This study investigates Swedish upper secondary students’ familiarity with English idioms, and whether or not there are differences depending on what level of proficiency the students are at. The participating students took an idiom familiarity test adapted from Nippold & Rudzinski (1993) which aimed at measuring students’ familiarity with a number of English idioms. The test included 15 items, and was designed to elicit responses based on a linear scale from 1 to 5. The results showed that there were differences depending on the year of English studies at upper-secondary school level. A possible conclusion is that students develop their idiom familiarity as they are being more exposed to English language both in school and outside of the school. The study has implications for the upper-secondary school English curriculum in Sweden.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VaniltonPS_DISSERT.pdf: 1441616 bytes, checksum: e21cbab2c48e321b3e4f5a0b17c70859 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-30 / Este estudio pretende dilucidar las motivaciones que llevan a los lectores del romance Grande Sert?o: Veredas a la categorizaci?n de ciertas construcciones gramaticales que se encuentran en la obra como proverbiales. Para ello, recurren a la investigaci?n de los procesos cognitivos implicados en la configuraci?n del patr?n discursivo proverbio, teniendo como soporte te?rico a la Ling??stica Cognitiva. En este empe?o, nos ancoramos en las nociones de construcciones corporeizadas, simulaci?n mental, frecuencia, patr?n discursivo y en la expresi?n idiom?tica. Suponemos que los proverbios constituyen un patr?n discursivo cristalizado a partir de la recurrencia de uso y, en virtud de eso, indagamos: ?Qu? mecanismos cognitivos son activados por los lectores en el proceso de categorizaci?n de las expresiones dichas proverbiales? Motivados por la situaci?n problema presentada, formulamos algunos experimentos con la intenci?n de aclarar las cuestiones investigadas y concluimos que los lectores recurren a constituciones construccionales subyacentes a los proverbios conocidos a trav?s de las interacciones realizadas en su entorno sociocultural, para dar cuenta de la sem?ntica de construcciones in?ditas. En ese proceso, los esquemas y frames se activan a trav?s de simulaciones mentales instanciadas por experiencias corporales y culturales, decisivas para la concretizaci?n de los procesos de las construcciones proverbiales / Este trabalho objetiva elucidar as motiva??es que levam os leitores do romance Grande Sert?o: Veredas a categorizar determinadas constru??es gramaticais encontradas na obra como sendo proverbiais. Para isso, se volta para a investiga??o dos processos cognitivos envolvidos na configura??o do padr?o discursivo prov?rbio, tomando como suporte te?rico a Lingu?stica Cognitiva. Nessa empreitada, ancoramo-nos nas no??es de constru??es corporificadas, simula??o mental, frequ?ncia, padr?o discursivo e idiomaticidade. Partimos do pressuposto de que os prov?rbios constituem um padr?o discursivo cristalizado a partir da recorr?ncia de uso e, em face disso, indagamos: que mecanismos cognitivos s?o ativados pelos leitores no processo de categoriza??o das express?es ditas proverbiais? Motivados pela situa??o-problema apresentada, formulamos alguns experimentos com a inten??o de lan?ar luz ?s quest?es investigadas e conclu?mos que os leitores recorrem a constitui??es construcionais subjacentes aos prov?rbios conhecidos atrav?s das intera??es realizadas em seu entorno sociocultural, para darem conta da semantiza??o de constru??es in?ditas. Nesse processo, s?o ativados esquemas e frames atrav?s de simula??es mentais instanciadas pelas experi?ncias corporais e culturais, decisivas para a efetiva??o dos processos de categoriza??o e de constru??o de sentido das constru??es proverbiais

