Idiomaticity Research Paper

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Idiomaticity can be observed in all linguistic items, but it is more easily identified in idioms because of their restrictional characteristics (syntactic, morphological), their low degree of schematization and also and their non-compositional semantics. (Wulff 2008:18) Non-compositionality is the most important factor that lies at the heart of idiomaticity (Sonomura 1996:28). Moreover, Barkema (1996a) states that idiomaticity is the same thing as non-compositionality when he distinguishes between fully compositional, pseudo-compositional, partly compositional and idiomatic expressions. He also mentions that collocability, flexibility are correlates of idiomaticity and all of them make possible the distinction between “received expressions” …show more content…

The syntactic structures of verbal idioms According to Kvetko, non-verbal idioms are classified into nominal, adjectival and adverbial idioms. Nominal idioms can have the following forms: Structures of nominal idioms Examples of idioms Adj/-ed/-ing + NP Free hand NP + NP Eagle eye N’s + NP Cat’s whiskers (Adj+) NP + PP + NP Storm in a tea cup N + and + N Skin and bone Table 2. Structures of nominal idioms Adjectival idioms, can be structured in he following way: Structures of adjectival idioms Examples of idioms (as) + AP + as + NP As clean as a whistle AP + and + AP Safe and sound Adj + Prep + N Rooted to the spot, long in the tooth Table 3. Structures of adjectival idioms The last group consists of adverbial idioms (Kvetko, 40) : Structures of adverbial idioms Examples of idioms NP + NP+ and + NP Hook, line and sinker Adv P+ and + AdvP Back and forth Adv P+ PP Out of sorts PP + NP In the blink of an eye …show more content…

Structures of adverbial idioms Moon (85) makes a detailed analysis of idioms in her book Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A corpus based approach, where she takes into consideration their syntactic function. The first group analysed by her is the structure of predicative idioms, which is classified in the following way: • Subject + predicator + object (X bends Y’s ear) • Subject + predicator + object + adjunct (X puts X's finger on SMTH) • Subject + predicator + adjunct (SMTH falls on deaf ears) • Subject + predicator + complement (X’s days are numbered) • Subject + predicator + adjunct + adjunct (X lives from hand to mouth) • Subject + predicator + complement + adjunct (smth. is music to X’s

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