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.
In this paper, an approximate solution of nonlinear two points boundary variational problem is presented. Boubaker polynomials have been utilized to reduce these problems into quadratic programming problem. The convergence of this polynomial has been verified; also different numerical examples were given to show the applicability and validity of this method.
The study aims to identify the effects of dubbed Turkish drama on the public through the application of a sample of the views of women. The study also attempts to monitor the causes and motives due to the act of observation and to identify the various effects of this act. In order to achieve these goals, the researcher relies on the descriptive approach in addition to the questionnaire and interviews to collect data. It ends with a number of results such as: The study aims to identify the effects of dubbed Turkish drama on the public through the application of a sample of the views of women. The study also attempts to monitor the causes and motives due to the act of observation and to identify the various effects of this act. In ord
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The study aims to examine the relationships between cognitive absorption and E-Learning readiness in the preparatory stage. The study sample consisted of (190) students who were chosen randomly. The Researcher has developed the cognitive absorption and E-Learning readiness scales. A correlational descriptive approach was adopted. The research revealed that there is a positive statistical relationship between cognitive absorption and eLearning readiness.
Methods of teaching plays an important vole in the educational process
because is the link between the teacher and the learner. The process of
teaching doesut fulfill the desirable results unless the methods of guiding and
teaching are provided and through a qualified educationalist capable of
communicating the syllabus to the students in an easy and clear way. In spite
of the diversity of the methods of teaching ,there is no one way suitable for all
the educational purposes , all the sciences ,all the subjects ,all the levels of
growth ,levels of teaching, maturity and intelligences ,all teachers and
educationalists and all the circum stances surrounding the teaching processes
.The teacher is the one who choos
Stylistics represents a modern approach in understanding the literary text through the linguistic patterns that form it. The distinctive phenomena that the text includes constitute special features in it. As well as exploring its aesthetic aspects through description and analysis at the same time. The close link between stylistics and linguistics made stylistics occupy a prominent place in modern literary criticism.
In this regard, we do not want to dwell on the different directions of stylistics. Rather, we will prolong the discussion in the study of the style as a (deviation. Aversion) from the original. Because this trend plays on the chord of the paradox between the surface structure and the deep structure, especially when the sur
Every body has a size and mass that distinguishes it from others and makes it different from others. Some of these bodies are huge and large in size, and some are small and light in weight. Among these masses and bodies are some that are dealt with by their size and weight, each according to its quantity, weight, and cheapness. This is why they created quantities by which these weights and quantities could be estimated, so they used measures and weights for that. Objectives: The research aims to know some measures and weights, such as the wife’s maintenance, the amount of zakat, etc.I found it to be a widely spread topic, and widely used in the folds of jurisprudence. During my reading of jurisprudence books, I found jurists using many qu
... Show MorePatients with decompensated cirrhosis have typically prescribed a combination of therapeutic and prophylactic medications. Polypharmacy increases the probability of medication errors and drug related problems. Clinical pharmacists are highly effective at identifying, resolving, and preventing clinically important drug-related problems in their patients' care. The objectives of the study were the identification and classification of drug-related problems, as well as the discussion of these problems with health care providers (physicians, pharmacists, and nurses) and patients. Reduce their incidence as effectively as possible and educate all research participants on the significance of following their prescribed drug regimen
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the academic problems of family counseling diploma students at Saudi Universities. In addition, to identify the differences in these problems according to gender, marital status, place of study, academic specialization, and GPA. The sample consisted of (491) students. The researcher has used one questionnaire for academic problems prepared by the researcher. The research revealed the following results: There were academic problems among family counseling diploma students at Saudi Universities, the most problems were related to the systems and administrations of the university, then the field training, the buildings, classrooms and campus facilities, then the academic courses, after that the exams, then
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