英语词汇学教程课件第8章English-Lexicology-8上

1、English LexicologyLecture EightEnglish LexicologyLecture EighIdioms, Multiword Verbs and ProverbsIdioms, multiword verbs and proverbs constitute an important part of the English language. They are very common in spoken and written English. The general tendency of present-day English is towards more

2、idiomatic usage.Idioms, Multiword Verbs and PrIdiomsAn idiom can be defined as a group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate words put together. Idioms are conventionalized multiword expressions. They are linguistic wholes that are greater than the s

3、um of their parts. They may be treated as a type of collocation involving two or more words in context.IdiomsAn idiom can be defined The meaning of an idiom cannot be predicted from its components. For example, when we say Dont beat a dead horse, we do not imply that the carcass of a certain kind of

4、 animal is involved; what we mean is that the person should not waste time harping on about an issue that has already been decided. The meaning of an idiom cannotThere are many different sources of idioms. Many English idioms come from the every-day life of the English-speaking people, e. g. to be b

5、orn with a silver spoon in ones mouth, to make a clean sweep of something, to hit the nail on the head. There are many which have to do with food and cooking, e.g. to eat humble pie, out of the frying-pan into the fire, to be in the soup. Agricultural life has given rise to to go to seed, to put one

6、s hand to the plough, to lead someone up the garden path.There are many different sourcNautical life and military life are the source of when ones ship comes home, to be in the same boat as someone, to be in deep waters, to sail under false colors, to cross swords with someone, to fight a pitched ba

7、ttle, to fight a losing/winning battle. Many idioms include parts of the body, animals, and colors, e.g. to turn the other cheek, the apple of ones eye.Nautical life and military lifClassification of IdiomsPhrases like bell the cat, count the cost, feel the pinch, and a bull in a china shop are idio

8、ms, as they have semantic unity and function as noun, verb, adjective, and so on. Structurally, idioms take many different forms or structures. They can be very short or rather long. They may consist of combinations of adjective + noun (e.g. cold war, a dark horse, a pregnant silence), adjective and

9、 adjective (e.g. high and dry, safe and sound), Classification of IdiomsPhraseadjective + prepositional phrase (e.g. green with envy, wild with joy), participle + noun (e.g. a beaten path, a burning question), noun and noun (e.g. bread and butter, part and parcel), noun + prepositional phrase (e.g.

10、a snake in the grass, a bull in a china shop), as + as construction (e.g. as clear as crystal, as like as two peas), adjective + prepositional phraprepositional phrase (e.g. at the double, in a nutshell), verb + verb (e.g. pick and choose, toil and moil), verb + noun (e.g. mix ones drinks, draw bloo

11、d), verb + noun + noun (e.g. call a spade a spade, give the devil his due), verb + noun + prepositional phrase (e.g. have the advantage of; make a clean breast of) and so on.prepositional phrase (e.g. at Some idioms are much longer, e.g. to fish in troubled waters, to cut ones coat according to ones

12、 cloth, come up smelling like a rose, have an axe to grind, hit the nail right on the head, wash ones dirty linen in public. Some idioms are combinations of verb + particle (e.g. abide by, look into, blow up, put off, look down upon). They are multiword verbs and will be discussed later. Some idioms

13、 are much longer, eIdioms can be divided into three groups: The first group has irregular form but clear meaning. An idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatically incorrect structure. The idiom I am good friends with him is irregular in its grammatical structure. Idioms ca

14、n be divided into thrThe second group has a regular form but an unclear meaning. To have a bee in ones bonnet has a regular form, but its meaning is not clear. It means that one is obsessed by an idea.Most idioms belong to this group. However, even in this group, some idioms are easier to guess than

15、 others. The second group has a regularTake the example to give someone the green light. We can guess the meaning even though we may never have heard it before. If we associate the green light with traffic lights, we can imagine that the idiom means to give someone permission to start something. Oth

16、er examples include come true, bring the house down.Take the example to give someoThe third group is irregular both in form and meaning. This group of idioms has the form Verb + Preposition + Adjective, e.g. to go through thick and thin, to be in the swim, go great guns.The third group is irregular

17、bThere are partial idioms, in which some of the words have their usual meaning while the others have meanings that are peculiar to that particular structure. For example, the word hair in red hair has its usual meaning because it does refer to the hair growing from the human head; but red is idiomat

18、ic in the sense that it does not refer to the strict color term. There are partial idioms, inAn interesting set of partial idioms involves the word white, since white coffee is brown in color, and white wine is usually yellow. Black is used as its antonym for coffee (though again neither is black in color terms), but it is not used for wine. An interesting set of partial Thus, wh