The central topic of the present paper are the idioms in the English language. Interesting and peculiar, they are a very important part of the lexicon and exist in every language - even the artificial languages may produce idioms.
In some earlier studies on idioms it has been claimed that they are nothing more than a fixed string of words with a meaning, different from the meanings of its composite elements.
Psycholinguists have lent a hand in supporting this view as well. Scholars generally have assumed that idioms exist as frozen, semantic units within a speaker’s mental lexicon in the same way that words or stings of them are represented mentally (Gibbs, 1993: 57). Thus they need separate entries in the dictionaries and have to be learned by heart and kept in mind as single words - so they appear to be nothing more than long lexemes.
Idioms have been also commonly thought of as metaphors that have become fixed or fossilized over time and have become “dead” expressions in a language.
Taking this into consideration, in this paper I aim at proving that idioms are not as frozen and fixed as they are supposed to be and that on the contrary, these expressions are quite “alive” - varying, changing and coloring the language.
Actually long time has passed and a lot of research has been done since the time when idioms were defined as completely frozen items and kick the bucket was a representative example of a typical idiom. Idioms are no longer considered just expressions the meaning of which cannot be understood from the meanings of their constituents. During the last few decades of research many investigations in various branches of linguistics - sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics or corpus linguistics, to name a few, have proved that idioms are much more than a simple fixed string of words with own meaning. Now we know that there are quite a large number of idiomatic expressions in language, varying in their degree of compositionality, fixedness and opacity. In spite of the fact that idioms have been always considered to belong to the group of the fixed expressions, nowadays their absolute fixedness is a myth. In fact, different authors in the idiom literature give varying degrees of importance to this property. Sinclair (1996: 83) has reached to the conclusion that the “so-called ‘fixed expressions’ are not in fact fixed” and then Moon (1998: 2) put also an emphasis on the fact that “many fixed expressions …
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Aims
1.2. Structure
2. WHY A CORPUS-BASED RESEARCH?
2.1.Corpus Linguistics
2.1.1 Areas of corpus research
2.1.2 What is a corpus?
2.1.3 Kinds of corpora
2.1.4 Using the corpus
2.2. Corpora used in this paper
2.2.1. British National Corpus
2.2.2. BYU Corpus of American English
2.2.3. TIMES Corpus of American English
2.3. Search Tools
3. IDIOMS
3.1. Earlier works on idioms
3.2. Defining idiom
3.2.1. Idiomaticity
3.2.2. Definitions
3.2.3. Properties of idioms
3.2.3.1. Noncompositionality
3.2.3.2. Fixedness/Transformational deficiency
3.3. Idiom variation
3.3.1. Grammatical variation
3.3.1.1. Variations in tense
3.3.1.2. Variation in number
3.3.2. Lexical variation
3.3.2.1. Replacement/ Substitution
3.3.2.2. Addition
3.3.2.3. Deletion
3.3.3. Syntactic variation
3.3.3.1. Passivization
3.3.3.2. Nominalization
3.3.3.3. Particle shift
3.3.4. Variation for stylistic effect
4. LEVEL 0- COMPLETELY FROZEN IDIOMS: A CORPUS ANALYSIS
4.1. Frozenness Hierarchy
4.2. Level 0
4.2.1. Searching for variant forms
4.2.2. Idioms that show variation
4.2.2.1. bite off one’s tongue
4.2.2.2. bleed one white
4.2.2.3. build castles in the air
4.2.2.4. dip into one’s pocket
4.2.2.5. let off some steam
4.2.2.6. pluck up courage
4.2.2.7. sit on pins and needles
4.2.2.8. turn a deaf ear to
4.2.3. Frozen idioms
4.2.3.1. blow one’s cool
4.2.3.2. face the music
4.2.3.3. kick over the traces
4.2.3.4. stew in one’s own juice
4.3. Variation across text type
4.3.1. Distribution of the selected idioms and their variant forms
4.3.2. Variation in journalism
4.3.3. Summary of the research
5. CONCLUSIONS
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Objectives and Research Themes
The primary objective of this thesis is to challenge the traditional linguistic view that certain English idioms are "completely frozen" and incapable of modification. By employing corpus-based linguistic methods, the research investigates the degree of variability in idioms classified by Bruce Fraser (1970) as Level 0—supposedly the most rigid category. The study aims to demonstrate that, contrary to older theoretical assumptions, these expressions are dynamic and exhibit significant variation in natural language usage.
- The evaluation of Bruce Fraser’s frozenness hierarchy using empirical corpus data.
- Analysis of different types of idiom variation: inflectional, lexical, and syntactic.
- Examination of how text types (e.g., journalism, fiction) influence the occurrence and variation of idioms.
- Exploration of how "completely frozen" idioms are manipulated for stylistic effects in discourse.
- Evidence for the flexibility of specific idioms, such as bite off one’s tongue and build castles in the air.
