词汇学_lexic14Idioms导论.ppt

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 green 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 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· 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 are indeed a black sheep in our community!” Idioms Definition Characteristics of idioms Semantic unity Structural stability Classification of idioms Sources of idioms Definition A set of expressions made up of two or more words; it functions as a unit of meaning which cannot be predicted from its literal meaning of its component words. Conventionalized multiword expressions Characteristics 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 idiom. pull up ones socks 鼓起勇气(不是“提上袜子”) handwriting on the wall 不祥之兆(不是“大字报”) dead president 美钞(上印有总统头像)(并非“死了的总统”) confidence man 骗子(不是“信得过的人”) rest room 厕所(不是“休息室”) dressing