English Idioms论文.doc

On the Infulence of Historical Development and Geography Environment on the Formation of English IdiomsIntrocductionWhen opening Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English, one can see such an entry: “Idiom (n.) Phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit.” English is a language particularly rich in idioms. Lots of cultural information is embodied in idioms. In some senses, idioms are the reflection of the environment, life, historical culture, etc. They are commonly used in all types of language, informal and formal, spoken and written. In brief, idioms are fixed phrases. They go through the test of history and cannot be separated. They are an important part of the general vocabulary of every language. English idioms are usually widely and commonly used all over the world. They contain brief structures and profound meanings, and are also a group of words with the meaning different from the literal one. As an English learner, we study English everyday; learning its literary works, grammatical functions, use them and so on. Sometimes, we come cross some sentences that we cant understand, such as, “There is a black sheep” or “Dont be a bad apple”, “go over my head” , “Dont put your problems at my doorstep”, “just bear with me”, “heap coal of fire on ones head” etc. Of course we can comprehend the meaning of every single word. Why do we have difficulty in understanding them? Because of a low level of linguistic competence in the target language, people who learn English as a second language are at a distinct disadvantage in understanding English idioms. We must know the origins of English idioms so that we can learn English well.The research to English idioms has a long history. Scholarsstudy focuses on the following aspects: the oringins of the idioms, comparison between English idioms and Chinese idioms, and the translation of English idioms. Whats more, they talk about the idioms through its notion of culture. Others schoolars pay attention to the structural, semantic function and rhetoric of idioms. The formation of English idioms is influenced by such cultural factors as geographical conditions, historical developments, customs, religious beliefs, literature and arts of the British nation. So I decided to focuse on the influence of historical development and geography envirnment on the formation of English idioms.This paper has four parts. The first part is about the definition and features of English idioms, The second part focuses on the influence of historical development. The third part is about idioms originating from geography envirment. The fourth part serves as the conclusion. This paper will help the readers have a better understand of English idioms.1. The definition and features of English idioms1. Definitionwhat are idioms? “Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences” and “idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual elements.” (Zhang Weiyou, 174) “An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is different or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meanings of the individual words it contains.” (A S Honrnby, 2004, B19) such as, “black sheep” (害群之马), “Put a sock in it” (住口), “go over my head” (无法理解).“Most phrasal lexemes are idioms, especially a sequence of words which is semantically and often syntactically restricted.” (Hu Zhuanglin, 106) E.g. “Dont put your problems at my doorstep” (归咎于我), “do in Rome as the Romans do” (入乡随俗), “as poor as a church mouse” (一贫如洗)2. Features1.structural stability Many English idioms are characterized by structural invariability. Their form is often fixed. The word in idiomatic expressions cannot be deleted, added to, in the idiom live from hand to mouth, it is impossible to say live from hand to the mouth or live from a hand to a mouth; in the idiom to kick the bucket, if the word “bucket” is replaced by “pail”, the meaning of the idiom will no longer mean“die”. 2. semantic unity Idioms are mainly characteized by their semantic unity. Semantic unity means an idiom functioning as a unit of meaning, and must be learned as a whole. That is, the meaning of the idiom cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of its member words. So, pull ones socks up not at all connected with “socks”, it means to cheer up, work harder, as in “If you want to be considered for promotion next year , youd better pull your socks up.” If you want to be promoted next year, you should work harder. Likewise, the meaning of know where the pinches has nothing to do with the meaning of the separate words, it means to know the difficulties. 3.figuraive features Idioms are often forcible, terse and vivid, because they are used figuratively. Idioms are an important thetorical device in language, and they incorporate various figures of speech, among them, most are similes and metaphors. A great many idioms are used in simile and metaphorical style instead of stating in experience or thought outright to achieve a better expressive effect. For example, similes, such as, as timid as a rabbit, like a red rag to a bull. Metaphors, such as, to help a lane dog over the stiles: to give up somebody who is in difficulty or trouble.2.English idioms originating from historical developmentLooking back at the development of human being, the great influences on national cultures are mainly the changes of the earths crust, national movement, the national conquest and assimilation, and the war between nations. The Britain has a long history. In English, thousands of idioms originated from great historical events and the societies transformation1.The Influences of Roman Conquest on English Idioms In 55 BD, the commander in chief of Roman, Julius Caesar, came to the Great Britain after conquering the Gaul, but did not have conflict with the local Celts. And the next year Caesar came to the Great Britain second time. But this time he made his root firmly in the northeast of the Great Britain; he fired with the local ones. Although the Caesars won but they did not bring the Celts to their knees, so they did not make great influences on the social cultures of the Great Britain.“Appeal to Caesar”， “Great Caesar”, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesars” , these three idioms are left by the emperor Caesar who had captured the Great Britain. “Appeal to Caesar,” means that resorting to the highest leading bodies. “Great Caesar” equals Great Heavens. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars,” means that everything belongs to its own. So from these we can see that Caesar had influenced the language a lot till now.“Worth ones salt”, In the period of Roman, salt was very valuable. In the army, the soldiers payment contained a part of salt and then it changed as some security named solarium that evolved salary. But “ salt equals salary in idiom” is widely used nowadays. So now if someone says “worth his salt” means that he is an employee who proved reliable. For example, any engineer who is worth his salt should know how machine works.The Rome captured Great Britain for nearly 400 years. Till 407, the Rome had to withdraw from Great Britain because Roman was besieged inside and outside. Four hundred years is enough time to form British Latin culture. Rome went away, but the influences of Great Britain on their culture were still there on the island. “Do in Rome as the Romans do.” “Rome was not built in a day.” “All roads lead to Rome.” From these idioms we can found the influences of Roman Conquest are so tremendous.3. The Influences of Teutonic Conquest on English IdiomsIn about 449, three German Tribes, resided in the northwest of Europe, invaded the Great Britain. They were Anglos, Saxons and Jutes. They crossed the North Sea and took advantages of the waning in power of Roman who could care nothing but them. They came into the Great Britain and met great defense of Celts, which made the conquest delayed one and a half centuries. At the end of 6th century, the Celtics, the original residents of the island of Great Britain, almost died out. This was the most famous conquest in the history of Britain named Teutonic Conquest.“Cut someone to the quick”, here, “quick” means “skin” especially, “the skin of the nail” that will make you painful when you touch. “Quick” here is a word of Anglo-Saxon. This idiom infers that hurt somebody in motion. For example, “Her cruel words cut him to the quick.” “Go through fire and water” ，these idioms stemmed from the law of Declare Guilty in the period of Anglo-Saxon. If the suspects hands were good enough after making them into the boiling water, he was not guilty. So the meaning of this idiom is that defying all difficulties and dangers. It was widely quoted in the past. For example, I would go though fire and water to find out the truth of that matter.In fact, Anglo-Saxon was the origin of Modern English. Or more actually that West Saxon, the language of Saxon dwelling on the south of Thames, was the origin of the Standard English. So the influences of Teutonic Conquest on English were overall and had great decisive influences. The Anglo-Saxon was one of the three origins of Modern English vocabulary. Many English Idioms from this period could be taken as evidence.3. The Influences of Invasion of Vikings on English IdiomsIn about 9th century, Britain was facing the widely invasions of Vikings especially the invasion of Dane which began at the end of 8th century and lasted nearly three hundred years. At the beginning, they invaded as pirates and did not stay along. In the middle of 9th century, the Danes began to migrate nationwide. They annexed another countrys territory and established the “Danelaw” in the northeast of Britain. When Alfred the Great ruled the Britain in 871-899, the Danes fought against the Dane, they did not drive the Dane out of Britain. So in 878, Alfred the Great was forced to sign the treaty Peace of Wedmore. According to the treaty, the Danes still owned the “Danelaw”. Because of the invasion and occupation of Scandinavians, the large part of Britain suffered great influences by the North European culture. Nowadays the names of the north and the east part of Britain were from Scandinavian. And also some peoples names were from Scandinavian such as Jackson, Thompson, Stevenson, and Johnson and so on. “Rain cats and dogs” stemmed from mythology of the north Europe. The main Gods of Norsemen Odin, dog and wolf symbolized “wind” and cat symbolized “rain”. So cats and dogs had the meaning of violent storms. E.g.: You cannot go out tonight; it is raining cats and dogs. “Six of one and half a dozen of the other”, 12 binary system was brought in by Danish conquest. And it was used till now.4. The Influences of Normandy Conquest on English IdiomsIn 1066, Edward died. Because he had no son to succeed his throne they chose Harold Godwin to be the successor. This had enraged the cousin of Edward William, a Normandy duke, who intended to succeed the throne. William led the French army and fleet cross the sea and invaded Britain on September 1066. They defeated the British troops and killed Harold. At last, William entered London and became the King named William I. It was the Beginning of House of Normandy in British history.