1
A Basic Course in IDIOMATOLOGY
(An e-learning material for the introductory workshop.)
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INTRODUCTION
In the broader sense of the word, idiomaticity is understood as something that
makes performances in a language sound natural and appropriate to the ear of
native speakers. As a matter of fact, the concept of idiomaticity is believed to
operate through and across all levels of language analysis. Also for this reason,
some tasks presented here are meant to offer a springboard to more complex
considerations. It is believed that readers of the present text are not novices in
language studies, having been through university-level training in traditional
linguistic disciplines.
In a narrower sense, idiomaticity encompasses the lexical sphere of language
performance. Here word junctions are taken into consideration, the meaningful
correlation of which in concrete cases represents a continuum, from syntactic
strings (free combinations), via more or less fixed, habitual collocations, to idioms
proper. Some illustrative phrases are discussed here, mostly as prototypes. It is
expected that readers will find their own way of rendering similar expressions, i.e.
those falling into prototypical categories, from the point of view of their
processing. It is the author’s little idea to accompany the titles of the chapters with
idioms, in order to make readers try to “think in English”.
After studying this course, you will learn



what idiomaticit y actuall y means;
to appreciate the idea of identification with the English
“world”;
to comprehend the meanings of most idiomatic expressions.
You will be able
 to explain the idiomatic character of current English;
 to tell the difference between genuine idioms and collocations;
 to use idiomatic expressions “idiomaticall y” in your own
speech performances.
You will acquire
 the skills to increase fluency in your oral and written
performances;
 a deeper insight into the theory of idiomaticit y.
Key words:
Idiomaticity, idioms proper, habitual collocations, free combinations,
variability, literalness, figurativeness, compositionality, predictability
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The time necessary to study the presented material and do all the assigned tasks is
approximately 20 hours.
itions
diom”
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Chapter One
THE SCOPE OF IDIOMACITY
(“Idiomaticity is all double Dutch to me.”)
In this chapter you will learn


what idiomaticity and idiom generall y, in a nutshell, mean;
a few pieces of information on the history of idiomaticit y.
You will be able
 to render “et ymological” definitions of idiom;
 to explain why idioms have onl y recent l y been paid attention to.
Key words:
Idiom, idiomaticity, peculiarity, dialect, irregularity
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
U. Weinreich once wrote that “idiomaticity is important for this reason, if for no
other, that there is so much of it in every language”. Let us add: And mainly in
English! No wonder that some people are convinced that the English language is
all idioms, and that some even dare to regard “word” and “idiom” as
synonymous concepts.
1.1
The meaning of the word “idiomaticity” can best be explained as a quality
derived from the attribution “constituting (an)idiom(s).” Etymologically, the
relatively modern expression “idiom” (used in English since the late 1500s) is
based on the Greek / Latin “idios”, meaning (1) own, (2) private, (3) peculiar.
1.2
It is hardly possible to find a definition of “idiomaticity” in dictionaries. However,
there are some definitions of “idiom”, such as the following:
(1) the form of speech peculiar or proper to a people or country;
(2) the variety of a language which is peculiar to a limited district or class of
people;
(3) the manner of expression which is natural or peculiar to it;
(4) the specific character, property or genius of any language;
(5) the language or dialect of a people, region, class, etc.
6
You will understand that most definitions are “etymological”, as it were, and that
they seem to be synonymous with the word “dialect”. Hence it also follows that
idioms have been characteristic of colloquial styles rather than of academically
cultivated written styles. And of course such colloquialisms have very often been
criticized in the past.
Idioms in
colloquial
language
For Thinking
Which definition of ‘idiom’ comes into your own mind first? Think of some idioms
in Czech.
1.3
Relatively recently, pre-structuralists (and descriptive grammarians generally)
mentioned “idioms” in their essays, but they too seemed to look upon them as
phrases which broke the laws of grammar and logic; i.e. idioms did not fit into the
framework of structuralism.
For Thinking
Try to think of some Czech idioms that break the laws of grammar and/or logic.
1.4
A new wave in studies on idioms can be seen in the 1950s and again in the 1970s.
Yet we have to admit that idiomaticity was examined closely even earlier, by
Soviet (Russian) scholars who were deeply concerned with lexicology. They
proposed that “idiomatics” should be a relatively independent linguistic
discipline! Nowadays, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experiments have
added considerably to research on idiomaticity.
Spotlight on Idioms
You’ll notice that the heading of each chapter in this text includes a common
idiom. For this chapter it’s ‘double Dutch’, which means ‘something I don’t
understand at all, something that’s a complete mystery to me’. It’s claimed that
the idiom originated in the speech of English sailors, who had close contact with
their counterparts in the Netherlands. The sailors thought Dutch sounded
particularly strange to their ears, and so if we don’t understand something, we
say it’s ‘double Dutch’. Another language idiom is when we say that something is
‘all Greek to me’, meaning we don’t understand it.
Tasks
1. Most definitions of “idiom” point to peculiarity in language, thus implying
that “idiom” might be a synonymous concept to “dialect”. However, among
the five illustrative definitions (see 1.2) one is of a different sense, and could
be accompanied with such examples as idiom of Shakespeare, idiom of
colours, etc. Can you briefly comment upon this?
Idiomatics
as a
discipline
7
2. Dr. Samuel Johnson, the author of A Dictionary of the English Language
(1755), regrets that “colloquial licentiousness … sully the grammatical
purity.” What was his attitude toward idioms?
3. In 1988, Fillmore, Kay and O’Connor published their study entitled
“Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of ‘Let
alone’.” Although you may not have read it, can you judge what their opinion
on the status of idioms was? (see 1.3).
Summary
The aim of this chapter has been to set out the parameters of idiomaticity as a
modern linguistic discipline. In recent years the subject has come to the fore of
linguistic studies, and researchers into psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics have
begun to take an especial interest in the issue of idioms. Idioms have historically
been seen as part of colloquial language; however there are many possible
definitions of the term.
Study Guide
You may now be wondering just what you’re getting into with the subject of
idioms! It probably seems quite complicated, and you’ve probably found that you
don’t actually know 100% precisely what the word ‘idiom’ actually means. But
that’s the point of this course – to help you think like a linguist about the language
you commonly use every day.
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Chapter Two
IDIOMATICITY IN THE BROADER SENSE
(“Will my English pass muster?”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that idiomaticit y is believed to work as an “incorporating
discipline” of all research in language use.
You will be able
 to discern between (grammatical) correctness and idiomaticity;
 to find practical solutions of a few issues of idiom aticit y in its
broader sense.
Key words:
Grammatical correctness, acceptability, breaches of idiomaticity, accent
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
2.1
Idiomaticity will encompass not only idioms proper (see Chapter One) but alsoWhat
other
is
expressions which may violate the expected rules of grammar and/or logic (see Chapter
idiomaticity?
Three). And, moreover, idiomaticity is believed to be what makes the expressions in a
language sound appropriate and natural to the ear of native speakers. Thus we can imagine
that idiomaticity travels, as it were, through and across all language strata, from phonetics to
pragmatics. Viewed like this, in the broader sense of the word, idiomaticity has a right to
existence, at least in foreign language teaching. We assume that it is not enough to learn the
lexicon and the grammar; learners will soon understand that whatever they say/write in
English must have a peculiar, domestic “flavour” which renders the expression natural.
2.2
Idiomaticity
Let us note that what is considered grammatical need not be idiomatic, and what is accepted
and grammar
as idiomatic may often be ungrammatical. Native speakers and fluent speakers of English as a
second language will see immediately that there is something wrong with the following
examples:
ontextund
omaticity
eaches of
omaticity
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Illustrative Examples
My daughter [do:dr ] is writing [raidiŋ] a letter [let∂].
We must take a lift to get to his apartment.
We’re taking a plane to Paris tomorrow at 7 p.m.
May I make a photo of you?
Dear Mister President, I’ll come and meet you at the airport and give you a lift to our
place of the get-together.
(6) Oroonoko, a negro prince …, loved Imoinda, a general’s daughter. They sought her for
the king’s harem, and in the end the king sold her into slavery when he discovered her
love for Oroonoko.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
For Thinking
Readers of the present study material can test their level of knowledge (= idiomatic
command) of English now. All the illustrative utterances are, undoubtedly, correct from the
point of view of grammar, aren’t they? And yet which of them strike you as inappropriate (=
non-idiomatic) first? And which of them do you have to stop to think about?
