ГБОУ лицей № 144 Калининского района

Санкт-Петербурга

Исследовательская работа

Idioms in English language

Работу выполнил ученик 9 «в» класса

ГБОУ лицей № 144 Калининского района
Рогачев Сергей

Научный руководитель:
Учитель английского языка
Алексеева Анастасия Андреевна

Санкт-Петербург
2023 год
Contents

Introduction. …............................................................................3-4

Why are idioms so important. …..................................................5

Classification of idioms. …..........................................................6-8

Use of idioms in speech. …..........................................................8

Tasks and examples. ……………………………………………9-14

Conclusion. ……………………………………………………..15

List of used sources......................................................................16

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 Introduction.

English is vital for international communication. People from all over the
Globe learn it, but do they discover its full potential? Idioms are the answer. How
many of these people do not even know about the existence of idiomatic
expressions? We cannot say exactly. What we can say precisely is the fact that if a
person does not know any basic idioms, he will not be able to communicate in an
appropriate way with foreigners, who constantly use them. That is why the
importance of learning idioms cannot be doubted. Native speakers use idioms
every day, so there comes up a couple of simple questions – what is special about
idioms and why are they so ubiquitous in foreigners’ speech?

Idioms, being expressions commonly used in informal language, are the

perfect way to make your speech rich and powerful. Idioms are able to get an idea
across quickly. In addition, by operating idioms you are capable of describing
something well and precisely without using large word compositions. Eventually,
idioms show the level of language proficiency and demonstrate that a person is
comfortable with both formal and informal speech.
Fraser (1970), p.22 says an idiom is "a constituent or series of constituents
for which the semantic interpretation is not a compositional function of the
formatives of which it is composed". However, in Longman dictionary of language
teaching and applied linguistics, the term idiom is defined simply as “an
expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked
out from its separate parts. To put it in a simple way, words, an idiom consists of,
do not help understand its meaning. That is one of the reasons which cause
problems with comprehension of idiomatic expressions. For instance, it leads
people unfamiliar with a certain phrase to take it literally. For example, when a
person says to someone “Break a leg”, it does not mean that person literally wishes
someone to be hurt, quite the contrary - this popular idiom means “Good luck”.
Another reason that makes idioms misunderstood today even by native speakers is

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their varieties by country, region or period of time. For example, some Australian
idioms may seem specific for British people, and at the same time Australians may
consider some British phrases as something strange and incomprehensible. By the
increase of world technical progress nowadays some phrases are being leaked from
one type of English and become international ones. Unfortunately, in Russian
schools we do not learn idioms in an appropriate way, idioms take the last place in
syllabus, but not the last in exams.

Purpose and tasks of the research.

The main purpose of the research consists of making our own exercise book to
increase the level of English proficiency and to improve language skills among the
students of 5th-11th grades, that can be further used in Olympics or on exam.

Tasks of the research:

● Find information about the “idiom” definition.

● Explore information about idioms’ classification.
● Structure all information about idioms.
● Find several types of exercises for improving idioms’ knowledge and try to
remake them with our own examples.

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Chapter 1.
The researching of the theoretical features of idioms and studying them.

1.1. Why are idioms so important.

According to Cambridge Dictionary an ‘idiom’ is a group of words in a

fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of
each word on its own. The definition of idiom that Halawachy gives is quite
similar - an idiom is a “phrase or a clause whose meaning, mostly, cannot be
deduced from the literal definition; it refers instead to a figurative meaning which
is well-mastered by the native speakers in one particular culture.”
(Huda Halawachy, 2013)
In a fact the culture is strongly connected with idioms and their origins. The
most part of idiomatic expressions were invented by ordinary people and promoted
to the masses. For instance, popular idiom “ice - breaker” that means special
activity before classes or meeting to relieve nerves and get participants involved,
originally refers to the physical breakage of the frozen surface of a body of water
to allow a boat’s passage. In this way, idioms, being the hard-to-understand part of
English, can show not only the level of language proficiency, but also they can be
cultural indications for people who speak the language fluently.
What is more, scientists think that idioms colour the language and make it
better, for example Rita Simpson & Dushyanthi Mendis believe that “mention of
the word idiom conjures up language that is thought to be entertaining, engaging,
casual, charming, colorful and memorable” (Rita Simpson & Dushyanthi Mendis,
2003). There is no denying that idioms are particularly useful. They give a person
an opportunity to express himself in a new, creative way. Idioms make the
language more complex and interesting. That is why importance of learning idioms
cannot be doubted.

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 1.2. Classification of idioms.

