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 work targeted studying organogel as a potential floating system. Organgel has an excellent viscoelastic properties, floating system posses a depot property. Different formulations of 12-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (HOA) in sesame oil were gelled and selecting F1, F3 and F5 HOA organogels for various examinations: tabletop rheology, optical microscopy, and oscillatory rheology studies. Also, the floating properties studies were conducted at in vitro and in-vivo levels. Lastly, the in-vitro release study using cinnarizine (CN) was to investigate the organogel depot property. Based on the results, the selected concentrations of HOA in sesame oil organogels showed temperature transitions fr
... Show MoreThis present work is concerned with one of the syntactic issues that has been researched by many linguists, grammarians, and specialists in Islamic studies, the estimated answer to a condition. However, this topic is researched this time by examining Imam Al-Qurtbi’s opinions in interpreting related ayas from the holly Quraan in his book (Collector of Quranic Rules) or its transliteration (Al-Jami’ Li Ahkam Al-Quran). Such a step involves commenting on, tracking what Al-Qurtbi said in this regard, discussing it from the points of view of other grammarians, and judging it accordingly, taking into account the apparent surface structures of the examples collected. To achieve this objective, the inductive analytical approach has be
... Show MoreA CRITICAL OVERVIEW IN SELECTED POEMS
This study aims to study some morphological and reproductional characteristics in eleven species of two genera belonging to the family of Asparagaceae, which are Bellevalia Lapeyrouse, 1808 and Ornithogalum Linnaeus, 1753 and the species are: Bellevalia chrisii Yildirim and Sahin, 2014; Bellevalia flexuosa Boissier, 1854; Bellevalia kurdistanica Feinbrun, 1940; Bellevalia longipes Post, 1895; Bellevalia macrobotrys Boissier, 1853; Bellevalia paradoxa Boissier, 1882; Bellevalia parva Wendelbo, 1973; Bellevalia saviczii Woronow, 1927; Ornithogalum brachystachys C. Koch, 1849; Ornithogalum neurostegium Boissier, 1882 and Ornithogalum pyrenaicum Linnaeus, 1753. These species were identified and compared with each other; the results showed th
... Show MoreThe aim of the research is to identify both the re-engineering of management processes and the strategic decision-making process in the research community and determine the nature of the correlation between the two variables and know the relationship between them to achieve the research goal. The researcher used a descriptive and analytical method. The research community consists of a group of professors and staff of the College of Education affiliated to the University of Mustansiriya in Baghdad, which their number were (45), the researcher has distributed the forms to all members of the sample, only (3) forms were excluded for invalidity and thus the number of forms approved in the analysis were (42) forms. The rese
... Show MoreThe research Aim is to provide support to small enterprises by providing tools that enable measurement and test their performance and identifying weaknesses and work on them is determined by the problem of searching using traditional assessment methods for small projects with only financial performance measurement standards that do not provide a complete picture of the performance of these projects so use the balanced scorecard the four pillars (financial, customer, learning and growth, and internal processes) and identify deviations and work on them through the use of the outputs of the programme (probe), PROmoting Business Excellence-PROBE), which It is a model of performance evaluation, with which you can deve
... Show MoreThe high mobility group A1 gene (HMGA1) rs139876191 variant has been related to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, but data are lacking in Middle Eastern populations. The study aimed to assess whether the HMGA1 rs139876191 variant is associated with metabolic syndrome risk and whether this variant predicts the risk of insulin resistance. This case-control study was carried out at single center in Kirkuk city/ Iraq from February to August 2022. Polymorphisms in HMGA1 and genotyping were identified by Sanger sequencing of genomic DNA obtained from 91 Iraqi participants (61 patients with metabolic syndrome and 30 control). Lipid profile, serum (glucose and insulin), glycated hemoglobin, blood pressure, body mass index, and waist circumfer
... Show MoreThis research aims to clarify the role of Information Technology Competency (ITC) with dimensions' (IT Usage, IT Knowledge, and IT Operations) as an independent variable in the activation of Human Resources Management Practices (HRM Practices) as a dependent variable with dimensions' (Training and Development, Recruitment, Job Design, and Performance appraisal). Based on this, the correlation and effect relationships between the independent and dependent variables are determined by formulating two main hypotheses. There are a significant relationship and effect of IT competency with HRM practices within the dimensions. Furthermore, the scope and population of this research are the Informatics and Communications P
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