2.3
Those who passed phonetic classes at university level will understand the impropriety of
swapping from a British to an American accent (pronunciation) in one’s unmarked oral
performance. And the same applies for the lexical and grammatical peculiarities of the
respective varieties of English. Then, remaining on British soil, fairly advanced learners
would be hesitant about the spelling and the choice of words when addressing a president, and
being well-trained and knowledgeable of the interplay of grammatical and semantic
phenomena, they would, very probably, prefer switching to passive constructions in (6). Last
but not least, learners must, indeed, be very advanced to sense (unless they have been told
explicitly by their teachers) that “to make a photo” is not the proper question to ask for
permission of taking a snap of (a)person(s), and that we do say “take a bus/tram/train,” etc.,
but not *take (my) car, and that “flying” is more appropriate than, literally, “(*) taking a
plane!”
2.4
Let us notice that, unlike the examples here above, it’s me; as it were; by and large, etc. are
incorrect, and yet they are idiomatic! The explanation is as follows: what we have in mind,
though subconsciously, is grammatical correctness. As we can see, however, also from our
everyday experience with language, speaking in terms of idiomaticity makes it easy for us to
incorporate into our cultivated speech everything that is generally understood to be acceptable
in morphology, syntax, semantics, and even in phonetics. Breaches of idiomaticity, including
faulty pronunciation, surely add to the foreign flavour in the learner’s speech, and they are the
strongest markers of “an accent”. In order to avoid this, teachers should pay attention to the
idiomatic performance of their pupils from the very beginning of the learning/teaching
process.
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For Thinking
Can you think of any examples of breaches of idiomaticity (including faulty pronunciation)
that marks out foreign speakers of Czech?
Spotlight on Idioms
This chapter’s idiom is ‘pass muster’. It’s another idiom originally from a naval (or military)
background and means ‘to meet the required standard’. The word ‘muster’, meaning a lineup of soldiers for inspection, is hardly ever used on its own in modern English, and has
effectively survived only as part of the idiom. You’ll come across many more idioms of the
same type, which preserve old words that would otherwise have died out – for example ‘give
somebody short shrift’, meaning to send somebody away and dismiss their request or
complaint, often rudely. Nowadays the word ‘shrift’ (an old English legal term) is only used
in the idiom, and even the reason why the idiom has come to mean what it does is unclear!
Tasks
1. Some linguists have maintained that it would do to have a supply of lexical units in our
mental lexicon and a set of rules in order to combine these, no matter whether we call
them ‘words’, ‘morphemes’, or anything. Do you think this requirement will satisfy the
language’s
need
for
natural
fluency?
2. As for the allegedly non-idiomatic utterances (1) to (6) in 2.2, you will get the idea of “a
more natural wording” of these after having read the comment in 2.3. Yet in order to be
certain, how actually would you re-phrase sentences (2) to (6) to make them sound (more)
natural to native speakers’ ears?
3. What do you find non-idiomatic in the following sentences?
- He could not climb a horse.
- He is known to have been making compliments to every woman.
- All conflicts have been finished.
(After J. Bahns, see Bibliography)
Summary
The aim of this chapter has been to show that idiomaticity is what makes language sound
‘natural’. It is breaches of idiomaticity that mark out foreign speakers as much as a foreign
‘accent’. Idioms often do not conform to correct grammar, but are an accepted part of usage in
the language.
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Study Guide
By now I hope you’ll have got a feel for what we’re dealing with in studying idiomaticity.
Idioms are probably the most things to master in a foreign language, which is only natural
because they really form the ‘final stage’ of learning. If you can speak idiomatically, you’re
likely to be mistaken for a native speaker! Of course idiomaticity is difficult to learn, but
persevere, and you’ll reap the rewards.
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Chapter Three
IDIOMATICITY IN THE NARROWER SENSE
(“Keep tabs on it not to receive the check!”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that idiomaticit y in the narrower sense of the word means
lexical idiomaticit y;
 that idiomatic expressions and their “simple” substitutions a re
not interchangeable.
You will be able
 to offer a definition of idiomatic expressions;
 to sense the fundamental difference between an idiomatic
expression and its simple substitutions.
Key words:
Lexical idiomaticity, concatenations, computation of meaning(s), figurative
meaning, simple substitutions
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
3.1
Idiomaticity
We finished the main body of Chapter Two by saying that teachers should pay heed to
andtheir
language
pupils’ idiomatic fluency from the very beginning. Nevertheless, our common experience
learning
shows that what is generally connected with the advanced stages of learning is something like
“improvement” of what pupils have already learnt. Yet in order to be fair, even though
idiomaticity is at work from the very beginning of the learning process, it actually works more
or less as a cline, as it were, with its wide, ever-increasing scope corresponding to learners’
advancement. In other words, the question is what to teach, and at which level. To a certain
extent, this seems to be a reflection of the learning process with native speakers. The
advanced stages, both with foreign learners and native speakers, will generally encompass the
sphere of idiomaticity, which refers prevailingly to the lexical side of language, namely to
idiomatic expressions.
Lexical
3.2
idiomaticity
Let us speak now of lexical idiomaticity, and let us understand by idiomatic expressions
such
concatenations of words whose total meanings are not simple computations of the expected
primary meanings of their components. In other words, and briefly, the phrase blue pencil can
be understood as ‘a pencil of blue colour’, but also as an idiomatic equivalent to “censorship”.
What is it that tells me about the latter interpretation (referred to as ‘idiomatic’ or
‘figurative’), unlike in, for instance, green pencil? You can admit, trying to trace the origins
ues as to
eaning in
oms
Fixed
xpressions
nd cliches
ubstitution
y single
words
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of its figurative meaning (i.e. etymology), that those who had the dubious right to intervene in
authors’ texts made use of blue crayons and therefore the aforesaid absence of simple
computation of meanings of ‘blue’ and ‘pencil’ is not absolute. Yet even if we accept this
argument, we shall surely come across phrases that do not offer any literal reading, which
might work for the existent figurative interpretation. For example, we can hardly imagine
literally “a blue joke” (unlike “a blue sky”), and yet the phrase has its meaning, namely ‘an
obscene joke’. And further on, there are phrases in which we do not find any clue or hint of
meaning computation, e.g., cook one’s goose; kick the bucket. Quite a few issues involved
here are worth discussing, and they will indeed be discussed in the following chapters: both
problems of variability or flexibility and also, above all, problems of the processing of
idiomatic expressions.
For Thinking
Can you think of any idioms in Czech using colours as components? Do you see any patterns
in the idiomatic meaning of the colours? What idiomatic meanings do the you find in the
English colours grey, red, yellow and pink?
3.3
You must have noticed that idiomatic expressions defined as it has been proposed above (3.2)
are more or less “frozen” phrases or clauses. Men of literature will very often refer also to
cliches, dead metaphors, and all sorts of figures of speech. Let us note that these belong to our
category, for example: Have a nice day. How do you do? You must have taken leave of your
senses. Bill joined the heavenly choir.
For Thinking
What exactly is a cliche? Try to define it precisely and think of some examples – both in
English and in Czech.
3.4
You must have noticed, too, that idiomatic expressions as multi-word units can often be
substituted by “single words”. Thus we can say, e.g., John died instead of John kicked the
bucket. And, certainly, we can use ‘obscene’ instead of ‘blue’ in blue film, as well as we will
not find it wrong to paraphrase heavy smoker as ‘a person who smokes far too much’.
Nevertheless, you have to admit that “simple substitutions” are not fully synonymous; they
seem to be either mere explanations of what is known as cognitive meaning, or they differ, to
a greater or lesser extent, in style. Thus ‘blue’ in our example says something more about the
film “being obscene”, and we all understand that “John kicked the bucket” would appear as
improper, and even vulgar, in many situations. Although we shall touch on the issue in
Chapter Ten, let us bear in mind now that there are constraints imposed on the
interchangeability of idiomatic expressions not only due to stylistic reasons, as these are
generally understood, but also due to the choice of other words preceding the respective
idiom’s occurrence.
Spotlight on Idioms
The idiom in this chapter is ‘keep tabs on something or somebody’. It means ‘monitor
something or somebody’. A ‘tab’ is a running total of the food and drink consumed in a
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restaurant which must be paid later, and it seems likely that in the idiom it refers to making
up-to-date notes on a particular subject.
