Idioms

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1. Definition of the term idiom

“Such expressions are termed idioms, defined as groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meanings of the parts” (Heidi Anders 1995, 17).

Idioms have a semantic productivity which means ‘die wendungsinternen Bedeutungen einzelner Idiom-Konstituenten werden beim Konstruieren der Äußerung produktiv eingesetzt’ and a discourse productivity: the possibility to interpret the constituents of an idiom as autonomous, semantically ambivalent entities (Dobrovols’kij 1997, 22). An idiom can also be seen as a lexical unit, which formally consists of several words, but semantically be a whole and will be treated and saved like words. (Dobrovols’kij 1997, 51) There is a great variety within idioms of their degree of flexibility anyhow an idiom is a lexical unit.

Everybody intuitively can realize an idiom as an idiom because of different characteristics, e.g. several combinations and different intension. All fixed word-complexes are reproducible. Idioms are an open class, in the core there are the more idiomaticised idioms and in the periphery they are less idiomatic. But if the hearer does not know an idiom, it is no idiom. Idioms differ in relation to proverbs mainly in semiotic-semantic parameters. Proverbs have a discursive autonomy and are quoted as ‘texts’, idioms instead are reproduced as lexical units. Another difference is that proverbs verbalize ‘general truth’ and fall back on shared knowledge of the people.

An idiom comes into existence if one uses a phrase or sentence about a common situation or object in a figurative manner. The phrase has to be especially to the point, expressive or pictographic. This new expression will be consolidated and lexicalised and after that it will be taken into normal speech. Most idioms are stylistically neutral, but they can also be on a stylisticly lower or higher level. Archaic, literary, foreign and formal words belong to the higher level, whereas colloquial, jargon, slang and vulgar words belong to the lower level. Especially the lower level is highly idiomaticised.

The usage of idioms plays a role in the social positioning of conversational partners and to consolidate a social hierarchy. An idiom is more informative than its simple lexical counterpart. (Anders 1995, 177)

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2. Order of the mental procedures while working out idioms

If one realizes an idiom, there is the question what one works out firstly: the literal meaning, the figurative meaning or both at the same time. To analyse this, there are three hypotheses.

2.1. The literal-first model

In this model, idioms are firstly interpreted literally and if this interpretation fits into the context the working up ends. If it does not fit the context the idiomatic reading comes into action. This model lives from the impossibility that an idiom can be realized after the first idiom constituent and the figurative interpretation can be activated directly. If this model is true the word-like idioms will be understand faster. ‘Diese Annahme ist aber experimentell widerlegt worden’ (Dobrovols’kij 1997, 13). This model is nearly the same as the ‘standard pragmatic model’.

2.2. The figurative-first model

In the second model there is the possibility to get direct access to the meaning of an idiom. Therefore it is also called ‘direct access hypothesis’. But if the figurative meaning does not fit into the semantic context the literal interpretation begins. If there is direct access, idioms have to be represented in the mental lexicon as word-like units and they shall be worked out like words. That means the recipient has a lot of hypotheses about the semantic meaning but with rising acoustic information the meanings can be reduced until one meaning remains. With experiments it could be shown that idioms will not be worked out like this. But every idiom has a ‘key’ that marks a qualitative limitation. So the analysing process begins literal and after hearing the key it gets figurative. To get the meaning of an idiom, the recipient must have a lot of formal information about it. Otherwise he can not know if it is really an idiom or only a free combination of words. If the idiom is fixed and syntactically opaque, it is easier for the recipient to realize that it is an idiom.