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 aims at identifying the notion of Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) pertinent to the performance of three general hospitals constructed inside the Sulaimani City, tracing the relationship between the quality of the indoor environments and medical staff (doctors and nurses) satisfaction level. Using some indoor environment elements in the right way will positively influence the mood, stress level of the medical staff, and patient recovery as a result. The POE toolkits (AEDET and ASPECT) have been implemented on targeted wards at the selected hospitals. AEDET and ASPECT questionnaires were distributed among 152 medical staff to obtain their perspectives. In total, 112 valid questionnaires were received. The medica
... Show MoreThe mobile phone is widespread all over the world. This technology is one of the most widespread with more than five billion subscriptions making people describe this interaction system as Wireless Intelligence. Mobile phone networks become the focus of attention of researchers, organizations and governments due to its penetration in all life fields. Analyzing mobile phone traces allows describing human mobility with accuracy as never done before. The main objective in this contribution is to represent the people density in specific regions at specific duration of time according to raw data (mobile phone traces). This type of spatio-temporal data named CDR (Call Data Records), which have properties of the time and spatial indications for th
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the impact of the merger of the companies affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals on their financial profitability since the companies before the merger suffered a rise in losses and the deficit reached very high levels that affected its overall performance and even on the morale of workers as losses are increasing and solutions Efficiency is absent. The problem stems from knowing the impact of the merger on the profitability ratios of the companies. The research field was represented by the companies affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Minerals (21) companies, while the research sample reached (6) companies after the merger (14) companies before the merger, was based on data The f
... Show MoreSurfaces quality is one of the most specified customer requirements for machine parts. The major indication of surfaces quality on machined parts is surface roughness. The research aim is to study the cutting conditions and their effects on the surface roughness. This paper utilizes regression models to predict surface roughness over the machining time for variety of cutting conditions in turning. In the experimental part for turning, different types of materials (Aluminum alloy, Copper alloy, and Gray cast iron) were considered with different cutting speed ( ) and feed rate ( ). A mathematical Model depending on statistical-mathematical method between surface roughness (Rz ) and cutting condition ( , ) were derived, for the three materials
... Show MoreThe problem of the tagged research (experimentation in the works of the artist Muhammad al-Kinani is an analytical study) dealt with the nature of the concept of experimentation and its work in the works of Muhammad al-Kinani. Which adopts the removal of the concept of style and artistic style and takes the experience away from the pattern of repetition The importance of the research comes through the identification of the materials founding the artistic work. The current research benefits the specialists in the field of arts from the students of studies with a new and renewed formulation of creativity. The research objectives shed light on the contemporary experiences of the artist Muhammad Al-Kinani and its importance in benefiting res
... Show MoreThe aerodynamic characteristics of the forward swept wing aircraft have been studied theoretically and an experimentally investigation for the wake field generated by this configuration have been carried out. Low order panel method with the Dirichlet boundary condition have been used to solve the case of the steady, inviscid and compressible flow. Two different panel method techniques have been employed: the source-doublet and the doublet method. The thickness for the various components was considered in the study. Prandtl-Glauert similarity rule has been used to account for the compressibility effects. Experimentally, a model was manufactured from wood with body length (290mm) and main wing span was (204mm). The primary objective of th
... Show MoreComputer modeling has been used to investing the Coulomb coupling parameter ?. The effects of the structure parameter K, grain charge Z, plasma density N, temperature dust grain Td, on the Coulomb coupling parameter had been studied. It was seen that the ? was increasing with increasing Z and N, and decrease with increasing K and T. Also the critical value of ? that the phase transfer of the plasma state from liquid to solid was studied.
The research dealt with the case stock repurchase policy of Emaar Real Estate Company one of listed companies in Dubai Stock exchange. The research has launched from the cognitive dimensions of repurchasing policy which took great concern in the literatures of financial management, and also this policy became as substitute for distributing the monitory profit in the last three decades in the international financial markets, but it did not get any importance in the Arab Markets such as that of the Arab Gulf in addition to the Iraqi Stock Exchange.
The research summarized a set of conclusions, the most important one was the consistence of analysis result with the test of the major two hypotheses (The first
... Show MoreTo observe the effect of media of the internal pressure on the equivalent stress distribution in the tube, an experimental study is done by constructing a testing rig to apply the hydraulic pressure and three dies are manufactured with different bulging configurations (square, cosine, and conical). In the other part, ANSYS APDL is generated to analyze the bulging process with hydraulic and rubber (natural and industrial) media. It was found that when the media is a rubber, the stress is decreased about 9.068% in case of cosine die and 5.4439% in case of conical die and 2.8544% in case of square die. So, it can be concluded that the internal pressure in the rubber media is much better than in hydraulic media. Also, the force needed for fo
... Show MoreBackground: Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) is a subclass of Immunoglobulin A (IgA), It is an antibody that plays an important role in mucosal immunity. It is the main immunoglobulin found in mucous secretions from mammary glands, tear glands and salivary glands, every pathologic process in the body involves the immune system, and periodontal inflammation is one of them and is not an exception. Material and methods: this study was consisted of 60 healthy male participants of an age ranged between (35-50) years old ; 25 of them with generalized moderate chronic periodontists(Clinical Attachment Loss equal to 3-4mm at ≥ 30% of the sites; 20 participants with plaque induced gingivitis and 15 participants had clinically healthy pe
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