Idioms: Formally Flexible but Semantically Non-transparent

Memory & Cognition, 1989

Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, 2021

The formal analysis of idioms has been oscillating between approaches that emphasize the unit-like character of idioms and approaches that focus on the autonomy of the idioms' parts. In this paper, we summarize the main arguments for and against these two positions to then propose an account that tries to capture and combine the insights and advantages of both types of analysis. The resulting theory is heavily influenced by the approach taken in Riehemann (2001).

Linguistic Inquiry, 2002

It has traditionally been assumed that the meaning of some or all phrasal idioms is noncompositional. However, I will argue here that the aspectual meaning of idioms is completely systematic: there are no special aspectual restrictions on idioms, and moreover, the aspectual properties of an idiom are compositional, combining the aspectual properties of its syntactic constituents in the usual way. I will show that this observation supports the theory of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1994). 1 Aspectual Classes of Idioms First, it is worth noting that all aspectual classes contain idiomatic VPs. In what follows, I will assume the familiar Vendlerian classes (states, activities, achievements, and accomplishments), identified by an array of tests from the literature (see Vendler 1967, Dowty 1979, Mittwoch 1991, among many others). Subclasses of achievements and accomplishments will also be distinguished. However, the aspectual parallelism between idiomatic and non-idiomatic VPs is independent of this classification.

2021

In the literature on idioms, conjunction modification is understood as involving a modifier that does not lexically belong to the idiom at hand, modifying the literal meaning of a noun in that idiom while the idiomatic meaning of the expression as a whole is preserved. The construction relies on the hearer perceiving the idiomatic meaning of the whole and the literal meaning of a part of it simultaneously and in conjunction. We investigate instances of naturally occurring examples of four semantically non-decomposable verb-phrase idioms (two English, two German) whose complements contain such a modifier. We examine the possible interpretations and the contextual conditions of these idiom-modifier combinations. They are particularly interesting instances of one-to-many relations between form and meaning.

2023

2015

Idioms used to have an icing-on-the-cake reputation in circles of instructed second language acquisition. It is now recognized, however, that idioms not only fulfill crucial functions in everyday communication but that their frequency of useas a classhas long been underestimated. Idioms pose particular challenges to the second language learner due to their (varying degrees of) semantic opacity. Second language learners are known to be more inclined than first language acquirers to give pause to the lexical composition of multiword expressions, such as idioms, and thus to activate literal readings of the constituent words in an attempt at figuring out the overall, idiomatic meaning. While this inclination can be put to good use in instructional methods that stimulate multimodal learning, such as applications of Cognitive Semantics, it is also a double-edged sword in case learners use lexical cues to work out idiomatic meanings independently. That is because those lexical cues can be quite deceptive, owing to homonymy and polysemy. To fully appreciate the magnitude of the

Foundations of language, 1970

Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology, 2022

https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/6293 This paper deals with modifications, which are defined as creative changes of idioms’ conventionalized forms for communicative purposes. The focus is on verb phrase (VP) idioms and their structural modifications – deliberate alterations of the grammatical structure (which may be accompanied by lexical changes). Idiom modifications are analyzed within the framework of Cognitive Grammar. The aim is to show that structural modifications are systematic to a certain extent and that the restrictions governing such changes are similar to those that apply to conventionalized variations. We performed a study of 160 VP idioms in the English Web corpus 2013 (enTenTen13). Two groups of results were obtained. Firstly, structural modifications of VP idioms are limited to four types – active and passive voice, transitive and intransitive constructions, directional opposites and nominalization – which are parallel to those usually mentioned for conventionalized variations. Secondly, modifications exhibit systematicity in how conceptual content is expressed grammatically in that they follow established grammatical patterns. This implies that, when using an idiom creatively, the speaker can choose from a set of options, but those options allow for creativity within certain boundaries. Overall, this study shows that structural modifications are jointly constrained by semantic and grammatical factors.

2021

The formal analysis of idiomatic expressions (IE) has been oscillating between phrasal and lexical analyses, i.e., analyses that emphasize the unit-like character of IEs and those that exploit the autonomy of their component parts. We will summarize the main arguments and then propose an analysis that tries to capture the insights of both positions. The resulting theory is heavily based on Riehemann (2001).

Applied Linguistics, 2014

John Sinclair’s Idiom Principle famously posited that most texts are largely composed of multi-word expressions that ‘constitute single choices’ in the mental lexicon. At the time that assertion was made, little actual psycholinguistic evidence existed in support of that holistic, ‘single choice’, view of formulaic language. In the intervening years, a number of studies have shown that multi-word expressions are indeed processed differently from novel phrases. This processing advantage, however, does not necessarily support the holistic view of formulaic language. The present review aims to bring together studies on the processing of multi-word expressions in a first and second language that have used a range of psycholinguistic techniques, and presents why such research is important. Practical implications and pathways for future research are discussed.