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 humid and warm conditions in greenhouses provide an excellent environment for pests’ living conditions, and therefore, they provide ideal medium for alien introductions. Molluscs are among the most significant pests that infest plastic covered greenhouses. To identify and report their mollusc species, 23 greenhouses in Iraq were surveyed between March 2023 and April 2024. Of these, 11 were found to be infested with snails. A total of 158 specimens were collected and morphologically identified to seven species: Monacha obstructa (L. Pfeiffer, 1842), Eobania vermiculata (O.F. Müller, 1774), Xeropicta krynickii (Krynicki, 1833), Rumina decollata (Linnaeus, 1758), Polygyra cereolus (Megerle Von Mühlfeld, 1818), Cochlicella barba
... Show More
(1)
Background: Many types of instruments and techniques are used in the instrumentation of the root canal system. These instruments and techniques may extrude debris beyond the apical foramen and may cause post-instrumentation complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of apically extruded debris resulted by using 4 types of nickel-titanium instruments (WaveOne, TRUShape 3D conforming files, Hyflex CM, and One Shape files) during endodontic instrumentation. Materials and methods: Forty freshly extracted human mandibular second premolar with straight canals and a single apex were collected for this study. All teeth were cut to similar lengths. Pre-weighted glass vials were used as collecting containers. Samples were randoml
... Show More
(3)
The energy aimed at examining the mode of energy drinks consumption among athletes in
Baghdad and assessing their drinks were spread greatly among the athletes and students. This
study impression toward such drinks. The study sample comprised of 102 mal athletes aged
between 19-27 years and selected randomly .The obtained results showed that football was
most practiced among the test samples at 40.54% based on twice daily .The athletes
consumed one can each day at 41.18% .As the data on energy drinks was supplied from
friends .The prefared period for drinking was before or during exercise .The athletes thought
that there products can provide energy ,vitamins ,tell ale materials ,does not affect
appetite.The most f
(13)
(8)
The phenomenon of negative behavior has studied as a social and psychological phenomenon that effect on the performance and life of workers inside and outside the organization. The adoption of this phenomenon is studied in terms of the role of the internal environment of the organization in addressing this behavior, being the variables belong to the field of organizational behavior to see the results of those variables on the Iraqi organizations, since the specificities of it differ from the rest of the Arab and foreign environments. Therefore, this study focused on testing the relationship of the internal environment of the organization and its role in addressing the negative behavior of the workers.
thi
... Show More
The aim of the present research is to measure the degree of strategic effectiveness (fahs) in the development of grammar skills of high school students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to achieve the goal of the researcher the researcher used the semi-experimental approach; On ten arbitrators specializing in grammar, morphology, curricula and methods of teaching the Arabic language. After confirming the validity of the guideline, the researcher prepared an achievement test consisting of (22) paragraphs of the type of short answer and multiple choice. The researcher trained a teacher to apply the strategy to the experimental research sample using the (screening) component of (30) students, and the same parameter taught the control sampl
... Show MoreThe research aims to shed light on the recent experience in the Iraqi business environment, which is the experience of the merger. To evaluate a recent experience in an important sector of the Iraqi business sectors, namely the industrial sector to enable decision-makers to review that experience to judge the extent of its success and address some of the lapses that experience that by measuring synergies can be judged on the success of the merger experience or not. The research community is the governmental industrial sector. The research sample included six cases of merger (14) companies before the merger. The Holt method was used to predict the net sales and total cost values before the merger as if it were not merged. Th
... Show More
This study showed the basic features of corporate tax in Iraq by showing what was in the Income Tax Law in force .The study aims of this to indicate the role of tax corprates in tax revenue and then the possibility of strengthening the revenue of this tax as an important source of local funding sources in the form that is with him reduce dependence on oil revenues to finance the general budget in Iraq, the risks and the study found a number of conclusions from the most important: that the corporate tax comes in the introduction to the components of the income tax structure in terms of relative importance and formed a revenue source of prime The gross proceeds of the income tax in Iraq, where it contributed to more than a quarter of that
... Show More
Of the importance of the concept of ownership of real estate as the basic basis from which various projects are launched in various economic, tourism, and urban areas .... The need to research the diagnosis of real estate reality went astray in the difficulties, which played a decisive role in the process of urban development.
This leads us to the research problem of the difficulty of implementing urban development plans in many cases due to the absence of a clear methodology for organizing and modernizing the ownership of real estate and its coordination with the management of urban land and to achieve the objective
... Show More
(1)