Excerpt from the Book
1. INTRODUCTION
The central topic of the present paper are the idioms in the English language. Interesting and peculiar, they are a very important part of the lexicon and exist in every language- even the artificial languages may produce idioms. (Čermàk, 1988: 16)
In some earlier studies on idioms it has been claimed that they are nothing more than a fixed string of words with a meaning, different from the meanings of its composite elements.
Psycholinguists have lent a hand in supporting this view as well. Scholars generally have assumed that idioms exist as frozen, semantic units within a speaker’s mental lexicon in the same way that words or stings of them are represented mentally (Gibbs, 1993: 57). Thus they need separate entries in the dictionaries and have to be learned by heart and kept in mind as single words- so they appear to be nothing more than long lexemes.
Idioms have been also commonly thought of as metaphors that have become fixed or fossilized over time and have become “dead” expressions in a language. Taking this into consideration, in this paper I aim at proving that idioms are not as frozen and fixed as they are supposed to be and that on the contrary, these expressions are quite “alive”- varying, changing and colouring the language. Actually long time has passed and a lot of research has been done since the time when idioms were defined as completely frozen items and kick the bucket was a representative example of a typical idiom. Idioms are no longer considered just expressions the meaning of which cannot be understood from the meanings of their constituents. During the last few decades of research many investigations in various branches of linguistics - sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics or corpus linguistics, to name a few, have proved that idioms are much more than a simple fixed string of words with own meaning. Now we know that there are quite a large number of idiomatic expressions in language, varying in their degree of
Summary of Chapters
1. INTRODUCTION: Outlines the aims of the research, which is to challenge the notion of absolute idiom frozenness, and provides the structure of the paper.
2. WHY A CORPUS-BASED RESEARCH?: Discusses the methodology of corpus linguistics, defines key terminology, and details the corpora (BNC, BYU, TIME) and search tools used for the study.
3. IDIOMS: Reviews the historical and theoretical background of idiom research, focusing on definitions, classification, and properties such as non-compositionality and frozenness.
4. LEVEL 0- COMPLETELY FROZEN IDIOMS: A CORPUS ANALYSIS: Presents the core corpus-based analysis of selected "frozen" idioms, demonstrating that they actually undergo various types of variation in natural language.
5. CONCLUSIONS: Summarizes the findings, concluding that Fraser’s theory of rigid frozenness is outdated and that idioms are highly variable, especially in journalistic discourse.
Keywords
Idioms, Corpus Linguistics, Frozenness Hierarchy, Idiom Variation, British National Corpus, BNC, Lexical Variation, Syntactic Variation, Idiomaticity, Non-compositionality, Phraseology, Journalism, Discourse Analysis, Language Change, Fixed Expressions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper fundamentally investigates the "frozenness" of selected English idioms and challenges the traditional theoretical assumption that these expressions are fixed and immutable strings of words.
What are the primary themes covered in this research?
Key themes include idiomaticity, the classification of idioms by their degree of flexibility (specifically Fraser's hierarchy), the use of large-scale corpus data to analyze language usage, and the creative ways users modify idioms for stylistic effects.
What is the primary objective of this thesis?
The primary goal is to provide empirical evidence that idioms classified as "completely frozen" are actually highly variable and dynamic, often undergoing inflectional, lexical, and syntactic modifications in natural language.
Which scientific methodology does the author apply?
The author employs a corpus-based approach, utilizing the British National Corpus (BNC) and American English corpora (BYU and TIME) to search for and analyze tokens and variant forms of specific idioms.
What is addressed in the main body of the work?
The main body examines the theoretical background of idiomaticity, describes the corpus methodology, and presents a detailed analysis of "Level 0" idioms, comparing theoretical expectations of rigid frozenness against actual corpus evidence of variation.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Essential keywords include idioms, corpus linguistics, frozenness hierarchy, idiom variation, BNC, lexical and syntactic variation, and stylistic exploitation.
How does the author define an idiom for this research?
The author adopts the working definition provided by Strässler (1982), which describes an idiom as a concatenation of more than one lexeme whose meaning is not derived from its constituents and which does not consist of a verb plus an adverbial particle or preposition.
Why are journalistic texts particularly important to this study?
Journalistic texts are identified as the "cutting edge" of language change, providing a rich source of unusual and ad-hoc idiom variations created for stylistic impact, thereby offering significant evidence against the theory of rigid frozenness.
What conclusion does the author reach regarding Bruce Fraser's theory?
The author concludes that while Fraser's work was a significant milestone, his "frozenness hierarchy" is currently outdated, as corpus analysis consistently proves that these idioms undergo frequent and diverse transformations.
Are "completely frozen" idioms actually found in the corpus?
While the author confirms that idioms exhibit varying degrees of fixedness, the research shows that there is not a single idiom from the selected "frozen" group that completely lacks variant forms in the corpora.
- Quote paper
- Teodora Hristova (Author), 2008, Rigid Fixedness in Selected English Idioms, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/279738
