Idioms

By Michaela Goff, Hannah Hedegard, Anna Kenolty, Stacey

Oware and Dominic Petschak

Are these idioms?

• Give the game away

YES

• A black look

YES

• Like a duck to water

NO

• To hit the ground running

YES

• A little something something

NO

• The bees-knees

YES

• By and large

YES

• Black sheep

YES

• A little you-know-what

NO

• Point of no return

YES

The definition:

• An expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, such as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language.

Properties Of An Idiom

1) Conventionality

Properties Of An Idiom

2) Inflexibility

Properties Of An Idiom

3) Figuration

Properties Of An Idiom

4) Proverbiality

Properties Of An Idiom

5) Informality

Properties Of An Idiom

6) Affect

Syntax Verb Phrase

Verb Noun Phrase

Determiner Noun

Lexicon

Function (words)

The

These

This

A

Content (words)

Chair

Believe

Interesting

IDIOMS

The Syntax-Lexicon Continuum

Kick

the football

Idioms In Different Languages

• It’s raining cats and dogs, the English idiom

• It’s raining rope/pieces of string or it’s raining like a cow pissing

• It’s raining old women with harrows on their backs

• It’s raining pocket knives or it’s raining ‘pitcher-wise’

• It’s raining a chair leg

Idioms In Different Languages

• The English phrase “To kick the bucket”

• To stretch the paw

• To kick the calendar

• To lay the piece of lead

To conclude…

• By and large

• Kingdom come

• The linguistic anomaly

• The Great Mystery of Language

The future of idioms…?