Idiom is the fruit of the minds of mankind in the process of its production activities and life experience. It can figuratively and logically express the ideas of people and the deep meaning of life. Due to the difference in construction between Chinese and Russian idiom units, great importance is attached to the analysis of the features of both the semantic and structural (or formal) construction of both languages, which contributes to the correct understanding of the meanings of idiom units and their accurate translation. At the same time, Chinese and Russian languages contain a large number of digital idiom. These idioms are not only often used in everyday life, but also largely reflect the thinking style, life habits and cultural identity of the nation. In order to propose the correct translation as possible, one must take into account both the culture, history, tradition, customs and manners of the people who speak this translated language, as well as stylistic and expressive colors of the language units themselves, etc. Based on the comparison and analysis of the formation, origin, nature, scope of use and structural characteristics of the Chinese and Russian digital idioms, we have summarized the translation methods based on the translation theory. This is very important for establishing the theory of digital idiom translation methods, and is applied in daily life and literary works. / Фразеологизм является плодом умов человечества в процессе его производственной деятельности и жизненного опыта. Он может образно и логично выражать идеи людей и глубокий смысл жизни. В связи с различием конструкции между китайскими и русскими фразеологическими единицами в работе придаётся большое значение разбору в особенностях как смысловой, так и структурной (или формальной) конструкции обоих языков, что способствует правильному пониманию значений фразеологизмов и их точному переводу. В то же время, китайский и русский языки содержат большое количество фразеологизмов с числительными. Эти фразеологизмы не только часто используются в повседневной жизни, но также в значительной степени отражают стиль мышления, жизненные привычки и культурную самобытность нации. Чтобы предложить как можно правильный перевод, нужно учитывать как культуру, историю, традицию, обычаи и нравы народа, владеющего данным переводимым языком, так и стилистические и экспрессивные окраски самих языковых единиц и др. При сопоставлении и анализе формирования, происхождения, характера, сферы употребления и особенностей конструкций китайских и русских фразеологизмов с числительными, а также с учетом теории перевода, работа обобщила и подытожила правила перевода, обосновала наилучший, как нам представляется, метод перевода фразеологизмов с числительными с китайского языка на русский, что будет иметь большое значение как для создания теории по переводу фразеологизмов с числительными, и будет находить практическое применение в переводе как устной речи, так и литературных произведений.

本論文從認知語意學的角度來探討英文中 “Heart” 成語所牽涉到的認知語意機制，並以Lakoff (1993)所提出的當代隱喻理論、Kövecses & Radden (1998)從認知語言學角度針對換喻所做的研究以及Ruiz de Mendoza (2003)所提出來的隱喻和換喻的三個交互模式為基礎，進一步探討 “Heart” 成語的字面語意如何透過這些機制衍生出其象徵語意。此外，本論文也對收集到的七十七個 “Heart” 成語進行重新分類以修正Niemeier’s (2003)在 “Heart” 成語分類上所產成的謬誤。 研究分析發現七十七個 “Heart” 成語所牽涉的認知語意機制包括Lakoff (1993)提出的五種隱喻類型以及Kövecses & Radden (1998)提出的十五種換喻類型其中的六種，而七十七個 “Heart” 成語的字面語意與其象徵語意之間的連結則無法僅僅透過Ruiz de Mendoza (2003)所提出來的隱喻和換喻的三個交互模式進行建立，而必須加上本研究另外發現的四個新的交互模式才能完整建立起七十七個 “Heart” 成語的字面語意與其象徵語意之間的連結。 / Based on the contemporary theory of metaphor by Lakoff (1993), a cognitive view toward metonymy by Kövecses & Radden (1998), and models of how metaphor can interact with metonymy by Ruiz de Mendoza (2003), this thesis makes an effort in exploring the cognitive-semantic mechanisms behind the 77 heart idioms collected for this research. Although Niemeier (2003) has tried to explore the metaphorical and metonymic bases for the heart idioms in English, her analysis is not satisfactory and can not meet the goal of this current research. A recategorization of heart idioms is therefore performed to encompass all the features exhibited by them before the cognitive-semantic analysis is proposed. The analysis of heart idioms discovers that a full explanation of their figurative meanings requires the activation of all the five types of metaphor proposed by Lakoff (1993) and six out of the 15 types of metonymy-producing relationships proposed by Kövecses & Radden (1998). Furthermore, to fully account for the figurative meanings of heart idioms, the analysis also proposes six interaction models of between metaphor and metonymy, two of which are proposed in Ruiz de Mendoza (2003) and four of which are discovered by the current study.