Tasks
1. There is no absolutely unanimous definition of idiomaticity. Nevertheless, let us restrict
the meaning of idiomaticity to the use of the concept in its narrower sense. Can you
explain it, briefly and clearly, to non-linguists?
2. Rewrite the following utterances, employing idiomatic expressions (which you have learnt
in this chapter):
a) When the police got his fingertips, he knew that this was his end.
b) You must have gone mad.
3. Transform the following sentences into the style of unmarked academic English:
John’s a dark horse. He got into bed with his neighbour, and so another idea of mine bites
the dust.
4. At first sight, the phrase country house has no apparent features of idiomatic expression.
And yet it is “frozen”, syntactically and semantically. Can you comment upon this?
Summary
This chapter has concentrated on lexical idiomaticity, or idiomatic expressions. Often the
meaning of idioms cannot be predicted simply from the meanings of the words which make
them up. In other cases, idioms have developed from or into cliches. A notable characteristic
of idioms is that they often consist of multi-word expressions which can be replaced by a
simpler (non-idiomatic) alternative. Lastly, the style of idioms is often colloquial and may be
inappropriate in certain situations.
Study Guide
Now we’ve touched on one of the things that makes it so difficult to learn idioms – the fact
that often it’s impossible to tell what they mean. It’s no use trying to guess what ‘blue pencil’
means – you just have to know it! But don’t let that put you off – once you get learning
idioms, you’ll find it’s a lot of fun, and of course always remember that you might get
mistaken for a native speaker!
ee and
bitual
mbinations
15
Chapter Four
IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS VERSUS
FREE COMBINATIONS
(“If you seize the nettle, you may get burnt.”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that conventionalit y is, very proba bl y, the primary (if not the
onl y reliable) criterion to determine an idiomatic expression;
 that the sphere of free combinations and idiomatic expressions
will overlap.
You will be able
 to argue, convincingly and matter -of-factly, for the uneasiness
of keeping idiomatic expressions and free combinations
strictl y apart.
Key words:
Hyperclass of idiomatic expressions, asyntactic, compositionality, conventionality, chunks,
familiarity of use, frequency of use, fixedness, triteness, continuum, clear-cut phenomenon
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
4.1
You may have already heard of idioms proper and habitual collocations. As it is not an easy
task to differentiate between the two categories (though we will make an attempt at
establishing a boundary in Chapter 5), we have so far regarded them as a common hyperclass
of idiomatic expressions. We have also offered a plausible definition of these (in Chapter
Three), based, in principle, on semantic grounds. It is understood then that what cannot be
rendered an idiomatic expression according to the definition must be referred to as ‘free
combination’ (of respective “free” words/sentence members). Nevertheless, are we able to
determine with the absolute certainty where the sphere of free combinations ends and that of
idiomatic expressions begins?
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For Thinking
Of the expressions ‘blue pencil’ and ‘blue bus’, which is the idiom and which is the free
combination? Try to think of some other similar pairs, either in English or in Czech.
4.2
References to the asyntactic character of idiomatic expressions will appear to be less
explicative than some might believe, since most expressions referred to as idiomatic are
altogether grammatical, e.g., red tape; kick the bucket; leave no stone unturned. In this respect
they do not normally differ from free combinations, such as adhesive tape; kick the ball; or
leave the door open, even if we have to admit that the syntactic variability of idiomatic
expressions is restricted to quite an extent. (See Chapter Six).
4.3
The “semantic” definition of idiomatic expressions is not reliable either, since it entails
the
Composition(psycholinguistic) concept of ‘compositionality’, one that is woven from neat, ality
complex
relations between such phenomena as variability, predictability, literalness, etc. Let us only
consider the varying level of compositionality in, e.g., shoot a bird; shoot a film; or shoot the
breeze. No wonder that linguists prefer to work with relative terms here, referring to “loosely
fixed”, “relatively frozen” or “the least cohesive” expressions.
For Thinking
Of the three phrases with ‘shoot’ given above, which is the most and least variable, which the
most and least predictable in meaning, and which the most literal?
4.4
It is evident from the preceding argument that the most reliable criterion to tell the difference
Conventionbetween idiomatic expressions and free combinations will be ‘conventionality’ (rather
alitythan
grammaticality, compositionality, logic etc.). Thus (the hyperclass of) idiomatic expressions
can be viewed as unitary phrases, larger than one word, whose respective items have been
joined on conventional grounds. For example, the meaning ‘a prudish woman’ of the phrase
blue stocking has been conventionalised, similar to the meaning ‘go and open’ for ‘answer’ in
answer the door.
Spotlight on Idioms
Another example of a conventionalised phrase is this chapter’s idiom ‘seize the nettle’,
meaning ‘launch yourself into something unpleasant that cannot be avoided and has to be
done, even though you don’t like it’. Another idiom that has the same meaning is ‘bite the
bullet’ – which is a rather more dramatic image!
4.5
placement
“chunks”
17
There are several criteria for claiming conventionalization. Thus certain words tend to be used
very frequently together and many of the chunks become familiar. Hence they appear as truly
fixed. In this way we can explain the idiomaticity of expression in, for example, fly (instead of
‘take a plane’), pretty girl (not ‘handsome’), and even white lie or spill the beans (to stand for
‘non-offensive lie’ and ‘tell a secret’ respectively). It is not difficult for a linguist to determine
what underlies the proposed familiarity and fixedness: we can assume that it is prosody that
may have played a significant role in giving preference to one word rather than to another, as
well as rhythmical circumstances, versification, accent, etc. All this adds to frequency of use.
4.6
Due to language’s constant evolution and change, it happens that those fixed, familiar,
frequently used chunks become trite and, consequently, they tend to peter out and are
replaced. Thus fixation is not always proportional to frequency, at least not in the longer term.
And, taking into account also other constraints and circumstances such as geographical, social
and register varieties, we can assume that a free combination can often become an idiomatic
expression. For example, He was given a red-carpet welcome is about half-way towards the
truly idiomatic use of ‘red carpet’, and there are generally no linguistic obstacles to ‘redpencil’ to mean ‘correct/check with red pencil’, likewise we accept, conventionally now, the
figurative interpretations of blue pencil or red tape. As a matter of fact, we can accept the
opinion that the spheres of idiomatic expressions and free combinations overlap. In other
words, the two categories are believed to represent a continuum rather than clear-cut
phenomena.
Tasks
1. You will have understood the arguments raised by those who referred to the asyntactic
character of idiomatic expressions. Moreover, violations against logic are also mentioned
very often. Can you comment upon the following examples (and possibly offer some
more)?
How do you do? – I can’t seem to find my keys. – She didn’t never come. – a tremendous
beneficial …
2. The multi-layered phenomenon of compositionality (4.3) will be discussed in Chapter 9;
nevertheless, trusting your native-like intuitiveness and linguistic experience, try to order
the following phrases according to their increasing/decreasing degrees of
compositionality:
a) shoot a film; shoot the breeze; shoot a bird.
b) carry a heavy suitcase; carry weight.
c) commit murder; scream blue murder; discuss a murder.
3. There are several criteria for claiming conventionalization; which of them (4.5) do you
consider the primary (most important)?
4. Such expressions as I’d like to …, Could you tell me …, in my opinion, and the like recur
in conversations very frequently and they certainly are familiar and fixed. Would you rank
them among idiomatic expressions?
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Summary
This chapter has dealt with the crucial difference between idioms and free combinations. The
major differentiating factor is conventionality – idioms have become fixed, while the
components of free combinations can be replaced. In reality, there is no clear dividing line
between idioms and free combinations; they represent a continuum.
Study Guide
I hope that now you’re starting to get absorbed in the subject of idioms, and that you can see
just how common they are in everyday speech. Language is changing all the time, and so the
free combinations of today may very well become the idioms of tomorrow! If it all seems
rather complicated and even confusing, don’t worry. In the next chapter we’ll look together at
the idea of collocations, which should help you fix the subject in your mind more firmly.
Degrees of
ompositionlity
19
Chapter Five
IDIOMS OR COLLOCATIONS?
(“I am in a fog about it.”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that there are quite a few criteria (and approaches) to define
idioms and collocations;
 that the criteria should best be app lied in their complexit y.
You will be able
 to decide whether a given multiword expression should be
referred to as an idiom or a collocation.
