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.
Abstract
This study identified the developing of a range of students' geography learning skills and the change in their attitudes toward fieldwork as a consequence of leaning experiences that occurred within a field trip. The sample of the study consisted of (27) students within a special topic course enrolled in Geography Department at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia in semester 2, 2018. A range of students' geography learning skills were measured by the skills questionnaire that consisted of 12 geography skills after completing field work. Changes in students' at
... Show MoreThe extract of fig fruit has shown significant medical usefulness in various fields. The entrance of nanotechnology into the field of medicinal and pharmacology has shown remarkable advantages. Plants contain diverse molecules thatcan reduce metals, and provide a safe, eco-friendly approach for synthesizing nanoparticles. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been reported to possess an antimicrobial effect against some strains of bacteria and moulds. We have aimed to synthesize IONPs from fig fruit extract and investigate the influence of fig extract and IONPs in wound healing of mice. UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and field emission scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the IONPs that were produced
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This research deals with the hadiths of intimidation. An analytical study of the serious effects of intimidation in society. Intimidation and intimidation of a Muslim is a serious matter, because of the anxiety, intimidation, and dispossession of others ’rights, but some consider it easy, and others intimidate jokingly or seriously, which may lead to such intimidation to have effects Serious.
For intimidation entails the death of the individual, the disappearance of his mind, or the loss of his money, etc., from here the need was urgent; to show the vision of the prophetic Sunnah in denouncing intimidation, so we had this humble research tagged with (hadiths prohibiting the intimidation of a Muslim in the books The six are an analyt
The purpose of this paper is to identifying the level of skill self-esteem of the young tennis players in the Governorate of Baghdad, identifying some aspects of attention (acuteness, concentration, and diversion of attention) among the young tennis players of the Baghdad governorate, and identify the skills of serve and serve spiking in tennis by young tennis players in Baghdad governorate. The researchers used the descriptive approach in the correlative relations style for its suitability and the research problem. the research sample was chosen in a deliberate way from the youth team players in tennis for the Governorate of Baghdad and the participants in the 2021-2022 sports season, whose number is (20) male players and (4) young playe
... Show MoreThe dangers of (Israel's) integration with Arab countries in the middle east region will threaten the Arab security structure dimension, which the latter makes the Arab regional system vulnerable for distortion due to its nominal and symbolic value which is far from the Arab self and questioning with its effectiveness in comparing with the real capabilities to Arab countries in achieving the common targets. So, how to assess the different problems that began to hit the structure of the Arab regional system? and how to pledge an allegiance after putting forward what is known as the American Deal of the Century for the administration of former US President Donald Trump for making another step toward normalization with (Israel)?. The reveal
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Copper (I) complex containing folic acid ligand was prepared and characterized on the basis of metal analyses, UV-VIS, FTIR spectroscopies and magnetic susceptibility. The density functional theory (DFT) as molecular modeling calculations was used to determine the donor atoms of folic acid ligand which appear clearly at oxygen atoms binding to hydrogen. Detection of donation sights is supported by theoretical parameters such as geometry, mulliken population, mulliken charge and HOMO-LUMO gap obtained by DFT calculations.
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The study aims to build a model that enhances trust-building for public and private banks to compare and determine the significant differences between public and private banks, by testing the impact of governance mechanisms (transparency, accountability, justice, independence, and social responsibility) (Agere, 2000) on trust-building strategies (trust and trust building, people management, work relations, training and development, leadership practices, and communications) (Ngalo, 2011; Stone et al., 2005), to indicate the level of employees’ awareness of the theoretical contents of the two variables and their importance to banking work, with the aim of improving performance. The main question is the role of governance mechanisms
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