Voyage au bout de la nuit, do escritor francês Louis-Ferdinand Céline, obteve uma grande repercussão nos círculos literários e junto ao público em 1932, ano de seu lançamento. Por uma linguagem popular e virulenta até então ausente da literatura francesa e pela violência com que seu herói Ferdinand Bardamu denunciava as injustiças da sociedade, o livro de estréia de Céline causou um forte impacto e, até hoje possui um lugar à parte no cenário literário. Um dos fatores responsáveis por esse impacto seria sem dúvida, a inovação perpetrada à língua francesa uma vez que seu autor pretendia renová-la a partir da linguagem oral e popular. O romance apresenta um duplo movimento de protesto: a denúncia virulenta de seu protagonista e o golpe desferido no âmago da língua literária acadêmica. Grande parte de sua repercussão, deveu-se em larga escala a essa escolha lingüística considerada inovadora e revolucionária para os padrões da época. A invenção de Céline de escrever como se fala seria uma espontaneidade aparente, pois, seu estilo nada tem de natural, ao contrário, é artifício, resultado de um longo trabalho. Se a escolha de uma língua criada a partir de tal registro escandalizou os leitores de sua época, hoje em dia, o impacto do romance decorre nem tanto da linguagem e mais da violência com que Bardamu se refere a seus semelhantes. Gostaríamos no presente trabalho de esboçar uma análise das duas forças do texto - o estudo da escritura e do universo criados por Céline. A abordagem de sua viagem nos conduziria à percepção de um mundo criado a partir de uma dimensão onírica, pois uma viagem imaginária é anunciada desde a epígrafe do romance: Nossa viagem, a nossa, é inteiramente imaginária. A viagem ao fim, ao fundo da noite empreendida por Céline teria a acepção do caminho lento e gradual para a morte. O mergulho dentro de tal universo nos remeteria também à porção autobiográfica sugerida na obra celiniana, visto que os itinerários de Bardamu e de Céline seriam convergentes. Enfim, esse estudo nos permitiria refletir sobre o uso de uma língua construída sobre um código oral-popular dispositivo utilizado pelo autor para introduzir na linguagem escrita a emoção do falado. / Journey to the end of the night (Voyage au bout de la nuit), by the French author, Louis- Ferdinand Celine, caused a stir in literary circles and the public at large when it was launched in 1932. Its vitriolic tone and the popular idiom in which it was written were quite unprecedented, as was the vehemence with which Ferdinand Bardamu decried social injustice. This, the first book written by Celine, created a huge impact and until today continues to occupy an important place in the world of literature. The authors intention to breathe new life into the French literary canon by introducing the popular idiom into the written language was, without doubt, one of the factors behind this impact.The form of protest adopted by the novel is two-pronged: alongside the vehement denunciation of an absurd world, was the blow which was aimed at the very heart of academic literary language. There can be no doubt that the vast resonance created by the work is the result of this choice of language, which was considered to be both innovative and revolutionary when judged by the standards of its time.Today, Celines invention of writing the way we speak, has a particular air of spontaneity, which would have been lost, had the author instead resorted to the artifice of a more elaborate style. If the choice of language set off a wave of resounding scandals at the time, nowadays it is not the language, but rather the violent manner in which Bardamu refers to his peers that creates a similar impact upon contemporary readership. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the two driving forces behind the text: the writing and Celines universe. The manner in which the voyage is approached leads to the perception of a world wrought from a dreamstate dimension, since it is an imaginary voyage which is announced in the foreword of the novel. This journey of ours is entirely imaginary. The journey to the nights end, undertaken by Celine has the sense of a slow and deliberate journey towards death. Once immersed in this universe, we are led to a place where the itineraries of Bardamu and Celine converge, suggesting strong autobiographical associations. Finally, this analysis allows us to reflect on the usage of a language constructed upon the code of a popular idiom, a mechanism used by its creator to introduce the paradox of emotive reasoning expressed in the popular idiom, into the written language.