Key words:
Compositional(ity), predictability, (in)variability, phraseme, variance, literalness
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
5.1
The application of the conventionality criterion involves many problems. However, it is
believed to be much closer to reality than the traditionally accepted reference to
compositionality. As has been pointed out before, there are many idiomatically combining
expressions whose meanings are distributed among their components, and therefore they are
more or less predictable. For example, commit murder is, no doubt, compositional, as opposed
to, e.g., scream blue murder, but what both of them share is the conventional basis on which
they came into existence. The fact of compositionality, however, keeps the two phrases apart:
commit murder is surely more predictable, unlike scream blue murder. Yet it is not a mere
free combination (unlike, e.g., write homework, a syntactically identical phrase): native
speakers would hardly replace ‘commit’ by potential synonyms such as ‘make/carry
out/perform’. Degrees of variability can certainly vary: thus shoot a film, as contrasted to the
truly non-compositional shoot the breeze, will be found less predictable than commit murder.
For Thinking
Try to find other objects that go with ‘write’, ‘do’ and ‘shoot’. Compare the phrases to their
Czech equivalents: do the Czech equivalents use the same verbs?
5.2
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O. Sonomura (1996) is one of those who see idiomaticity in the broader sense of the term. She
also rejects the term “phrase”, saying that the term has been used recently to imply stretches
of speech defined syntactically, and she suggests that we should speak of “phrasemes”
instead. Phrasemes denote a hyper-class which consists of idioms, collocations, and formulas.
C. Fernando (1996), on the other hand, distinguishes only two categories, namely idioms
and
Overlapping
habitual collocations, either with further sub-classification. In her opinion, idioms
and
categories
idiomaticity are closely related, yet not identical. A closer inspect into Fernando’s studies
shows that idiomaticity also implies a synonymous relation with collocation. She works with
the notions ‘variance’ and ‘literalness’, these being applied to either category, which seems to
speak in favour of the categories of idioms and collocations as overlapping ones rather than
clear-cut classes.
5.3
We can be satisfied with the following “definitions” of idioms and collocations (before
Non-literal
we
and
have discussed certain peculiar characteristics, which prove the fact that it is rather difficult
literalto
draw a sharp line between the categories):
interpretations
An idiom is believed to be a phrase that selects a non-literal alternative out of possible
options of a literal interpretation. Its most important characteristic is invariability, namely the
components of an idiom as a conventionalised expression are not re-combinable and cannot
be substituted. Examples: red herring; have cold feet.
Hence a collocation is viewed as a relatively fixed multiword expression, and also a
conventionalised one, in which the given constituent (component) predicts the appearance of
the other constituent(s) and which shows a relatively high degree of variability. Examples:
thin/flimsy/lame excuse; explode a myth/theory.
For Thinking
What would you define as the main differences between the phrases ‘red herring’, ‘silver
herring’ and ‘smoked herring’, or ‘have cold feet’ and ‘have hot feet’. Are they collocations,
idioms, or free combinations? How variable are the phrases?
5.4
Different linguists approach the issue of defining idioms and collocations from different
angles. Thus O. Sonomura relies on semantics while C. Fernando calls for lexico-grammatical
criteria. We suggest that both grammatical and semantic characteristics should be taken into
consideration in their complexity.
Spotlight on Idioms
This chapter’s idiom is ‘be in a fog about something’, in other words ‘be confused’. The
reason why the fog metaphor is used should be quite clear. Other weather idioms include
‘under a cloud’ (depressed about something) and ‘blow hot and cold’ (meaning to change
one’s opinion on something very often, to be in favour of something one moment and against
it the next). Try to find the meanings of the following idioms: under the weather, storm in a
teacup, make heavy weather of something, any port in a storm. Note that English weather
idioms tend to concern rain much more often than they do the sun!
21
Tasks
1. In 5.3 we read ‘have cold feet’ as an example of an idiom. Give arguments.
2. Would you consider the phrase catch a bus as an idiom or a collocation?
Summary
The idea of collocations is a useful one in understanding idiomaticity. Generally speaking,
collocations are relatively fixed while idioms are very fixed. Another difference is that idioms
tend to choose non-literal alternatives out of possible interpretations.
Study Guide
By now you should have settled into the subject and I hope you’re enjoying your studies!
You’ve just learned about collocations, which are very important in understanding idioms –
and language – as a whole. And once you’ve started thinking of language in terms of
collocations, I guarantee you can never stop! Now we’ve taken this important step, it’s time to
look at just how fixed idioms are. Move on to the next chapter!
22
Chapter Six
LEXICAL VARIABILITY
(“It’s a wild goose chase to probe into this issue.”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that lexical var iability of idiomatic expressions is restricted,
yet often possible;
 that modification by additional attributive means is “external”,
to express the speaker’s standpoints.
You will be able
 to judge whether the intended inner lexical modification of
idioms and collocations is acceptable.
Key words:
Introspective judgement, external modification, “semantic” intensifiers
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
The feature of (in)variability is a complex phenomenon which involves not only grammar and
not only lexis but both levels all at once. Allowing for the affinity between semantics and
grammar, the complexity of the variability feature is beyond any doubt. It is only for didactic
reasons that we discuss lexical variability and syntactic variability in the separate chapters 6
and 7.
6.1
In many idiomatic expressions the attributive modifier is an integral component, and it Attributive
simply
modifiers
must be present, e.g. lame duck; eat humble pie. The subtraction of one would lead to in
senseless utterances or imply a literal interpretation, e.g. *The industry here is a duck idioms
…; He
ate [a] pie.
Attribute insertion, rather than subtraction, represents a whole bulk of issues, of which only
some will be discussed in this chapter, namely cases of practical importance.
6.2
Let us notice that chunks described as V+NP (used to advantage whenever a concise
formulation is preferred to a lengthy description) are mostly simple constructions. Logically
enough, any further modification, as judged introspectively by native speakers, is found
mostly impossible. Occasional attributive modifiers appear as “subjectively evaluating” and
can best be regarded as intensifiers (in semantic terms), e.g. You’ve made a REAL dog’s
dinner of this. It may also be interesting that the more the expression is sensed to be
metonymical, the more possible it is for the expression to be modified. Thus private eye,
Lexical
xtensions to
dioms
External
odification”
23
meaning ‘detective’, can easily go with, e.g., famous in She hired a famous private eye …,
whereas nothing like that can be done with, e.g., the naked eye to have *You won’t see it with
the BLUE naked eye.
Spotlight on Idioms
This chapter’s idiom is ‘wild goose chase’, which means ‘a futile search for something
involving a lot of running around to no effect’. Other bird idioms include ‘dead duck’
(someone in a hopeless situation), ‘cold turkey’ (the uncomfortable state experienced by drug
addicts when they first stop using drugs), ‘clip somebody’s wings’ (to hold somebody back
and keep them under control) and '‘ugly duckling’ (an ugly child who grows up to be
beautiful as an adult).
6.3
It shows that chunks of NP-type generally have a greater chance of being extended lexically
than those of V+NP-type. It suffices to compare the examples in 6.2 with, e.g., I didn’t expect
him to cry [Ø] stinking fish. Moreover, if a qualifying attribute is used (being semantically
compatible), its grammatical form is either adjectival or adverbial, e.g., Because of a FIERCE
family feud …; He’s lived a THOROUGHLY clean life. It is easy to see, even for novices, that
‘fierce’ relates to the whole of ‘family feud’, while ‘thoroughly’ adds only to ‘clean’. Yet, and
this is much more important, the choice between one or the other category of “intensifiers”
seems to be based on the speaker’s sensing of the respective expressions as compositional or
non-compositional. Hence we can also apply a relatively powerful criterion in deciding
between collocations and idioms proper. If we can rely on that, then ‘family feud’ will be an
idiom, and ‘clean life’ a collocation. It is true, however, that also some transitory cases can be
found, ranging from the speaker’s intuitive acceptance of, e.g., REAL/REALLY wild goose
chase to (with the) Ø/ABSOLUTELY naked eye.
For Thinking
In the light of what you’ve learnt in 6.3, think about the expressions ‘private eye’ and ‘naked
eye’. Which is an idiom, and which a collocation. Or are they both idioms or both
collocations? What about the phrases ‘glass eye’ and ‘the evil eye’?
