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A Study of the Problems of Learning and Translating Idioms

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.

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Publication Date
Wed Apr 04 2012
Journal Name
The Iraqi Journal Of Veterinary Medicine
Toxicopathological study of aqueous extract of beetle cocoon Larinus maculatus F. on some internal organs in male albino mice

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of oral administration of hot aqueous extract of beetle cocoon Larinus maculatus Faldermann, in a two doses 50 and100mg/Kg/Bw for 25 and 45days respect- tively on some organs such as liver, lung, kidney, intestine, heart, spleen, and brain in male mice Mus musculus. The results indicated that there were toxicopathological changes in many tissues of experimental animals. Histo -pathological changes was dose and period dependent . It was found that the aqueous extract of beetle cocoon has undesirable effect at the administered doses, since the raw extract of this cocoon is currently being used in Folk medicine as treatment for cough, bronchitis in Iraq. This study revealed that the l

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Publication Date
Sun Sep 07 2014
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Study of Naidid worms community associated with two species of aquatic plants in River Tigris inside Baghdad City / Iraq

The present study is concern with the interaction between the naidid worms diversity and the species of aquatic plant within which the worms found . For this purpose, two species of aquatic plant were used, Ceratophyllum demersum and Eichhornia crassipes. 12 samples of aquatic plants were collected , as one sample monthly for a period from September 2012 to September 2013 from different site on Tigris river within Baghdad City. From C. demersum, 1428 individuals, were sorted during the study period, related to 17 species. 12 species of subfamily Naidinae which are Chaetogaster limnaei , C. diastrophus , Ophidonais serpentine , Dero ( Dero) digitata. , D.(D.) evelinae , Nais pseudobtosa , N.simplex, N.stolci , N.Paradalis , N.elingiu

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Publication Date
Wed Oct 17 2018
Journal Name
Journal Of Economics And Administrative Sciences
Evaluation of Quality of Health Service in Primary Health Care Centers / Case Study in Family Medicine Centers in Baghdad

The aim of this research is to identify the level of health services provided in the health centers operating in the family medicine system in Baghdad, and to determine the extent to which these health centers are applied to the internationally recognized standards , "Defining the quality of service gap between health care centers operating in the family medicine system and the standards adopted by the corresponding international centers (Al-Shabab Model Family Medicine Center, Al-Jahad Family Health Center, Al-Adhamiya Family Health Center, Al-Zawiya Family Health Center), and in view of what our health institutions are facing. The family of primary health care centers has difficulties, obstacles and challenges such as the diffi

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Publication Date
Thu Dec 13 2018
Journal Name
Iraqi National Journal Of Nursing Specialties
Study Some Parameters of HCV Isolated From Sample of Hemophilic Patients in Children Welfare Teaching Hospitalin Medical City/Baghdad

Objective(s) : This study aimed at evaluating the seroprevalence of anti -HCV and studying the
correlation between hemophilia and risk factors for acquiring HCV such as age , marital status &
occupation among hemophilic patients .
Methodology : 210 hemophilic patients in children welfare teaching hospital/medical city/Baghdad–Iraq
(hemophilia center) were investigated using prepared questionnaire and tested for HCV infection, those
were measuring patient’s age, hemophilia types and severity, marital status, residency and history of
previous HCV infection .
Results : Most hemophilic patients were hemophilia A at severe , hemophilia was at age group 20 – 29
years , the majority of patients were unmarried a

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Publication Date
Tue Nov 19 2024
Journal Name
Journal Of Baghdad College Of Dentistry
A Salivary α-Amylase Level in Relation to the Oral Health Parameters among Children in Baghdad City

Background: Saliva is a specific bio-fluid with important biomarkers. Analyzing any alternation in these markers could give valuable information, in relation to oral health status parameters. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of α -amylase in unstimulated whole saliva of healthy, primary school children in relation to some oral health parameters. Materials and Methods: A questionnaires consisted of demography and medical histories of participants were filled by children families. Saliva samples were collected for 5- minutes between 9:00 -11:00 AM from 114 healthy students aged 6-13 years, divided into four age groups. Flow- rate, Plaque and Gingival Index were assessed and dentition status was investigated by DMFT/dmft

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Publication Date
Sun Aug 13 2017
Journal Name
Ibn Al-haitham Journal For Pure And Applied Sciences
Calculating the Resolving Power For Symmetrical Double Pole Piece Magnetic Lenses By Using A Preassigned Analytical Functions

 In this theoretical paper  and depending on the optimization synthesis method for electron magnetic lenses a theoretical  computational investigation was carried out to calculate the Resolving Power for the symmetrical double pole piece magnetic lenses,  under the absence of magnetic saturation, operated by the mode of telescopic operation by using symmetrical magnetic field for some analytical functions well-known in electron optics such as Glaser’s Bell-shaped model,  Grivet-Lenz model, Gaussian field model  and Hyperbolic tangent field model.       This work can be extended further by using the same or other models for asymmetrical or symmetrical axial magnetic field

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Publication Date
Fri Mar 01 2019
Journal Name
Journal Of Accounting And Financial Studies ( Jafs )
Formulate a strategy to manage tax compliance risks: An applied research in the General commission for Taxes

  This research discussed and analyzed the formulation of a strategy to manage tax compliance risks, as an applied research in the General commission for Taxes. The questionnaire was used as a research tool to identify the factors that stimulate or retard the research sample from being compliant. The K-means clustering method was also used to enable the classification of the research sample's views into four behaviors, some of these views pose tax-compliance risks. The research concluded that risk management is a continuous process and that all departments of the General commission for Taxes are responsible for its implementation to enable them to deal with the behavior of the taxpayer towards tax compliance. And it recommended

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Publication Date
Sat May 01 2010
Journal Name
College Of Education Journal, Al-mustansiriyah University
Publication Date
Wed Apr 20 2022
Journal Name
Ibn Al-haitham Journal For Pure And Applied Sciences
A New Approach to Solving Linear Fractional Programming Problem with Rough Interval Coefficients in the Objective Function

This paper presents a linear fractional programming problem (LFPP) with rough interval coefficients (RICs) in the objective function. It shows that the LFPP with RICs in the objective function can be converted into a linear programming problem (LPP) with RICs by using the variable transformations. To solve this problem, we will make two LPP with interval coefficients (ICs). Next, those four LPPs can be constructed under these assumptions; the LPPs can be solved by the classical simplex method and used with MS Excel Solver. There is also argumentation about solving this type of linear fractional optimization programming problem. The derived theory can be applied to several numerical examples with its details, but we show only two examples

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Publication Date
Sun Sep 04 2011
Journal Name
Baghdad Science Journal
Spectroscopic Study for Resonance Effects on the Carbonyl Double Bond Order in Urea Schiff Bases Which Contain Conjugated System

In this work we prepared some schiff bases by condensation urea and benzaldehyde or its derevative ( bromo benzaldehyde or hydroxy benzaldehyde ) as ( 1 : 1 ) mole ( urea : benzaldehyde or its substitution ) to prepare compounds ( A1 , B1 , C1 , D1 , E1 , F1 , G1 ) and ( 1 : 2 ) mole ( urea : benzaldehyde or its substitution ) to prepare compounds ( A2 , B2 , C2 , D2 , E1 , F2 , G2 ) . The prepared compounds identified spectroscopic by infrared spectroscopy FT-IR and Thin layer chromotography T.L.C . The force constant calculated from the wave number for the carbonyl stretching from FT-IR chart and by using the following equation K = 4?2C2?'2? The change in double bond order for carbonyl deteremined in according with some past re

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