The English language includes different types of idioms. According to

Kövecses idioms are a “mixed bag” which “involves metaphors (e.g. spill the
beans), metonymies (e.g. throw up one’s hands), pairs of words (e.g. cats and
dogs), idioms with it (e.g. live it up), similes (e.g. as easy as pie), sayings (e.g. a
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush), phrasal verbs (e.g. come up, as in
“Christmas is coming up”), grammatical idioms (e.g. let alone), and others
(Kövecses, 2010: 231).
However, Fernando thinks about dividing idioms by their opaqueness. In his
opinion there are three groups of idioms, first - pure ones, which means for idiom
to be non-literal and fully opaque (e.g. to let the cat out of the bag - this idiom
means “to reveal a secret”), second group - semi-idioms - they are considered to
be partially opaque (e.g. foot the bill, which means ‘pay’), and the last type - literal
idioms, which are believed to be transparent (e.g. of course, in any case).
(Fernando qtd in Strakšiene 2009: 14).
Seidl & McMordie in their research considered that idioms can have
different structures, as result they divided idioms by their clarity and form.
According to them there are three types of idiomatic expressions: idioms with
irregular form and clear meaning (e.g. give someone to understand, do the dirty
on someone); idioms with regular form and unclear meaning (e.g. cut no ice,
bring the house down); idioms with irregular form and unclear meaning (e.g. be at
large, be at daggers drawn).
(Seidl & McMordie 1988: 13).
Cacciari & Glucksberg considered that idioms, according to the dimension
of compositionality, can be non-compositional, partially compositional, and fully
compositional. “In non-compositional idioms, no relations between the idiom’s
constituents and the idiom’s meaning can be discerned, as in the idiom cheesecake
to refer to pinup art [...]. In partially compositional idioms, some relationships

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between an idiom’s constituents and its idiomatic meaning can be discerned
and exploited. Although one could not infer the meaning to die from the literal
meaning of kick the bucket, the idiom’s literal meaning does constrain its use and
comprehension. [...] In fully compositional idioms, the constituents map
directly onto their idiomatic referents, as in the idiom pop the question”
(Glucksberg 2001: 73; Cacciari & Glucksberg, 1991).
In this project we consider idioms by their semantic classification. According to
scientists’ studies there are three types of idioms:

A. Phraseological combinations.

These are stable combinations in which each of the components, while

remaining non-free, retains some semantic independence, for example: "to show
one's teeth". This phraseological combination means "to snarl". Independence in
this combination shows the word "one's", which means "someone's". It can be
replaced with the words "my", "your", "his", etc.

B. Phraseological units.

These are stable phrases in which the meaning of the whole is motivated and
derived from the meaning of the individual components. The individual words
included in its composition are semantically dependent, and the meaning of each of
the components is subject to the unity of the general figurative meaning of the
entire phraseological expression as a whole. However, we can guess the meaning
of the phrase. For example: "to know the way the cat is jumping". This idiom
means “have an exceptional flair for changing situations and quickly adapt to
them.”.

C. Phraseological unions.

These are stable phrases that are a semantically indivisible whole, and the
meaning of the whole is not derived from the meanings of individual words that
make up this phraseological fusion. The semantic independence of words -

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components is completely lost. Such phraseological units are "pure idioms". With a
literal translation, we cannot understand the meaning. For example: "to show the
white feather". That means “to be afraid”. None of the words in the literal hints at
the meaning of the whole combination.

Phraseological turns are the scourge of everyone who studies a foreign

language, because, faced with them, a person often cannot understand what is
being said. Often, in order to understand the meaning of a particular statement, one
has to use a dictionary of phraseological combinations, which is far from always at
hand. However, there is a way out - you can develop the ability to recognize
phraseological units, then it will be easier to understand their meaning.

1.3. Use of idioms in speech.

Like all types of figurative language, idioms can be a powerful tool when
they are used correctly. They add humor and spirit to the language. Idioms are
mostly used in informal speech, so it is better to avoid using them in technical or
formal writing. Idioms leave a lot of room for misunderstandings, and they are not
precise in these cases. Learning idioms is a great way to expand your vocabulary, it
is thought that understanding the lexicon of English demands more than knowing
the denotative meaning of words. It requires its speakers to have connotative word
comprehension and more, an understanding of figurative language, so idioms fall
into this category. They are used in everyday speech, and they are being important
as part of the shared knowledge among English speakers. Constant usage of idioms
in speech and writing helps person achieve a higher level of mastery and fluency in
the language.

Conclusion.

By this part of the research, we found information about idioms’ definition and
classification, we also answered a couple of questions involving importance and
usage of idiomatic expressions in everyday life.

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Chapter 2.

2.1. Tasks and examples.

Working on the practical part of our research was consisted of finding some
types of exercises and rebuilding them using our own examples. We used four
types of exercises in our work, which can easily help to improve the level of
English language proficiency and knowledge of idiomatic expressions in our
school. Our product can be used to prepare to English Olympics and as a result it
will improve the results among students from our school. What is more, this
product can be easily used on lessons to teach students idioms more effectively,
because our tasks are easy-to-understand and complete, what makes it easier to a
person to remember idiomatic expressions.

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In this task you need to complete the sentence using an idiomatic expression
from a to f.

