Курсовая работа: The use of common names in idiomatic expressions

a. George and Simon have their ups and downs.

b. George and Simon are having their ups and downs.

c. George and Simon had their ups and downs.

In these example sets, we will analyze the idioms take NP to task and have one’s ups and downs to be the listed forms of the idioms in (1) and (2). These examples clearly show that the verb tense can be changed in the internal structure of the idiom. We can make a conclusion that those idioms which were classified as “completely frozen” exhibit this kind of behavior (trip the light fantastic vs. tripping the light fantastic vs. tripped the light fantastic ) (M. Everaert: 1995:45).

It has been widely noted that the individual words in an idiom cannot be replaced by synonyms and still retain the idiomatic reading of the phrase. This is what qualifies them as fixed forms. In most non-idiomatic discourse, a speaker can use synonymy to create a new sentence with the same semantic meaning. That means that changing a word from the idiom with its synonym we will not get the synonymic idiom. In spite of that, idioms can be synonymous among themselves. For example:

John kicked the bucket.

John kicked the pail.

One thing that is readily noticeable about idioms is that many seem to resist undergoing transformations that similar non-idiomatic constructions can readily undergo while retaining the same sense. For example:

John kicked the bucket.

The bucket was kicked by John.

In spite of that sentence is transformed its meaning remains the same.

All these changes can be found in all categories of idioms.

1.3 The categories of Idioms

Idioms have been classified into several groups. Many idioms are derived from the names of body parts and bodily functions:

· cover one's back – do something to protect yourself from criticism or future blame;

· blood, sweat, and tears – great personal effort;

· in cold blood - without feeling;

· feel (something) in one's bones – sense something, have an intuition about something.

Other big group is idioms derived from animals names:

· as weak as a kitten – weak, sickly;

· hit the bulls-eye – to reach the main point of something;

· dog-eat-dog – ready or willing to fight and hurt others to get what one wants;

· monkey see, monkey do – someone copies something that someone else does.

The third big group is idioms derived from food and preparing it:

· full of beans - to feel energetic, to be in high spirits;

· grist for the mill - something that can be used to bring advantage or profit;

· take the cake - to be the best or worst of something;

· cook (someone's) goose - to damage or ruin someone.

Those are three the most common groups of idioms in English language. All these idioms are based on daily life events. They have risen from daily routine, from following the animal’s behavior as well as the human’s body reaction to different situations. They are often used in every day’s speech and they are quite intelligible.

Other idioms are quite rare in English language. For example, politics idioms: