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.
Electromyography (EMG) is being explored for evaluating muscle activity. For gait analysis, EMG needs to be small, lightweight, portable device, and with low power consumption. The proposed superficial EMG (sEMG) system is aimed to be used in rehabilitation centers and biomechanics laboratories for gait analysis in Iraq.
The system is built using MyoWare, which is controlled by using STM32F100 microcontroller. The sEMG signal is transferred via Bluetooth to the computer (about 30m range) for further processing. MATLAB is used for sEMG signal conditioning. The overall system cost (without computer) is about $80. The proposed system is validated using wired NORAXON EMG using the mean root mean squared metho
... Show MoreThe transfer of chemical pollutants from bottled water into water due to heat, sunlight and poor storage is one of the most serious threats to human health around the world, the objective of this study was to estimate the pH value and the transport of heavy metals from plastic bottles to water, for this purpose, 30 bottles of water for 10 local brands were collected and divided into three groups, the first was left at room temperature 25°C, The second was placed in a heat oven at 25°C and the third in another oven at 50°C for two weeks. The results showed significant differences at (P<0.05) between water samples, pH value and concentrations of heavy metals (Sb, Pb, Ni, Cu, Cr, Cd and Fe) we
... Show MoreResults showed that the optimum conditions for production of inulunase from isolate Kluyveromyces marxianus AY2 by submerged culture could be achieved by using inulin as carbon source at a concentration of 2% with mixture of yeast extract and ammonium sulphate in a ratio of 1:1 in a concentration of 1% at initial pH 5.5 after incubation for 42 hours at 30ºC.
The current research deals with the argument of delusion and interpretation in the direction structure and its reflected impact in the reception activity and the amount of conceptual displacement it is subjected to in an aesthetic approach to abstract conceptual definitions of the reception activity , by the effect of this dialectic in the direction structure, which can be summed up by the following question: (What are the characteristics of the direction structure of the imaginary and what is the argument of interpretation in the theatre reception activity?) in order to stand on the aesthetic framework and conceptual definition of the direction structure in the controversy of interpretation and imagination, and its impact on the concept
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The peculiarity of worship spaces in the Islamic architecture is evident by its symbolic connotations with doctrinal connections, thus the niche has a major status in that symbolic connotation, which transformed due to the cultural interaction from a rock on the wall directed towards Mecca into an element of integrated structural entity with performative and aesthetic characteristics. The spread of the Islamic religion contributed to subjecting it to a design acculturation process, thus the problem of the research was raised by the following question: has the evolutionary tendency of acculturation been able to effect a major transformation in the niche design? The research aims at identifying the design acculturation and its translation
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Sultan Said bin Sultan bin Ahmed bin Said Al-Busaidi (1223-1273 AH / 1806-1856 AD) was able to rule Oman and Zanzibar in a unified Arab-African state during his reign. However, it was separated for several reasons. Thus, the study aims to clarify the efforts made by Sultan Said for annexing Zanzibar to Oman, establishing the Arab-African Sultanate, and shedding light on the role played by Britain in dividing the Arab-African Sultanate and separating Zanzibar from the Omani rule in (1275 AH-1861 AD). The study has adopted the historical descriptive analytical approach. The study has reached several conclusions, such as: The economic motivators were the most important factors that pushed Sultan Said to move his capital from Muscat to
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This study aims at identifying the role played by Public Relations in the field of security awareness of the dangers of terrorism. The research is directed to the employees at the Directorate General of Public Relations and Media at the Ministry of Interior. And that on the basis that those who play an important role in the security awareness are the security institutions, primarily the Ministry of Interior, since this Directorate is responsible for all subjects related to the public security using public relations science. It aims at identifying the functions, methods and communication tools used by the Directorate to raise awareness about the dangers of terrorism. In order to achieve the research objectives, the researcher uses the sur
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The rapid reality of events in the information era, and the enormous pressure of forces market, competition, permanent movement of the markets and consumers and the large development unprecedented of technology in all areas make a lot of organizations find it difficult to keep up with this rapid developments .Here was the role of strategic vigilance closer organization to their environment ,and play an active role in providing the necessary information to make decisions and insurance companies are not far from those changes .On this basis the researcher offered studied(Over the awareness of managers of insurance companies for strategic vigilance).Choosing sample of 35 managers in the National Insurance Company to test th
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Is the chemical industries of great importance for the economy of any country, through what is borne by these industries is an important part of the changes contained in the industrial output of transfer and, moreover, that these industries are overlaps and intricacies of sector-wide with the rest of the manufacturing sectors, with agriculture and services , through the offering of these industries produce Production requirements intervention such as chemical fertilizer used in the production of agricultural crops, in addition to the various areas for the use of phosphorus in the food industry, to the extent that it is difficult to find material Food preparation is not included i
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