Dictionary Definition
idiomatic adj : of or relating to or conforming
to idiom; "idiomatic English" [syn: idiomatical]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ˌɪdiəˈmætɪk/, /Idi@"m
Extensive Definition
An idiom is a term or phrase whose meaning
cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the
arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative
meaning that is known only through common use. In linguistics, idioms are
widely assumed to be figures
of speech that contradict the
principle of compositionality; however, this has shown to be a
subject of debate. It may be better to refer to idioms as John
Saeed does: words collocated together happen to become fossilized,
becoming fixed over time. This collocation -- words commonly used
in a group -- changes the definition of each of the words that
exist. As an expression, the word-group becomes a team, so to
speak. That is, the collocated words develop a specialized meaning
as a whole and an idiom is born e.g. He really threw me a curve
when on our first date he asked if I could pay for the dinner.
Note, in some cultures, when a man and a woman are courting each
other, the male is traditionally the one who takes up the bill or
pays the bill; however, times change and in many modern societies,
a lot of couples go Dutch (yet another idiom).
In the English
expression to
kick the bucket, for example, a listener knowing only the
meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the
expression's actual meaning, which is to die. Although it can refer
literally to the act of striking a specific bucket with a foot, native speakers rarely use it
that way. It cannot be directly translated to other languages – for
example, the same expression in Polish is
kopnąć w kalendarz (to kick the calendar), with the calendar being
as detached from its usual meaning as the bucket in the English
phrase is. The same expression in Dutch is
het loodje leggen (to lay the piece of lead), which is entirely
different from the English expression, too. Other expressions
include break a leg
and fit as a fiddle. It is estimated that William
Shakespeare coined over 9,000 idioms still in use
today.
Idioms hence tend to confuse
those not already familiar with them; students of a new language
must learn its idiomatic expressions the way they learn its other
vocabulary. Many natural
language words have idiomatic origins, but have been
sufficiently assimilated so that their figurative senses have been
lost.
Idioms and culture
An idiom is generally a colloquial metaphor — a term which requires some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where parties must have common reference. Idioms are therefore not considered a part of the language, but rather a part of the culture. As cultures are typically localized, idioms are more often not useful for outside of that local context. However some idioms can be more universally used than others, and they can be easily translated, metaphorical meaning can be more easily deduced.The most common idioms can
have deep roots, date back many centuries, and be traceable across
many languages. Many
have translations in
other languages, and tend to become international.
While many idioms are clearly
based in conceptual metaphors such as "time as a substance", "time
as a path", "love as war" or "up is more", the idioms themselves
are often not particularly essential, even when the metaphors
themselves are. For example, "spend time", "battle
of the sexes", and "back in the day" are idiomatic and based in
essential metaphors. These "deep metaphors" and their relationship
to human cognition are discussed by George
Lakoff and Mark Johnson
in their 1980 book Metaphors We Live By.
In forms like "profits are
up", the metaphor is carried by "up" itself. The phrase "profits
are up" is not itself an idiom. Practically anything measurable can
be used in place of "profits": "crime is up", "satisfaction is up",
"complaints are up" etc. Truly essential idioms generally involve
prepositions, for example "out of" or "turn into".
Interestingly, many Chinese
characters are likewise idiomatic constructs, as their meanings
are more often not traceable to a literal (i.e. pictographic) meaning of
their assembled parts, or radicals.
Because all characters are composed from a relatively small base of
about 214 radicals, their assembled meanings follow several
different modes of interpretation - from the pictographic to the
metaphorical to those whose original meaning has been lost in
history. It may be a feature that helps everyday life.
Second
language's English—using idiom to refer to
language.
Further examples of idioms are
"back seat
driver" or "feeding
frenzy".
Parlance
"Idiom" can also refer to the
characteristic manner of speaking in a language, also called its
parlance. An utterance consistent with a language's parlance is
described as idiomatic. For example, "I have hunger" is idiomatic
in several European languages if translated literally (e.g. Dutch
ik heb honger, German ich habe Hunger; French j'ai faim; Spanish
tengo hambre; Italian ho fame), but the usual English idiom is "I
am hungry".
This sense is also carried
over to programming
languages, where the former sense does not apply, as an
expression or statement in a programming language can generally
have only one meaning. For example, in
Haskell, it is possible to apply a function to all members of a
list using recursion,
but it is more idiomatic to use the higher-order
function map.
Computer science
In computer
science, an idiom is a low-level
pattern that addresses a problem common in a particular
programming language. An idiom describes how to implement
particular aspects of components or the relationships between them
using the features of the given language.
For instance, in C
source code one might see while(*a++ = *b++);, which copies
characters from b to a until the null character ('\0') is
encountered. This is an idiom in that a C programmer on seeing it
does not need to mentally parse what it might mean, although in
this case the effect of the code can be deduced from the literal
syntax and C's order
of operations.
References
See also
External links
- Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions
- More than 8000 American idiomatic expressions with examples
- Foreign Wife-isms How one man's foreign bride comically jumbles American idioms
- Self-study Idiom Quizzes by The Internet TEAL Journal
- Figures of Speech by Rob Bradshaw Examples of how the Bible uses idioms.
- Phrase Finder
- http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a.html
idiomatic in Danish:
Idiom
idiomatic in German:
Redensart
idiomatic in Spanish:
Idiotismo
idiomatic in Esperanto:
Idiotismo
idiomatic in French:
Idiotisme
idiomatic in Hindi:
मुहावरा
idiomatic in Indonesian:
Idiom
idiomatic in Hebrew: ניב
(ביטוי)
idiomatic in Dutch:
Idioom
idiomatic in Japanese:
慣用句
idiomatic in Polish:
Idiom
idiomatic in Kölsch:
Idėomatische Ußdrock
idiomatic in Russian:
Фразеологизм
idiomatic in Simple English:
Idiom
idiomatic in Serbian:
Идиом
idiomatic in Sundanese:
Babasan
idiomatic in Swedish: Idiom
(språk)
idiomatic in Turkish:
Deyim
idiomatic in Ukrainian:
Ідіома
idiomatic in Yiddish:
אידיאם
idiomatic in Chinese:
熟语