6.4
Things are not always as simple as they might seem to be from the preceding paragraphs. One
of the more delicate issues can be expressed as follows: What controls the acceptability or
non-acceptability of these and similar phrases, which everybody would certainly mark as
idioms (see the guidelines in Chapter 5), although they do not seem to be in line with the
postulates presented above: call the political tune; make rapid headway; *come an Italian
cropper. It is really difficult for a non-native user of English to handle peculiarities like these;
we refer to so-called “external modification”, which expresses the speaker’s standpoint, by
means of attributive modifiers of broadly qualifying function. (Briefly and in a fairly
comprehensive way, we can easily understand ‘political tune’ as “…viewed politically”, or
‘rapid headway’ as “fast progress”, but there is no possible interpretation of ‘Italian cropper’
like “…in an Italian way” or perhaps “…in Italy”!)
24
Tasks
1. The sentence He found himself in deep water as he had borrowed a great sum of money
contains the idiom ‘deep water’. Do you think it could be modified by subtracting the
existing attribute or by inserting another attribute?
2. Do you sense the difference in meaning (if any??) between (i) Professor Kay set his
students a good example, and (ii) Professor Kay set his students an example?
3. Select proper (i.e. semantically compatible and grammatically appropriate) attributes to
fit
in
the
blanks.
[absolute;
great;
genuine;
everlasting
…]
He’s the … fountain head of all truth. When is the … happy event? He came out of the
navy with an … clean sheet.
Summary
Some idioms are subject to internal variation, i.e. parts of them can be replaced with other
words of the same part of speech. Other idioms are fully fixed and cannot be varied at all. As
far as lexical extension (e.g. with intensifiers) is concerned, NP-type chunks have a greater
chance of being extendable than V+NP chunks.
Study Guide
What you’ve just studied was quite complex, wasn’t it? Don’t worry if it seems ‘all Greek to
you’! Language is a very complicated thing, and even experts in the field of idiomaticity are
unsure of exactly how it works in the cases we’ve been looking at. If you feel like taking a
break, now’s the time. How about going back over this chapter and revising what you’ve
learned before you move on to the next chapter?
25
Chapter Seven
SYNTACTIC VARIABILITY
(“Syntactic tabs are being kept on this issue.”)
In this chapter you will learn
 that idiomatic expressions tend to resist syntactic
modification;
 that mostl y onl y those idiomati c expressions which can be
extended lexicall y can occasionall y be made passive.
You will be able
 to offer arguments in favour of the generall y accepted
conviction which claims that the syntactic variabilit y of
idiomatic expressions is restricted semantica ll y.
Key words:
Syntactic flexibility, topicalisation, (in)divisibility, interplay, degrees of acceptability
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
Generally, idiomatic expressions are “frozen” chunks of words; and yet we can observe that
some variability is accepted, without a loss of idiomatic reading. In Chapter 5 lexical
modification was tested; here the following “flexibility” chances were taken into account:
clefting, wh-movement, topicalisation, relativisation, pronominal reference, ellipsis, raising.
Some results will be worthy of note for practitioners.
7.1
Native speakers (namely our respondents) were not always unanimous about the acceptability
of the syntactically modified alternatives presented to them. We found that the percentage of
their positive evaluation of the given alternatives varied between the ideal 100 and around 33
per cent. Here is an illustrative chart:
33%
66%
100%
John believed the beans
to be already spilled.
Those strings he wouldn’t
pull for you.
Homage was paid to
him.
26
We must consider, too, that syntactic variability/modification/flexibility has quite a few
forms, or categories, and that degrees of acceptability may differ. In practice we find many
(intentionally) modified expressions queer or awkward yet still acceptable, and others
awkward and barely acceptable, but not downright unacceptable.
The question is which syntactic modifications are most accepted or unaccepted, allowing for
subjective preferences by native speakers.
For Thinking
When, as a native speaker of Czech, you make a judgement on which expressions are
acceptable or unacceptable, what criteria are you actually using?
7.2
Various types
Clefting and topicalisation are very close semantic processes, and they are both generally
of syntactic
turned down as improper in idiomatic expressions, e.g., *It’s the bill that Sam foots (< to foot
modifications
the bill); *No weight Sam’s words will carry. Other syntactic modifications which are viewed
as barely acceptable are relativisation and pronominalisation, e.g., *The beans that Sam
spilled were a commonplace to everybody. *Sam spilled the beans because he didn’t know
that they were secret. Note that relativisation assumes predication on N’ (which is difficult to
imagine, e.g., The words that the critics ate were…???), or it suggests a literal meaning, e.g.,
Mary’s leg which Peter pulled [was cold/hurt/swollen…].
7.3
It shows that passivisation is accepted the most readily of all syntactic modifications.
Passive
However, our respondents did not all agree on the idiomaticity of all “passivised”
constructions
constructions, the reasons often being unclear. Thus we come across the acceptable Sam
wondered about the proposal: would muster be passed? and the unacceptable *Sam wondered
if muster would be passed, concerning the act.
For Thinking
To help you understand the ideas of clefting, topicalisation, relativisation, pronominalisation
and passivisation, go through the previous two paragraphs and apply these processes to some
random Czech phrases and idioms.
7.4
As pointed out above, we should believe in the idea of a spectrum represented by degrees
The of
acceptability. This is all the more reason for seeing the present issue from the perspective
of
acceptability
“continuity”. Put the other way around, there does not seem to be any straightforward
link
spectrum
between the formal categories of syntactic modification and the acceptability of specific
syntactically modified idiomatic expressions. Syntactic variability, though possible from the
formal point of view, is semantically restricted. The decisive factor seems to be the
‘divisibility / indivisibility’ of the expression, which is originally semantic, and hence also
27
syntactic. Having tested a good amount of examples, we can illustrate the interplay of
acceptability, syntactic modifications, and (in)divisibility as follows:
─
acceptability
degrees of
+
unacceptable [awkward/unacceptable – awkward/acceptable]
acceptable
clefting
passivisation
semantically
indivisible
[other syntactic modifications]
semantically
divisible
7.5
Relations between semantics and syntax are inter-woven so neatly that a relation between
lexically modified idiomatic expressions and their syntactically modified counterparts is also
expected. Thus syntactic variability, mostly passivisation, is likely to be accepted if the given
idiomatic expression can be, at least potentially, extended. This generally works in reverse
too; nevertheless we are convinced that lexical variability plays the dominant role. It also does
so in answering the question concerning the intentional differentiation between idioms proper
and collocations (see also Chapter 6).
Tasks
1. In 7.1 there is the example Those strings he wouldn’t pull for you to illustrate one
syntactic modification accepted by about 2/3 of respondents. Nevertheless, what is this
syntactic variation (from ‘pull…strings’) called?
2. Speaking of pronominalisation, what is it that hinders the acceptance of the utterance
*John spilled the beans because he didn’t know that they were secret (7.2)?
3. We refer to lexical variability and syntactic variability. Which do you think is dominant,
higher in hierarchy?
Summary
Some idioms may be syntactically varied using processes such as clefting, passivisation and
pronominalisation. Others do not accept this form of modification. The most readily accepted
form of variation is passivisation. It is unclear what makes some idioms accept variation and
others not, but it is possible that the reason will be found in the semantic content of the
idioms.
28
Study Guide
I hope this chapter has helped you revise some elements of syntax that you might have
forgotten! Now we’ve looked at how idioms can be varied and transformed, it’s now time to
concentrate on ourselves as language users. The next chapter sets us off in a new direction
now, looking at how our brains actually work. If you feel your brain’s not quite working up to
full speed, why not have a break and a cup of coffee or tea and come back refreshed to the
next chapter. Keep going!
29
Chapter Eight
THE PROCESS OF COMPREHENDING
IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS
(“The aborigines were sitting at the fire, chewing fat and chewing the fat
incessantly.”)
In this chapter you will learn


a few pieces of information on the processing, storing and
comprehension of idiomatic expressions;
to understand and, hopefull y, evalu ate the ideas presented by
psycholinguists.
You will be able
 to attest, using examples, the scope of validit y of respective
process hypotheses;
 to find your feet better in the abundant literature on these and
similar issues.
Key words:
Mental lexicon, single lexical
configuration, store/storage
items,
retrieve/retrieval,
semantic
decomposition,
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
If we eliminate all literal readings of potential idiomatic expressions, (not, as expected, of free
combinations), what is it that makes people understand these expressions properly in their
unambiguously non-literal (i.e. figurative) interpretation? You may object by saying that it is
context that serves as the decisive factor; yet there are quite a few phrases, e.g., white lie;
shoot the breeze, which do not have any reasonable literal reading, namely they can only be
read figuratively. Then we do not solve the “puzzling” issue of ambiguity but rather the way
of understanding the very core of the production and recognition of idiomatic expressions.
