1、Lecture EightIdioms,Multiword Verbs and ProverbsIdioms,multiword verbs and proverbs constitute an important part of the English language.They are very common in spoken and written English.The general tendency of present-day English is towards more idiomatic usage.IdiomsAn idiom can be defined as a g
2、roup of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate words put together.Idioms are conventionalized multiword expressions.They are linguistic wholes that are greater than the sum of their parts.They may be treated as a type of collocation involving two or more
3、 words in context.The meaning of an idiom cannot be predicted from its components.For example,when we say Dont beat a dead horse,we do not imply that the carcass of a certain kind of animal is involved;what we mean is that the person should not waste time harping on about an issue that has already b
4、een decided.There are many different sources of idioms.Many English idioms come from the every-day life of the English-speaking people,e.g.to be born with a silver spoon in ones mouth,to make a clean sweep of something,to hit the nail on the head.There are many which have to do with food and cooking
5、,e.g.to eat humble pie,out of the frying-pan into the fire,to be in the soup.Agricultural life has given rise to to go to seed,to put ones hand to the plough,to lead someone up the garden path.Nautical life and military life are the source of when ones ship comes home,to be in the same boat as someo
6、ne,to be in deep waters,to sail under false colors,to cross swords with someone,to fight a pitched battle,to fight a losing/winning battle.Many idioms include parts of the body,animals,and colors,e.g.to turn the other cheek,the apple of ones eye.Classification of IdiomsPhrases like bell the cat,coun
7、t the cost,feel the pinch,and a bull in a china shop are idioms,as they have semantic unity and function as noun,verb,adjective,and so on.Structurally,idioms take many different forms or structures.They can be very short or rather long.They may consist of combinations of adjective+noun(e.g.cold war,
8、a dark horse,a pregnant silence),adjective and adjective(e.g.high and dry,safe and sound),adjective+prepositional phrase(e.g.green with envy,wild with joy),participle+noun(e.g.a beaten path,a burning question),noun and noun(e.g.bread and butter,part and parcel),noun+prepositional phrase(e.g.a snake
9、in the grass,a bull in a china shop),as+as construction(e.g.as clear as crystal,as like as two peas),prepositional phrase(e.g.at the double,in a nutshell),verb+verb(e.g.pick and choose,toil and moil),verb+noun(e.g.mix ones drinks,draw blood),verb+noun+noun(e.g.call a spade a spade,give the devil his
10、 due),verb+noun+prepositional phrase(e.g.have the advantage of;make a clean breast of)and so on.Some idioms are much longer,e.g.to fish in troubled waters,to cut ones coat according to ones cloth,come up smelling like a rose,have an axe to grind,hit the nail right on the head,wash ones dirty linen i
11、n public.Some idioms are combinations of verb+particle(e.g.abide by,look into,blow up,put off,look down upon).They are multiword verbs and will be discussed later.Idioms can be divided into three groups:The first group has irregular form but clear meaning.An idiom can have a regular structure,an irr
12、egular or even a grammatically incorrect structure.The idiom I am good friends with him is irregular in its grammatical structure.The second group has a regular form but an unclear meaning.To have a bee in ones bonnet has a regular form,but its meaning is not clear.It means that one is obsessed by a
13、n idea.Most idioms belong to this group.However,even in this group,some idioms are easier to guess than others.Take the example to give someone the green light.We can guess the meaning even though we may never have heard it before.If we associate the green light with traffic lights,we can imagine th
14、at the idiom means to give someone permission to start something.Other examples include come true,bring the house down.The third group is irregular both in form and meaning.This group of idioms has the form Verb+Preposition+Adjective,e.g.to go through thick and thin,to be in the swim,go great guns.T
15、here are partial idioms,in which some of the words have their usual meaning while the others have meanings that are peculiar to that particular structure.For example,the word hair in red hair has its usual meaning because it does refer to the hair growing from the human head;but red is idiomatic in
16、the sense that it does not refer to the strict color term.An interesting set of partial idioms involves the word white,since white coffee is brown in color,and white wine is usually yellow.Black is used as its antonym for coffee(though again neither is black in color terms),but it is not used for wine.Thus,what is and what is not an idiom is,then,a matter of degree.Consider,for instance,make up a story,make up a fire,and make up ones face.The first expression is used in its literal meaning,the second is a partial idiom,while the last is fully idiomatic.
