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.
This study examines the relationship between the increase in the number of tourists coming to Tunisia and GDP during the period 1995-2017, using the methodology of joint integration, causal testing and error correction model. The research found the time series instability of the logarithm of the number of tourists coming to Tunisia and the output logarithm but after applying the first differences, these chains become stable, THUS these time series are integrated in the first differences. Using the Johansson method, we found the possibility of a simultaneous integration relationship between the logarithm of the number of tourists coming to Tunisia and the logarithm of GDP in Tunisia, and there is a causal relationship in one direc
... Show MoreThe study explores the use of ergative verbs in constructing clauses and their impact on the backgrounding of the agent's role in two selected short stories. Contrary to hypothesis No. 1, the research indicates that changes in sentence patterns don't affect the meaning of the process. Additionally, hypothesis No. 2 is refuted as the middle structure is found to highlight the agent's role in the science fiction short story, Terra Infirmum, rather than concealing it as hypothesized for "The Invisible Man." The analysis uncovers that writers utilize ergative processes to narrate stories in various ways, including transitive/active voice, intransitive/active voice, and transitive/passive voice. Furthermore, the findings suggest that writers emp
... Show MoreTechnological and digital development has allowed the emergence of many methods of producing semantics on social media sites within semiotic and propagandistic frameworks. This is what made the image appear in different molds and shapes, especially as it is the first material for visual perception.
This made the Israeli propaganda discourse use it as an important tool to manage the content of suggestive messages with semiological connotations. By doing so, such tool uses social networking sites as an appropriate environment to achieve those goals, which are related to cases of manipulating emotions and minds. It, moreover, changes convictions, attitudes, trends and behaviors according to what the propaganda planner wants.
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The aim of the research is to identify the extent of the ability to ensure the integrated reports by the auditor in verifying the credibility of these reports, and their implications for the benefit of all parties dealing with the economic unit, as well as measuring the impact of the assurance procedures followed by the auditors and their role in confirming these reports.
The research methodology was designed after studying the previous literature related to the research variables, and then the relationship between these variables was tested, through the use of a questionnaire list. A questionnaire targeting the community of auditors in the local environment, and the results of the study wer
... Show MoreA developed model has been put for the hypothesis of capturing moons in explaining the origin of Jupiter moons, and study the change of the orbital properties of these satellites as well as the distance from the planet. Jupiter moons were divided into two types according to their physical and orbital properties, they are the moons , which are formed from the same material as the planet, so it was named the original moons ,while the moons that have been captured from the surrounding space was renamed exotic moons . And the moons of exotic origin asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt in the region which is behind Neptune, the origin of each clique of moons is an asteroid fragmented after colliding previously with another body and
... Show MoreThe modern textual study researched the textuality of the texts and specified for that seven well-known standards, relying in all of that on the main elements of the text (the speaker, the text, and the recipient). This study was to investigate the textuality of philology, and the jurisprudence of the science of the text.
The research aims to identify the digital repository of the University of Baghdad, explain its features, how to register, explaining the mechanism for adding and retrieving research. In addition to identifying the number of people registered in and the number of intellectual outputs stored in it. The descriptive approach and survey methods were adopted by visiting the repository's website and the websites of the University of Baghdad's formations during the period (1-6/4/2024). The theoretical framework included an explanation of the concept of the digital repository, the importance of repositories, their features, and types, with reference to models of Iraqi, Arab, and foreign university digital repositories. The practical framework of the
... Show MoreThe hydrological process has a dynamic nature characterised by randomness and complex phenomena. The application of machine learning (ML) models in forecasting river flow has grown rapidly. This is owing to their capacity to simulate the complex phenomena associated with hydrological and environmental processes. Four different ML models were developed for river flow forecasting located in semiarid region, Iraq. The effectiveness of data division influence on the ML models process was investigated. Three data division modeling scenarios were inspected including 70%–30%, 80%–20, and 90%–10%. Several statistical indicators are computed to verify the performance of the models. The results revealed the potential of the hybridized s
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Abstract
The use of modern scientific methods and techniques, is considered important topics to solve many of the problems which face some sector, including industrial, service and health. The researcher always intends to use modern methods characterized by accuracy, clarity and speed to reach the optimal solution and be easy at the same time in terms of understanding and application.
the research presented this comparison between the two methods of solution for linear fractional programming models which are linear transformation for Charnas & Cooper , and denominator function restriction method through applied on the oil heaters and gas cookers plant , where the show after reac
... Show MoreEvidences indicate that human beings were preoccupied with extreme forms of mental and psychic experiences long before they were recorded in literature. Greek myths and legends appear to include symbolizations of delusions, mania, and other bizarre forms of thought and behaviuor. The figure of the mad man or woman is analogous to the wild man, or the imaginary being who appears in various forms throughout western literature and art. Various studies refer to the notion of the wild man as a response to a persistent psychological urge. This urge gives an external expression and a valid form to the impulses of reckless physical self-assertion which is believed to be hidden in all of us, but is normally kept under control. Such impulses were exp
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