英语词汇学11.ppt

词 汇 学 辅导课程十一 Chapter Six English Idioms 6.1 Introductory Remarks 6.2 Characteristic Features of English Idioms 6.3 Classification of English Idioms 6.4 Phrasal Verbs 6.5 Conclusion (6.1 Introductory Remarks will be omitted) English idioms have the following characteristics: 1) Structural Stability An English idiom has an established form, one that has been accepted by traditional usage. No element can be changed in English idioms without destroying the sense as a whole, e.g. “To be at liberty” cannot be changed to “To be at freedom”; “A stitch in time saves nine” cannot be changed to “one stitch in time saves nine.” In other words, English idioms have their stability, their fixed and ready-made nature. 2) Semantic Unity and Lack of Motivation English idioms are mainly characterized by their semantic unity and lack of motivation. Semantic unity: the member words of an idiom do not possess any lexical meaning outside the integral meaning of the whole. For instance, take off in the sentence “Bill took off Winston Churchill to perfection” is an idiom since it is a unit of meaning synonymous with “imitate”. Lack of motivation means “semantically non-motivated”, i.e. the special meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of its member-words. E.g., “show the white feather”, the meaning of the member words has no relevance to the meaning of the idiom “to show fear”. a) English idioms also acquire figurative meaning due to extralinguistic factors such as the history of the people and its culture. See the following example to carry coal to Newcastle: to take things to a place where they already abound; hence to perform unnecessary labor; to lose one’s labor to fall between two stools: to fail through taking an intermediate course fine feathers make fine birds: to be well dressed to give one an impressive appearance The meaning of idioms cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of their member words, the metaphorical meaning of the