Semantics Apsects Of English Body Idioms

PUBLICAT ÎN : Interconexiuni metodologice, pragmatice şi diadctice în ştiinţele limbii. Chişinau, IRIM, 2009. p.106-113

SEMANTIC ASPECTS OF ENGLISH BODY IDIOMS
Josh G. V

Idioms have always attracted attention of linguists, literary critics, sociologists and philosophers. Enriching the literary language, representing a bright example of purity, accuracy of content and sharpness of language,idioms are of great importance in the treasury of culture and have become of genuine interest for linguists and researcher of various spheres of communication [5, 178].
The present article deals with semantic aspects of English idioms which have in their structure a word, denoting a part of human body (hand, leg, heart, etc). Such types of idioms in modern linguistics are called somatisms orsomatic constructions (from gr. sōma – body). However, it would be senseless to speak about body idioms, without giving a very brief outlook on the definition, nature and most common features of idioms as a linguistic phenomenon.
In is known that linguists still do not agree on the definition of the term idiom. L. Jaeger [3, 25] uses a very narrow definition, which regards only the semanticopacity of an idiom, stating that the composition of the literal meanings of the idiom’s constituents never yield its intended figurative meaning. According to S. Irujo an idiom is “a conventionalized expression whose meaning cannot be determined from the meaning of its parts” [2, 205].
In our paper we follow the definition given in the Webster’s Dictionary: “An idiom is an expression whose meaningcannot be predicted from the usual meanings of its constituent elements” [10]. The sheer number of idioms and their higher frequency in discourse make them an important aspect of vocabulary acquisition and language learning in general. Speaking about the frequency of idioms’ use, we have to say that a special research was performed by T.C. Cooper who transcribed the idioms from 3 hours of tapedtelevision programs and made the conclusion that idioms occurred at the rate of about 3 units per minute, while their comprehension was crucial for plot understanding [cit: 4, 63].
It is common knowledge that the expressions, which are called idioms, are metaphorical (head shrinker – psihiatru, психиатр). The way in which the words are put together in an idiomatic expression is often odd,illogical and even grammatically incorrect. Among other special features of idioms one can mention the following (body idioms serve as examples):
- some idioms are completely regular and logical in their grammar and vocabulary (the heel of Achilles - călcîiul lui Aсhille, Ахиллесова пята);
- idioms constitute genuine and approximate idiomatic analogies, the latter have similar meaning in differentlanguages, but various componential structure (head over heels in debt – a fi peste cap în datorii, погрязать в долгах);
- some idioms are too difficult to guess correctly, because they have no association with the original meaning of the individual words (a green thumb – a avea talent pentru grădinărit, иметь склонность к садоводству);
- very often no part of the idiom can be changed (tohave finger in the pie – a fi implicat în ceva, участвовать в чем-либо – it is impossible to substitute finger by toe or pie by cake).
Somatic constructions are considered to be one of the most frequently met types of idioms in English. One of their most significant features is the existence of multiple analogues in different languages, analogues which are very close in their figurative meanings. Itis this peculiarity that astonishingly differ body idioms from other thematic groups of phraseological units and which, in some extent, offers them a status of terms.
The congruence of body idioms’ figurative meaning in different languages is not explained only by their direct borrowing. It is known that names of the body parts represent the most archaic and, at the same time, the most...