor treatment improves antioxidant properties in addition to its antiplatelet effects. This study investigated the impact of Ticagrelor treatment on serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and other biochemical parameters in PAD patients. It also evaluated the potential diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of specific biomarkers based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Seventy individuals were categorized into healthy control (n=40), baseline PAD patients not on Ticagrelor (B-PAD, n=30), and same PAD patients after treated with Ticagrelor (A-PAD, n=30). Parameters measured included SOD concent
... Show MoreIn this work, synthesized N4,N4`-bis(2, 3, 4 nitro benzylidene) biphenyi-4-4`-diamine(B1-B3) , was tested as an inhibitors in controlling the corrosion of carbon steel in NaCl 3.5% solution by using open circuit potential (OCP),at four different temperatures (293, 303, 313 and 323 K). Furthermore, the surface morphology was investigated using the Atomic force microscopy (AFM). The effect of using different Schiff bases and temperature was also investigated. Schiff bases was synthesized and characterized via using. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR)and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) characterized . The experimental results shown that Schiff bases can consider as an excellent corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel in NaCl 3
... Show MoreEuphrates River extends about 125 km within the study area located in Annassiriyah City, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. The impact of the seven hydraulic structures on the discharge capacity of the Euphrates River needs to be considered. The main objectives of this research are to increase the discharge capacity of Euphrates River within Annassiriyah City during flood seasons and study the impact of these hydraulic structures on the river capacity by using HEC-RAS 5.0.3 software. Five scenarios were simulated to study the different current condition of Euphrates River within Annassiriyah City. Other additional four scenarios were implemented through river training to increase the river capacity to 1300 m³/s; it is the flood
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