毕业论文-On the Infulence of Historical Development and Geography Environment on the Formation of English Idioms.doc

On the Infulence of Historical Development and Geography Environment on the Formation of English Idioms Abstract English is a language particularly rich in idioms. Lots of cultural information is embodied in idioms. In some senses, idioms are the reflection of the environment, life, historical culture, etc. They are commonly used in all types of language, informal and formal, spoken and written. In brief, idioms are fixed phrases. They go through the test of history and cannot be separated. They are an important part of the general vocabulary of every language. Key words The oringins of the idioms, comparison between English idioms and Chinese idioms, and the translation of English idioms. Ⅰ. The definition and features of English idioms Definition what are idioms? “Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences” and “idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual elements.” (Zhang Weiyou, 174) “An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is different or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meanings of the individual words it contains.” (A S Honrnby, 2004, B19) such as, “black sheep” (害群之马), “Put a sock in it” (住口), “go over my head” (无法理解). “Most phrasal lexemes are idioms, especially a sequence of words which is semantically and often syntactically restricted.” (Hu Zhuanglin, 106) E.g. “Don’t put your problems at my doorstep” (归咎于我), “do in Rome as the Roman’s do” (入乡随俗), “as poor as a church mouse” (一贫如洗) Features 1.structural stability Many English idioms are characterized by structural invariability. Their form is often fixed. The word in idiomatic expressions cannot be deleted, added to, in the idiom live from hand to mouth, it is impossible to say live from hand to the mouth or live from a hand to a mouth; in the idiom to kick the bucket, if the word “bucket” is replaced by “pail”, the meaning of the idiom will no longer mean“die”. 2. semantic unity Idioms are mainly characteized by their sema