“Go Dutch” means pay ones own expense, share expenses. The meaning had been suited by the people and had been used widely in the English daily life. Dutch was either a country or the people in Dutch. Why does “go Dutch” had a different meaning not go to Dutch? There was an interesting history. In the 16th century, English and Dutch became the opponents because of the competition of forces on sea and trade. And Englishmen, not only soldiers but also businessmen, hate more through many failures. Businessmens subjective idea was that Dutch wouldnt pay for the others if they did not pay for the full money. And they think it was their inherent quality .So they must order Dutch to pay for the full money at the first time. They shared the expense with Dutch every time. So from that time on, people used go Dutch” to express the meaning of sharing expenses and pay ones own expense to express their rival sense to Dutch.5. The English Idioms Originated from World War IIn 19th century, British shipping and fleet has an overwhelming advantage in terms of the total ton. The hegemony in the sea has been shaken after the First World War, but the total ton ranked the first in the world. America replaced the position of the hegemony in the sea with U.K s after the Second World War, while U.K also took the third rank. Owing to the development of seafaring, there are so many idioms relative to the voyage emerged.The English always toast by saying “Heres mud in your eye !”. Why they toast like that? Here was a parlance. During the World War I, it was widely used in the army. And it meant that mud in your eye was better than the bullet in your body. So after that the sentence “Heres mud in your eye!”had the meaning of good wishes.“Cup of tea” is a common phrase of spoken English. It means the things you like every much. For example, traveling is just his cup of tea. And football is not his cup of tea. This phrase just brought during the First World War and the Second World War. In the Victorian age, Tea was not universal in all walks of life, especially between the men. At that moment if someone wanted to express the metaphor of somebodys appreciation of something, they were almost rooted from food and drink, such as “somebodys port of beer”. Afterwards the women worker were increasing, they brought the afternoon tea to the office, the men worker gradually joined in the group to have afternoon tea. So tea was considered to be a popular drink. However, the personal taste of tea is different. Somebody likes Chinese tea, others like Indian tea; somebody likes the thin tea, others like the thick tea; somebody likes the tea with milk or sugar, others like the tea without milk or sugar; or the other even like the tea with lemon. So the different taste of tea had brought out the expression of “cup of tea”, and had been extended to the things be suitable of taste.6. The English Idioms Originated from World War IIThe Second World War, remained fresh in peoples memory, brought many new words to English. First, the war brought many military words. Clothing, foods and daily necessities were assigned to deliver by Government Issue.The War was not only making new words but also giving the old words new meanings. “Appease” had the meanings of “calm down”, “console” and “alleviate”. But in 1938, Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister at that movement, tried to appease Adolph Hitler to let him not to invade Britain, but making Hitler more aggressive. So from that time on, “appease” had another meaning of “pacify” and “indulge” in a derogatory sense. Today in English if we say, “appease another nation”, it means that in order to avoid war-currying favor with another country through yielding on politics and economy in preparing to pay prices of principles.“Forlorn hope” was the transliteration of “verloren hoop”(Dutch) but here hoop was not related to hope. The original meaning was suicide squadron when the phrase was first used in English. But from 1641, the phrase of English had different meaning that was related to hope. And the main meaning was a plan of attempt that was very unlikely to succeed. E.g.: My mission was a forlorn hope. There were many other phrases like “forlorn hope” such as “the fifth column” “Quonset hut” “Gremlin” “A-bomb” and “block-buster” and so on.3. English idioms originating from geography environmentThe geography environment is connected to the humans lives closely. From the ancient times, the human tried their best to conquer the nature, to rebuild it. At that time, the most important function was to improve the production. So in this period, the humans civilizations were influenced by the geography.The England located in the east of the Atlantic Ocean. The England is an island country. It consists of three big islands. In the west of the England, there is the Atlantic Ocean, which is narrow and suits to sailing. In the east of the England, there is the England Channel, which is peaceful and could be passed safely.In the three islands, the land is small, and the land is for stock breeding. Also the farmer in England is few. Because of these reasons, the English people make their living in the seaIn the western countries, especially in the Greece, the mother of the western civilization, has small land for tillage, the land is for the stock breeding. While the Greek have less land to develop the agriculture, they live near the sea, the Mediterranean, so they can sail in the sea for commerce. English culture is from the Greek civilization, so the English culture is the sea civilization.In England, the sea is connected to the peoples life closely. England is an island country. In England, the field is less, the land is for stock breeding. The English people always make their living on the sea. So there are many idioms about the sea ,the boat and the fish.1. Idioms about water Because all around England is sea,the sea is full of water,there are idioms about the water.(1) Fish in trouble watersMeaning: to profit in a confused environmente.g. Dont fish in trouble waters; that does you no good.(2) Pour /throw cold water on Meaning: to discouragee.g. The board of director poured cold water on his new investment proposals in that region.(3) Be in /get in hot water or In deep waterMeaning: to be in or get into trouble.e.g. She