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.
The increasing demand for energy has encouraged the development of renewable resources and environmentally benign fuel such as biodiesel. In this study, ethyl fatty esters (EFEs), a major component of biodiesel fuel, were synthesized from soybean oil using sodium ethoxide as a catalyst. By-products were glycerol and difatty acyl urea (DFAU), which has biological characteristics, as antibiotics and antifungal medications. Both EFEs and DFAU have been characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. The optimum conditions were studied as a function of reaction time, reactant molar ratios, catalyst percentage and the effect of organic solvents. The conversion ratio of soybea
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So I present in the hands of the honorable reader what God Almighty has made easy for me in terms of what I dealt with in the rule (the principle of permissive things) and what branches from it and what is related to it.
This research was divided into an introduction, a preface, three demands, and a conclusion.
The preamble is to explain the meaning of the rule in language and terminology and the definition of the legal rule and what is related to it. The first requirement is to explain the rule that we have in our hands and the words related to its text - and is it a fundamentalist or jurisprudential rule? .
As for the second requirement - in the difference of scholars and their opinions in whether the origin of things is permi
The current theoretical research targeted to construct a model of terrorist personality and its differentiation from psychopathic personality . Several assumptions or theories of perspectives of psychopathic personality have been compared with the terrorist personality studies that concerned . The suggested theoretical model is interrupting the terrorist personality . The conclusions , discussions are mentioned. Finally, recommendation is suggested .
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This research explores the concept of cruel optimism in the context of challenging patriarchal, cultural, and social traditions in Ayad Akhtar’s The Who and the What. Cruel optimism, a term coined by Lauren Berlant, refers to the paradoxical attachment to positive aspirations that may ultimately obstruct personal fulfillment and well-being. This study examines how individuals who resist patriarchal norms and entrenched cultural traditions often face significant emotional, psychological, and social challenges. Through a multidisciplinary approach, including literary analysis, sociological perspectives, and psychological insights, the research delves into the lived experiences of those who strive for autonomy, equality, and self-realization
... Show MoreThe exercise of citizenship behaviors and their impact on customer loyalty (An analytical study from the perspective of workers in the National Insurance Company).
The Research aims to find out the degree of customers National Insurance company for customer citizenship behavior and its impact on the level oh loyalty from the perspective of employess in the company, as well as the statement of the differences in the answers of employees according to their personality traits. To achieve the goals of research has been the use of the questionnaire as a tool for the collection and distribution of data on a sample of (90) individuals, as was the use of statistical program (SPSS) in the process of statistical analysis methods (mean, sta
... Show MoreThe main focus of research is on how to achieve the internal and external dimensions of corporate social responsibility through human resources management strategies, which is a major of research aimed. The main problem of this research was confirmed, which confirms that there is an unclear role for social responsibility, lack of human resources management strategies, and ambiguity of roles in the municipality under study. The diagnose of the problem and determining the gap between the internal and external dimensions of social responsibility and human resources management was identified, which attacked the researcher's attention to navigate in this subject, look for the reasons for the gaps and try to reduce them. The case study
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The present work aimed to study the effect of Grave's disease on the different tissues and organs of the body by using Wayne Thyrotoxicosis Diagnostic Index (WTDI) and Basel Metabolic Index (BMI). To reach such aim, (35) patients were involved (25 females and 10 males). A control group of (15) healthy individuals (10 females and 5 males) was selected for comparison , as well as , the following: 1- Wayne Thyrotoxicosis Diagnostic Index (WTDI) applied on patient group and control group under the supervision of specialist medical team , this index include (19) sign and symptom , the appearance of one of them may be lead to the others. The sings and symptoms of the index appear only on the patients. There is no Significant di
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The plant licorice is considered important plants as nutritionally and medically and economically, as a rich in phytochemical, vitamins and minerals, and being widely available, Research indicated the presence of many nutrients such as (proteins, Carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) as well as presence of Glycyrrhizin which responsible of sweet taste, that allowing the possibility to use it as natural intensity sweetener with few calories in Sweetening of many food. This research is aimed to study the Stability of Glycyrrhizin toward the various manufacturing conditions such as (thermal treatment, pH of foods and microwaves), so three factorial experiments was implemented to find out the Stability as following: 100C° - 121C° - Microwa
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