Here psycholinguistics is believed to have a say. As has been shown earlier, one of the crucial
points, and probably the most important, is the concept of ‘compositionality’.
8.1
Originally it was assumed that idioms were stored in the mental lexicon as a separate list. This
list was believed to have nothing to do with the list of “common” lexemes, out of which the
literal meanings of phrases were computed. Later on, psycholinguists hurried in with claims
that idioms were part and parcel of the lexicon and hence they must be treated just the same as
any other “word”. In brief, idioms are stored as single lexical items. Advocates of the former
30
approach were convinced that the separate list of idiomatic expressions was made on arbitrary
grounds and that the non-literal meaning retrieved by the speaker would be equally
Idioms
understood by the recipient. The latter approach seems to be more favourable, although
(1)and
it
does not solve properly the issue of synonymity between idiomatic expressions the
andmental
their
lexicon
single equivalents (see Chapter 10), and (2) it disregards the fact that people do not
always
take idiomatic expressions as single lexical units but rather attempt, maybe subconsciously, a
semantic decomposition of the whole. In any case, the literal meaning of an idiomatic phrase
is computed from the phrase’s components, while the truly figurative meaning will be
retrieved from memory (i.e. from the mental lexicon). It is also good to remember that idiom
comprehension (as one of the processing “domains”) is not a simple inversion of retrieval, or
vice versa.
Spotlight on Idioms
The idiom for this chapter is ‘chewing the fact’, which means ‘chatting, having a relaxing
time talking and gossiping’. Perhaps confusingly, the phrase ‘chewing fat’ is not an idiom at
all; it simply means somebody has fat in their mouths and is chewing it. To take that
unpleasant thought out of your mind, here are some other food idioms: a ‘big cheese’ is
somebody very important; if you are the ‘apple of somebody’s eye’, they think very highly of
you, and ‘bread and butter’ means everyday work which is very familiar to you.
8.2
Models of
Allowing for a certain degree of simplification, it is possible to match individual
comprehension
comprehension models with process hypotheses.
The Lexical Representation Hypothesis regards idiomatic expressions as being stored in the
mental lexicon in the form of morphologically compounded words, which are retrieved in the
same way as any other “single” word.
The Decomposition Hypothesis is based on the assumption that parts of idioms are
semantically empty and that the figurative meanings of phrases are obtained by accessing the
idiomatic meanings of the phrases’ components. Although it allows for much subjectivity on
speakers’ part, this hypothesis works in favour of the idea of continua.
As the name suggests, the Configuration Hypothesis offers the idea that the meaning (of the
idiomatic expression) is represented through a particular configuration of words, this
configuration being treated as a lexical item. Speakers are expected to recognise the
configuration first, which is said to be possible after a certain amount of information has been
accumulated. Although it seems difficult to define this amount, it is true that some parts of the
given expressions are more relevant than others, of which the most salient, called the “key”, is
decisive for the speaker/listener in looking for a figurative interpretation.
Tasks
1. Consider the utterance I gave the mechanic some money to grease the wheels: Is it the
literal interpretation or rather the figurative interpretation which flashes to your mind
first? And is there any (formal) means to restrain the ambiguity?
31
2. J. Aitchison (2001:197) wrote that “…we cannot automatically assume that going
upstairs uses identical muscles to going down but in the reverse sequence.” After you
have read 8.1 here, do you know what this simile was meant to say?
3. Act as an advocate of the Decomposition Hypothesis (8.2): are you able to mark varying
degrees of ‘decomposability’ (in our terminology: compositionality) in the following
expressions?
(i) carry a torch (ii) kick the bucket (iii) pop the question (iv)
read
a
book
4. The notion of “key” in Configuration Hypothesis (8.2) does not imply we work with the
term “key-word”! Can you specify the ‘keys’ in the following?
(i) by and large (ii) white lie (iii) Our Mum always wears the trousers.
Summary
The issue of how idioms are processed in the brain is of great issue to psycholinguists. Idioms
may well be stored in the mental lexicon not as their component parts, but as single units, just
like words. The three main models for idiom processing are summarised within the chapter.
Study Guide
I’m sure you can see that the way our minds process language is quite complicated and
involved. There is actually no definite agreement among linguists as to how idioms are stored
in and retrieved from our minds, so if you feel a bit unsure, don’t worry! Really the aim of
this chapter has been to make you aware of some of the interesting issues at stake. Read on!
32
Chapter Nine
PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF COMPOSITIONALITY
(“If I learn this passage, I’ll paint the town red.”)
In this chapter you will learn



to find your way around the trul y complex phenomenon of
compositionalit y;
that the decisive role in either literal or figurative
interpretation is played by context;
that
there
is
no
straightforward
relation
between
compositionalit y and predictabilit y.
You will be able
 to approximate a native -like retrospective judgement on
differentiating between literal and figurative meaning.
Key words:
Compositionality, decomposition, variability, (non-)analysable, cumulative aspect, key,
context, literal/figurative reading (interpretation), predictability, semantic/lexical
decomposition, (syntactic) well-formedness
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
You will have noticed that the notion of ‘compositionality’ is woven out of neat interrelations
between variability and literalness, while these phenomena by themselves are represented by
what is referred to as syntactic flexibility and lexical modification, and as literal, non-literal
or figurative readings or interpretations [of the idiomatic expressions in question]. For the
sake of brevity, the present chapter will address only some of the important issues, with
deliberate regard to practical outcomes.
9.1
Let us recall the complexity of the phenomenon referred to as compositionality. Idiom
processing does not depend on syntactic and lexical variability “per se” but rather on (the
degree and nature of) semantic decomposition. First it is required that an idiomatic expression
should be determined as semantically analysable or non-analysable, and only then is it
possible to consider its variability.
mulative
ect
urative vs.
al
rpretation
33
9.2
The concept of compositionality makes it possible to depict, and understand, what we call
“cumulative aspect”. If each component has its literal meaning, then the meaning of the whole
expression, as a cumulation of the respective literal meanings, will also be literal. Yet very
often such a “free combination” can turn into a genuine idiom, offering an interpretation that
we call “figurative”. Consider for instance, this sentence: I came to see John, my old friend
and a retired stationmaster, only to find he’d fallen off the wagon. Does it mean that ‘John
tried to climb a wagon and fell’, or does it say anything about John’s drinking? You can argue
that “the key”, represented here by the article ‘the/a wagon’, will be the decisive factor.
However, you must admit that in speech (i.e. spoken performance) such a “key” can easily be
misheard. Hence we have to consider a more powerful concept to bias the interpretation,
which undoubtedly is context.
Spotlight on Idioms
The idiom ‘be on the wagon’, which you have met in the previous paragraph, means to
abstain from drinking alcohol.
For Thinking
Can you think of any other situations in language use in which context is the only possible key
to the speaker’s intended meaning? You may want to consider pronunciation, syntax or any
other aspects of language use.
9.3
We will all share the view that there is no evidence of figurative interpretation if the context
offers literal interpretation, e.g., After a long walk down from the mountains they finally hit
the road. Yet there may be contexts which we shall consider neutral, e.g., As Mary insisted, I
decided to turn back the clock. Of course, contexts such as this one are minimal, and one can
object, rightly enough, that we are usually involved in language performances of larger
stretches than one isolated sentence. And yet the reading of the idiomatic expression used will
be (perhaps surprisingly for some) figurative from the beginning. In other words, the
interpretation that flashes on the listener’s mind first is figurative (idiomatic). Or would you
perhaps think of your friend having bought, physically, a red carpet if s/he said: “My aunt is
coming to see us so we’ll have to roll out the red carpet”? This example, and hundreds of
others, speak in favour of the idiomatic processing model which assumes that processing
begins from the idiomatic meaning first of all. Only then, if the idiomatic meaning proves to
be inappropriate, does the construction of an alternative literal meaning follow.
For Thinking
Try to think of some examples of idioms in Czech which listeners understand as figurative,
rather than literal (even though they could theoretically also have a literal meaning), from the
very beginning.
9.4
34
The speaker, too, is involved in the same way of processing, even though his/her way
is not of
Reactions
believed to follow exactly the reverse path. The listener can react pragmatically in athe
different
listener
manner to what the speaker intended to express. Thus we imagine that on both sides of the
communicative act we have to solve the problem of predictability, i.e. whether and how the
components of the idiomatic expression add to the total, overall meaning. Hence it also
follows that compositionality and predictability are not interchangeable terms: while
compositional expressions are always predictable, it does not logically follow that noncompositional expressions must necessarily be unpredictable. Briefly, some noncompositional expressions are fairly predictable, through metaphors, metonymies, and
perhaps other figures of speech.
