詞匯學(xué)_lexic14Idioms

1、English Idioms Idioms Multiword verbs Proverbs/clause idioms Mr. White is a very kind man. He does not talk much but often likes to be in a brown study. One day， when he came back from a pub where he had had a glass of black coffee，he found Terry Black beating a little boy black and blue near a gree

2、n house The little Boy, Tom Brown, was the only son of the Blacksmith in the town and was a green hand doing the blue collar job for Terry Black. Seeing red，Mr. White went over to stop Terry and scolded him: “Damn you，a yellow-dog man! I really feel ashamed for you showing no mercy to such a little

3、boy. You are indeed a black sheep in our community!” Mr. White is a very kind man. He does not talk much but often likes to be in a brown study. One day， when he came back from a pub where he had had a glass of black coffee，he found Terry Black beating a little boy black and blue near a green house

4、The little boy，Tom Brown，was the only son of the Blacksmith in the town and was a green hand doing the blue collar job for Terry Black. Seeing red，Mr. White went over to stop Terry and scolded him: “Damn you，a yellow-dog man! I really feel ashamed for you showing no mercy to such a little boy. You a

5、re indeed a black sheep in our community!”Idioms Definition Characteristics of idioms Semantic unity Structural stability Classification of idioms Sources of idiomsDefinition A set of expressions made up of two or more words; it functions as a unit of meaning which cannot be predicted from its liter

6、al meaning of its component words. Conventionalized multiword expressionsCharacteristics Semantic unity The meaning of an idiom is very often not the total sum of the meanings of the constituent words. The illogical relations between the literal meanings of the components and the meanings of the idi

7、om.pull up ones socks 鼓起勇氣(不是“提上襪子”)handwriting on the wall 不祥之兆(不是“大字報(bào)”)dead president 美鈔(上印有總統(tǒng)頭像)(并非“死了的總統(tǒng)”)confidence man 騙子(不是“信得過的人”)rest room 廁所(不是“休息室”)dressing room 化妝室(不是“試衣室”或“更衣室”)black stranger 完全陌生的人(不是“陌生的黑人”)Structural stability The structure of an idiom usually remains unchangeable.

8、The components of an idiom, generally speaking cannot be replaced. In the same boat/ship? Smell a rat/mouse? Kick the bucket/pail (提桶 )? Bread and butter/cheese. Dont cry over spilt milk/cream. Idioms are fixed expressions, not only lexically but also to some extent grammatically. E.g. lose heart He

9、 loses heart. He lost his heart. They lost hearts. His heart was lost. Carry coal/coals to Newcastle. Diamond cut diamond. 棋逢對(duì)手 The afternoon match is a diamond cut diamond, it must be wonderful. Like cures like. 以毒攻毒 Slightly change of the component may result in great change of its meaning Before

10、long/long before Out of (the) question She is out of question the greatest authority on this subject now living. 她無(wú)疑是目前健在這個(gè)學(xué)科的最權(quán)威人士 Increasing taxes is out of the question because we dont have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Some idioms are not fixed in some parts. Come to a bad/nasty

11、/sticky/ultimately end Come to/draw/arrive at a conclusion A hard/tough nut to crackClassification of idioms Idioms verbal in nature Idioms nominal in nature Idioms adjective in nature Idioms adverbial in nature Idioms being sentence in nature (6.2.1)Idioms in use Stylistically, idioms can be colloq

12、uial, formal or literary. Idioms can be used either non-idiomatically or idiomatically , i.e. They may have a literal or idiomatic meaning Bread and butter A piece of cake 俚語(yǔ)（slang） 1）screw up 弄糟、一塌胡涂 He screwed the whole thing up from start to finish. 他自始至終一塌胡涂。 2）Pay off 賄賂 chat up 與異性搭訕 3. 口語(yǔ)（col

13、loquial）。例如： snake in the grass 暗箭 hit below the belt stab in the back 暗箭傷人 cut the ground from under sb 在某人背后搞鬼 Sources Everyday life of English-speaking people Food and cooking Agricultural life Nautical and military life Parts of the body, animals, and colors (textbook, p. 92) Sample 中西諺語(yǔ)對(duì)比Other sources Mythology The heel of AchillesBible Cast pearls before swineFablesThe wolf and the lambHistorical eventBurn ones boatLiterary worksShakespeare Trojan horse 內(nèi)部顛覆者（即起內(nèi)部破壞作用的因素）欺騙性程序 Penelopes web 永遠(yuǎn)完不成的巨作 A Pandoras Box 潘多拉之盒（災(zāi)難）Cats paw