1. She always eats some candies – she ...

2. Every summer day I wake up, I am ... and it allows me to do lots of tasks in
daytime
3. She works only on one job and it’s pretty easy to her to do it – it's just ...
4. Working in this office is his ... - he won’t be able to live normally if he loses this
job.
5. She said that she and her husband didn't want to join the club anyway, but it was
clearly ...
6. Playing the guitar ... - every time I try, I can’t play anything good.

a. sour grapes
b. bread and butter
c. full of beans
d. has a sweet tooth
e. piece of cake
f. is not my cup of tea

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In this task you need to complete the sentence using one word from a to d.
1. When I met him yesterday, he offended me and we started arguing – it was a hot
..........
a. carrot
b. potato
c. cucumber
d. onion
2. I don’t like German – It's not my cup of ....
a. coffee
b. juice
c. water
d. tea
3. Look at these twins! They’re like two .......... in a........
a. beans/pod
b. peas/pod
c. sunflowers/field
d. gold ingots/bank
4. It’s as good as a ........ teapot
a. chocolate
b. gold
c. silver
d. iron
5. When he knew that he had been the best on exam he went ...
a. strawberries
b. cherries
c. bananas
d. apples
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6. She said that she and her husband didn't want to join the club anyway, but it was
clearly sour .........
a. cherries
b. berries
c. apples
d. grapes
7. He had failed an exam, but later he was given a second bite of .......
a. cherry
b. berry
c. apple
d. grape
8. When he had woken up, he was absolutely full of ........, so he went running
immediately.
a. peas
b. beans
c. cheese
d. coffee
9. She spilled the ... when told him about surprise.
a. beans
b. peas
c. water
d. coffee
10. He was saying something about roller coasters even in case he never tried
them. I think, that’s not right – the proof of the ........ is in the eating.
a. cake
b. cupcake
c. pudding
d. cheesecake
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11. He was working only on one job, so it was bread and ....... for him.
a. meat
b. butter
c. fish
d. apple
12. He was cool as a/an ...... when he knew, that he hadn’t passed the exam.
a. ice
b. strawberry
c. pear
d. cucumber

Here you need to connect two parts of the phrase to get an idiom.

It’s a hot the bacon

To bring home the beans
Flat as a the cookie crumbles
Piece of grapes
That's the way potato
Sour the pudding
The proof of pancake
Spill cake
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
To have like hotcakes
To be sold a sweet tooth

Table 1.

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Here you need to connect idiom with its definition.

It’s a hot potato that's the way life goes

Piece of cake Two identical people
Spill the beans something useless
Like two peas in a pod a job or activity that provides
you with the money you need
to live
That's the way the cookie a problem, situation, etc. that is
crumbles difficult to deal with and
causes a lot of disagreement
Cool as a cucumber to become extremely angry or
excited
Bread and butter Reveal the secret
It’s as good as a chocolate to be full of energy
teapot
To go bananas something easy to do
To be full of beans A bad person
A bad egg very calm or very calmly,
especially when this is
surprising

Table 2.

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 Conclusion.
By the end of our research, we must sum up all work that was done, we
completed all four tasks which were set in the beginning: we found out what is an
“idiom”, considered several types of idioms’ classification, found examples of
tasks and finally redone it with our own idiomatic expressions.

Idiom, if we follow the easiest way to say the meaning, is the group of
words in fixed order that has a particular meaning that differs from the meanings of
each word on its own. Excepting official definition of an “idiom” we would like to
add that using idioms is the great way to brighten up your speech and make it more
interesting and powerful.

Idioms in our research are divided by their opaqueness, so according to this

classification there are three types of idiomatic expressions: phraseological
combinations (some parts of idiom as for example in idiom "by the skin of one's
teeth" where "one's" can be replaced with "my", "his" etc.), phraseological units
(each of the components is subject to the unity of the general figurative meaning of
the entire phraseological expression as a whole) and phraseological unions where
person cannot understand the meaning of the phrase with a literal translation.

We structured all information by dividing it in two chapters, where first is a

theoretical one and second is a practical.

In second part of research we needed to make our own exercise book, as a

result we found four types of tasks and redone it with our own examples, the
number of exercises which are presented in our project is not as big as it could be,
here are shown some basic idiomatic expressions, but in future it would be pretty
easy to make more exercises, if we needed some, that is explained by the fact that
we understood the principle of making them. I am planning to continue working on
expanding my vocabulary and number of idioms that I know. As it was said in our
research, idioms are very important part of English, and I cannot say anything
against it.
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 List of used sources.

https://www.ascenglish.com/blog/2019/05/understanding-the-importance-of-
idioms-in-english-language-learning/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/idiom
https://www.ieltsbuddy.com/idioms-practice.html
https://www.ettractions.com/storage/engage/Media/prf_1000000/Docs/
0521789575WSqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq.pdf
About the Definition, Classification, and Translation Strategies of Idioms. Acta
Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 8, 3 (2016) 85–101
https://nauchforum.ru/archive/studjournal/6%28185%29.pdf#page=19
Idioms within a Transformational Grammar. Springer. Foundations of Language,
Vol. 6, No. 1 (Feb., 1970), pp. 22-42
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25000426

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