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.
Abstract
The aim of the current research is to prepare an integrated learning program based on mathematics standards for the next generation of the NYS and to investigate its impact on the development of the teaching performance of middle school mathematics teachers and the future thinking skills of their students. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researcher prepared a list of mathematics standards for the next generation, which were derived from a list of standards. He also prepared a list of the teaching competencies required for middle school mathematics teachers in light of the list of standards, as well as clarified the foundations of the training program and its objectives and the mathematical
... Show MoreHierarchical temporal memory (HTM) is a biomimetic sequence memory algorithm that holds promise for invariant representations of spatial and spatio-temporal inputs. This article presents a comprehensive neuromemristive crossbar architecture for the spatial pooler (SP) and the sparse distributed representation classifier, which are fundamental to the algorithm. There are several unique features in the proposed architecture that tightly link with the HTM algorithm. A memristor that is suitable for emulating the HTM synapses is identified and a new Z-window function is proposed. The architecture exploits the concept of synthetic synapses to enable potential synapses in the HTM. The crossbar for the SP avoids dark spots caused by unutil
... Show MoreThe Arab Muslime Paid agreat attention to the Islamic East, especially after their conquest to the Parisian lands, they went forword to continue their conquest till Transoxiara (the lands beyond the river). The research is included the Islamic efforts to conquest (Transoxiara) , They needed mouch time for more than 40 years to conquest it. To sattle their steps in it they used its leading figures to prevent the breaking of the agreement held between them as they were known for doing this before more than once. The main idea of this research is releated to study that history in the Arabic resources.
اﻟﺴﯿﺎق ﻓﻲ َأدرك ﻋﻠﻤﺎؤﻧﺎ اﻷواﺋﻞ أﺛﺮَ اﻟﺴﯿﺎق ﻗﺮﯾﻨﺔ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻘﺮاﺋﻦ اﻟﻤﺆﺛﺮة ﻓﻲ ﻣﻌﻨﻰ اﻟﺨﻄﺎب، وﻗﺪ ﻠﻤﺔ ّ وﺗﻤﺜﻞ ﻟﺪﯾﮭﻢ ﻓﻲ ﺟﺎﻧﺒﯿﻦ :اﻷول اﻟﺴﯿﺎق اﻟﻠﻐﻮي اﻟﺬي ﯾﻘﻮم ﻋﻠﻰ أﺳﺎس أن اﻟﻜ ،ﺗﻮﺟﯿﮫ اﻟﻤﻌﻨﻰ وﺗﺤﺪﯾﺪه ِﻜﻮن ﺣُﺴﻨﮭﺎ ورداءﺗﮭﺎ ﻓﻲ ﻧﻈﻤﮭﺎ، ّ ﻻ ﻗﯿﻤﺔ ﻟﮭﺎ ﻓﻲ ﺣﺎل إﻓﺮادھﺎ، وإﻧﻤﺎ ﯾ واﻟﺜﺎﻧﻲ اﻟﺴﯿﺎق اﻟﺤﺎﻟﻲ، وذﻟﻚ ُ ُ ﺑﺮﺑﻄﮭﻢ اﻟﺼﯿﺎﻏﺔ اﻟﻠﻐﻮﯾﺔ ﺑﺎ
... Show More1- That the Jewish minority, was considered one of Iraq`s 1864-1952 main religious minorities ,and has the therights by the Iraqi constitution approved by the Iraqi peopel in addition to the items all ocated py the minorities includiny the Jewish minority .He also bledged formaly before the Nations council to get its independence and to respect the rights of minorities . 2- The Jews who have completed primary education in Jweish and government schools Increased the number so that it seemed that the percentage of illiterate males was zero and the female was not high and as aresult of the increasing number of primary school graduates, so it was need to open addition secondary schools, also increased the number of high school graduates from
... Show MorePop corn forms appetizer wide use by different age groups in many occasions, especially the children of school age, so we went towards the study of its chemical composition ;determination the amount of calories processed; and its content of some essential amino acids and essential vitamins. Therefore we selected six samples of popcorn fromfive different areas belonging to Salah al- din province which are displayed in the local markets and prepared at the traditional way by the vendors by a preparation machines of popcorn.The results showed that the humidity content range was 12.0-13.8%, protein 7.6 - 10.1%, while each of fat and ash giving percentages ranged from 3.8 - 4.2% and 3.1 4.2%, respectively, carbohydrates were ranged from
... Show MoreIn this paper, our purpose is to study the classical continuous optimal control (CCOC) for quaternary nonlinear parabolic boundary value problems (QNLPBVPs). The existence and uniqueness theorem (EUTh) for the quaternary state vector solution (QSVS) of the weak form (WF) for the QNLPBVPs with a given quaternary classical continuous control vector (QCCCV) is stated and proved via the Galerkin Method (GM) and the first compactness theorem under suitable assumptions(ASSUMS). Furthermore, the continuity operator for the existence theorem of a QCCCV dominated by the QNLPBVPs is stated and proved under suitable conditions.