9.5
Those who are deeply concerned with the present issues should have the following in mind
when consulting other sources and, mainly, when thinking about the issues.
First, referring to an expression as compositional or non-compositional is not a matter of
statics but rather dynamics, corresponding to the processual analysability in
speaker’s/listener’s mind.
Second, by ‘decomposition’ linguists understand semantic decomposition, which is obviously
not the same as lexical decomposition.
Third, there is no direct relation between compositionality and “well-formedness” (viewed
syntactically).
Spotlight on Idioms
This chapter’s heading idiom is ‘paint the town red’, which means to go out and celebrate in
boisterous style. Why do you think the phrase uses the colour red?
Tasks
1. Allowing for minimal contexts, which of the two presented sentences do you interpret
literally, and, respectively, in a figurative way?
I came to see John, my old friend and a retired stationmaster, only to find
(a) he’d broken his leg.
(b) he’d fallen off the wagon.
2. Can you comment upon the compositionality and predictability of these?
(a) If only the clock could be turned back!
(b) It does one good to blow off steam occasionally.
3. In Chapter 8 you were set Task 3 concerning varying degrees of compositionality in four
illustrative phrases. You no doubt solved the assignment successfully; now try to make use
of the same examples to prove that semantic decomposition is not the same as lexical
decomposition.
(9.5)
35
Summary
Whereas free combinations usually have literal meanings, true idioms are interpreted
figuratively by listeners. If each component in the phrase has a literal meaning, the total
meaning of the phrase will be literal. However context is also a key factor in determining the
listener’s interpretation of the phrase in question.
Study Guide
It won’t have been new to you that context is a very important element in understanding
language, or that language can also be interpreted figuratively. But I hope this chapter has
opened your eyes to the fact that idioms are more context-bound and figurative than most
other types of language. It’s no coincidence, then, that we often consider idioms to be
‘poetic’, quirky or beautiful – after all, figurative language is what poetry’s all about!
36
Chapter Ten
CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND INTERCHANGEABILITY
(“Did you hit the ceiling when you got angry?”)
In this chapter you will learn


that variant idiomatic expressions are only acceptable if their
substituting and substituted components belong to the same
semantic field;
that many idiomatic expressions appear synonymo us, and yet
they are not always interchangeable.
You will be able
 to judge the appropriateness and possibilities of
interchangeabilit y of synonymous idiomatic expressions.
the
Key words:
Conceptual/underlying/root metaphors, substitution, interchangeability, semantic field,
action phasing
Time for study: 3 – 4 hours
Those of you who studied the preceding passages carefully, together with some other
materials, will agree that - contrary to the simplified opinion - not all idiomatic expressions
are non-compositional. From the psycholinguistic point of view, the process of potential
decomposability is not difficult to imagine in ‘white lie’, or in ‘spill the beans’ and similar
collocations. This is because the processing of expressions like these is not a matter of lexical
items, but rather of semantics (See 9.5). Thus ‘white’ is a direct metaphor for “harmless”
(opposed to ‘black’ or ‘blue’), and ‘beans’ refers to the idea of “secret” and ‘spilling’ to an
act of “revealing”, these being fairly comprehensible conceptual (underlying, root)
metaphors.
10.1
Substitution
of
With reference to the preceding paragraph, we can start by asking the question whether
it is
single
acceptable to substitute one component of the given idiomatic expression without breaking
down the expected figurative reading of the whole. The answer is positive in manycomponents
cases,
although the substitution (one element of interchangeability) is very often the speakers’
preference of their own geographical varieties or simply their rejection of the altered
expression as old-fashioned, strange or unfamiliar. Linguistically, we can assume that the
substitution is likely to be accepted if the new lexical item is felt to belong to the same
semantic field as the original one and its figurative referent. For example: fasten/button one’s
lips; hit the sack/hay; unlike bury one’s differences for the more familiar bury the hatchet.
al and
ative
pretations
onimity of
ressions
e role of
ntext in
erpretation
37
It is worthy of note that the above-mentioned linguistic ground is subjected to speakers’
preferences in the sense of conventionality and familiarity, these criteria working in accord
with the dynamism of language change. Therefore seize/grasp the nettle will be read both
literally and figuratively, while grab the nettle now has only a literal interpretation. On the
contrary, ‘target’ is already used in its figurative sense too (sharing the semantic field with
‘goal/aim’), but in order to express the idea ‘achieve what one has set as goals’ the
corresponding phrase may only read achieve the target, and not hit the target (which is
interpreted in a literal way).
For Thinking
Try to think of some other words, similar to those above but in Czech, which have gradually
shifted in meaning from literal (figurative only as part of an idiom) to figurative (on their own
too) during your lifetime.
10.2
Very frequently we face the problem of the interchangeability of idiomatic expressions as
whole chunks, thinking in terms of their synonymity. And we must also consider the relations
of each of those idiomatic expressions toward their “common” single non-idiomatic
equivalent. For example, not only can we use the ‘substitutions’ let/blow off steam, but also
blow one’s top, hit the ceiling, get steamed up, flip one’s lid, blow/lift/take the lid off, and
many others, all of them meaning ‘get angry’. It holds that although all these expressions
(including the single non-idiomatic one) are synonymous, they are not always
interchangeable. And this is not only due to inappropriateness of style. What they do have in
common is people’s conceptual understanding of one of human emotions, i.e. anger.
Otherwise, they reflect underlying metaphorical concepts which are not fully identical in each
and every expression. For example, the synonymous blow off steam and bite somebody’s head
off are not interchangeable because the metaphor (based on people’s folk conception) in the
former phrase works with the image of ‘anger as accumulated vapour’, whereas in the latter
case with the mental image of ‘a beast’s behaviour in anger’. As a matter of fact, the choice of
one or the other phrase is context-oriented, in the sense that the mental image is prepared
beforehand during the discourse, perhaps subconsciously, as dependent on the prevailing
semantics of the lexical units used before the idiomatic expression is uttered. (An illustration
can be seen in Task No. 3, consisting of abridged versions by Nayak & Gibbs, 1990, 1991.)
Also important, or even decisive, is what we could call ‘reference to phasing of action’. This
factor seems to be fairly easy to grasp even for non-native speakers. For example, if you hear
“I understand you must have been upset, so you did really well to get angry”, you sense that
‘get angry’ is not exactly what you would say yourself. Nor is anything like ‘… to get hot
under the collar’ considered fully appropriate, for what we expect to say is the implication of
the last phase, namely that of the “accumulated pressure” (i.e. the image of the preceding
phase) being suddenly “released”. Then, very probably, ‘get steamed up’ or ‘blow [your]
stack’ (and similar) would be more appropriate expressions.
Spotlight on Idioms
This chapter’s heading idiom is ‘hit the ceiling’, which means to lose one’s self-control
through anger. Other idioms with the same meaning, or variations on the same theme (in
addition to the ones discussed in 10.2), are ‘hit the roof’, ‘go through the roof’ or ‘go
bananas’.
38
Tasks
1. In a broader (psycholinguistic) sense of compositionality, idiomatic expressions may
undergo “modifications” of various qualities and of varying degrees. Unless you are
native-like users of English, verify the acceptability of the following phrases with genuine
native speakers:
(a) John didn’t spill a single bean.
(b) In the end I managed to shatter the ice by …
2. The following one-component substitutions do not appear to hinder the figurative
meaning of the expressions:
grasp/seize the nettle; let/blow off steam; turn/put the clock back; lift/take the lid off; hit
the road/trail; wear the trousers/pants.
What are the “alternatives” based on from the linguistic point of view?
3. Read the story and suggest a proper idiomatic expression meaning basically ‘get angry’
to end the story with.
Mrs Brown is a bear about her kids’ rooms being always clean. She’s always prowling
around the house watching the children like a hawk, and whenever they try to make a
mess, she …
Summary
As language gradually changes, in many cases words that previously had a figurative meaning
only as part of an idiom gradually acquire a figurative, as well as a literal, meaning in free
combinations too. In cases of synonymous idioms, not all such idioms are always
interchangeable. This is due both to style and to the metaphorical (figurative) content of the
idiom, which may not always be suitable for the given context.
