Idiom Choice for Dictionaries. A Phraseological Evaluation of Food-related Idioms

Abstract or Introduction

This paper examines how it can be decided which idioms to include in a dictionary, what criteria need to be met, and how to make sure the layout is helpful and clear to users. First, the research background is laid down, including a definition of idioms and an examination of their challenges. In this part, idioms in dictionaries will also be focused on, as well as food-related idioms. Next, 25 food-related idioms will be analysed in terms of frequency, transparency, frozenness and size, as those categories give the most information about their function and perception. Finally, the results are discussed, focusing on implications for dictionaries.

For the analysis, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is used, mainly for checking the frequency of idioms and creating a frozenness scale. The transparency of each idiom is rated by the researcher with feedback from peers, and for size, the letters in each idiom are counted automatically with the Excel COUNT function. It has to be considered that this study is of a rather small scope and is therefore not representative, but can be seen more as a case study. The suggestions and recommendations made at the end can still be applied to most idiom representations in dictionaries. The goal of this paper is to advise dictionary creators in their view on idioms, and also inform dictionary users on the use of idioms in dictionaries in general.