39
Study Guide
Now we’ve reached the end of this course, I hope you’ve got a much clearer idea of what
idioms are, how they work and how you can use them in your everyday speech and teaching.
Idioms are one of the things that make English particularly difficult for foreign learners, but if
you bear in mind a few of the principles that you’ve learnt in this course, I’m sure you’ll be
able to make much more confident use of idioms when you speak and teach the language.
Good luck!
40
41
KEY TO TASKS
Chapter One
1. Definition 4 suggests that the meaning of the word “idiom” can also be interpreted as
“style”, in the sense “characteristic feature(s) of somebody / something”.
2. Dr. S. Johnson inveighed against illiterate (“impolite”) writers who brought in all sorts of
idiomatic innovations. His striving for the fixation and purity of English was inconsistent
with
the
peculiar,
dialectal
character
of
idioms.
(1.2)
3. Traditionally, to know a language has meant to have in memory a “list” of morphemes
and a set of rules by means of which the respective morphemes are combined into higher
units. Idioms, however, seem to be too irregular to fit grammatical constructions.
Chapter Two
1. Paraphrasing some distinguished linguists, even if you know the lexicon and the grammar
of the particular language, you may not know what the given phrase means, or how to
express it, or even whether this is a conventional way of saying of what it actually says.
Achieving the desired fluency in a language presupposes a lot more than knowing the
meanings of thousands of individual vocables (i.e. dictionary entries) and of regulations
(rules, or laws) of grammar.
2. (ad1) - An Englishman would, very probably, say “We must take a lift … his flat,” while
an American would say “We’ve got to take an elevator … his apartment.” (ad2) - ”We’re
flying to Paris at 7 p.m. tomorrow” is, indeed, “more” English, (ad3) as well as “May I
take a photo of you?”, which is, as a matter of fact, the only wording possible in the given
situation. (ad4) - We can allow for so-called contracted forms in speech but hardly so in a
letter addressed to “Mr. President”, and we would prefer to use synonymous expressions
of stylistically higher rank, such as “offer… transportation”, and “reunion” for the original
“give… a lift” and “get-together”, respectively. (ad5) – The semantics of the passive voice
generally, and in Modern English especially, leads us to prefer the substitution of the
empty “they” by the personal, and grammatically cataphoric, “she”, i.e. “Imoinda”. Hence
the second sentence should read preferably: “She was sought for the king’s harem…”
3. The sentences should read:
- He could not mount a horse.
- He is known to have been paying compliments to every woman.
- All conflicts have been resolved.
42
Chapter Three
1. See 3.2: For example, if I add the expected standard meaning of ‘red’ to the meaning of
‘herring’ and yet the total meaning of red herring has nothing to do with a species of fish
but is roughly equivalent to ‘evasive answer/reaction’.
2. a) … that his goose was cooked.
b) You must have taken leave of your senses.
3. John is a queer, unpredictable man. He entered into a business contract with his
neighbour, and so another idea of mine died/ceased to exist.
4. Having consulted any good dictionary we learn that country house does not only denote a
dwelling constructed in the country (hence the expected computation of the components’
meanings) but, for good measure, ‘a fairly large estate, often of historical significance, and
(at least partly) accessible to the public’.
Chapter Four
1. Here expressions of various types range from word combinations hardly translatable
verbatim to another language (e.g., How are you?) through slightly peculiar, illogical
constructions (e.g., I don’t believe that he’ll come.), to yet more specific cases of double
negation (e.g., I don’t know nothing.) and syntactico-lexical blends (e.g., a relatively few
members of …; not in the sleast < “slightest + least”).
2.
COMPOSITIONAL
COMPOSITIONAL
shoot a bird
carry a suitcase
discuss a murder
NONshoot a film
carry weight
commit murder
shoot the breeze
scream blue murder
3. Frequency of use.
4. They are believed to illustrate a great amount of phrases/clauses which border on free
combinations from one side and on idiomatic expressions from the other side. (See 4.6).
Chapter Five
1. The phrase is practically invariable for its intended non-literal interpretation, namely ‘lose
courage’. Any modification (lexical, syntactic) would lead to a literal reading, e.g., have
both feet cold (as stone).
2. The phrase shows a relatively high degree of variability, e.g., catch an early morning bus,
and also N’ is predictable, namely, catch a train/plane/ferry (but not *catch my car).
Therefore the phrase will be a good example of collocation.
Chapter Six
43
1. Subtraction of ‘deep’ is impossible because the resulting literal interpretation (He found
himself in water) does not match the context. Insertion of another attribute does not seem
to be appropriate, either, perhaps except such “intensifiers”, vague as they are, as
‘real/right’.
2. Sentence (ii) is, unambiguously, one of literal interpretation, whereas sentence (i) could be
read (unless we have a context) as (ii), with the NP ‘a good example’ being viewed as a
standard free combination, or, more probably, in a more or less figurative sense ‘Professor
Kay’s students will, hopefully, try to work and behave as he does’.
3. He’s the absolute/genuine/everlasting fountain head … When is the great happy event? He
came out of the navy with an absolutely clean sheet.
Chapter Seven
1. Topicalisation.
2. Pronouns are expected to refer (cataphorically) to concrete grammatical components; here
“they” stands for “beans”, but the component “beans” is impossible to read as ‘(secret)
news’.
3. It shows that idiomatic expressions which can be extended lexically tend also to be
modified syntactically. Then out of all possible syntactic modifications it is passivisation
that is statistically the most frequent. Hence we can assume that lexical variability is
dominant.
Chapter Eight
1. Native-like judgment will speak in favour of the figurative interpretation of ‘grease the
wheels’, something like “to make him do [the inspection] properly and quickly enough”.
If the utterance should have a literal reading, say, unambiguously, then the infinitive
condensed construction would preferably be “in order to grease…”.
2. Comprehension [of idiomatic expressions] and retrieval are not merely inverse processes.
3. In order from the decomposable (fully compositional) to the non-decomposable:
read a book → pop the question → carry a torch → kick the bucket.
4. (i) grammatically deviant; (ii) in conflict with cognitive meaning; (ii) the definite article
“the trousers”: the wording “…wears trousers” would unambiguously have a literal
interpretation.
Chapter Nine
1. Sentence (a) is, no doubt, interpreted literally; sentence (b) will be read in a figurative
way. (9.2)
2. Both are believed to be interpreted figuratively; both are basically non-compositional,
although one will sense that (b) is even less decomposable than (a). Correspondingly
enough, their predictability also differs: ‘the clock’ in (a) has a more straightforward
44
conventional bearing on the time passed in one’s life, whereas ‘blow off steam’ in (b) is
understood as being based on the underlying conceptual metaphor ‘ANGER IS HEATED
FLUID IN A CONTAINER’, which is more complex, and more complicated, from the
point of view of familiarity effect than the conventional metaphor of ‘the clock’. (9.4, 9.5)
3. What we take into account is ‘semantic fields’, i.e. clusters of lexical items that go
together, and we point to a set of concepts whose lexical labels flashing into the speaker’s
or listener’s mind touch at least one nuclear concept or feature.

‘pop’ and ‘the question’ refer directly to their idiomatic referents, sharing, respectively, the nuclear
semantic feature with ‘make a sudden offer’, and ‘would you marry me?’.

each part of ‘carry a torch’ refers to a certain metaphorical relationship between the respective
component and the referent: ‘carry’ can be understood almost literally, ‘torch’ can be identified as
a conventional metaphor for ‘warm feelings’.

it is impossible to discern individual components in ‘kick the bucket’ which might add to the
idiomatic meaning: looking for (an) underlying metaphor(s) is looking for etymology, hence we
find it more convenient to refer to the conceptual relations within semantic fields as only
“historical” (rather than arbitrary).
(Examples after Nayak & Gibbs, 1990)
Chapter Ten
1. Psycholinguistic reasons should not hinder the acceptance of both sentences (a) and (b).
The former is a sort of artistically creative variant of the familiar original expression ‘spill
the beans’, and the latter is an example of semantic productivity (rather than of lexical
flexibility), with the unit ‘shatter’ belonging to the same semantic field as the unit ‘break’
for the given figurative context.
2. The interchanging elements are synonymous lexical units which come from one semantic
field. (10.1)
3. For instance ‘… she bites their heads off’ matches the context. The root metaphor is based
and gradually built up upon the semantics of the units ‘bear, hawk, prowling’.