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:37:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 400708.pdf: 636514 bytes, checksum: 4b5a5b0601c19ee12dde787bee1a5e8e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-01-11 / A problem?tica apresentada pelas express?es idiom?ticas ?, para muitos pesquisadores e te?ricos, uma evid?ncia contra a onipot?ncia das teorias sint?tica e da sem?ntica e a favor de uma nova perspectiva que melhor esclare?a o comportamento destas express?es. Tradicionalmente, as express?es idiom?ticas eram definidas como blocos fixos de palavras que possu?am um sentido igualmente fixo e distinto do significado composto a partir da soma de suas partes. Por?m, a partir do final da d?cada de 60 com os estudos de Fraser (1970), surgiram pesquisas que abordavam o car?ter composicional das express?es idiom?ticas com base em dois aspectos principais: (1) algumas express?es permitem que a ordem de seus elementos seja alterada, ou seja, permitem a flexibilidade sint?tica e (2) algumas express?es aceitam o acr?scimo de novas palavras, a supress?o de partes da sua estrutura ou a substitui??o de seus elementos, sem que o sentido idiom?tico seja alterado, ou seja, respeitando a flexibilidade lexical. Esta nova perspectiva passou, ent?o, a atribuir novas caracter?sticas para o grupo de express?es idiom?ticas, entre elas, a idiomaticidade e a composicionalidade que, por sua vez, constituem-se em fatores essenciais para sua adequada observa??o. De acordo com esta nova abordagem, foi estabelecida uma interface entre as Teorias Sem?ntica, Pragm?tica e Etimol?gica, com o intuito de melhor descrever o comportamento das express?es idiom?ticas e suas caracter?sticas. Nesse sentido, a presente pesquisa visa comprovar a natureza composicional do significado impl?cito destas express?es, atrav?s da investiga??o etimol?gica acerca da origem da cria??o das express?es idiom?ticas, e tamb?m, esclarecer como fatores como a idiomaticidade e a composicionalidade podem influenciar a compreens?o do significado impl?cito destas express?es, conforme afirmam Fernando (1996) e Pitt e Katz (2000). Al?m disso, o estudo busca ilustrar aspectos a favor da Teoria Pragm?tica, que ? capaz de descrever e explicar, mais adequadamente, as express?es idiom?ticas em situa??es reais de comunica??o, a fim de comprovar que o sentido idiom?tico destas express?es ? mais facilmente compreendido quando em contextos reais de uso atrav?s da Teoria das Implicaturas de Grice (1975). Logo, o estudo segue uma abordagem de pesquisa bibliogr?fica com observa??es emp?ricas acerca do comportamento das express?es idiom?ticas da l?ngua inglesa. Al?m disso, a pesquisa analisa um corpus de 18 express?es idiom?ticas com o objetivo de ilustrar as propostas defendidas. E, atrav?s das an?lises realizadas, os resultados evidenciam a import?ncia da idiomaticidade e a composicionalidade como os fatores que mais caracterizam este grupo de express?es, que aliados ?s teorias sem?ntica, pragm?tica e etimol?gica, melhor esclarecem alguns aspectos comuns ?s express?es idiom?ticas

This study explores how comprehension strategies, first language (L1), and contextual information affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of colloquial idioms by Chinese as a second language (L2) learners at an advanced level of proficiency. Three research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent does context affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of Chinese colloquial idioms, (2) to what extent does the degree of L1–L2 similarity influence the comprehension and interpretation of the Chinese colloquial idioms, and (3) what strategies are employed by the learners in comprehending the Chinese colloquial idioms in isolation and in context, and which strategies contribute to better comprehension of the Chinese colloquial idioms in context. To address these research questions, 30 advanced Chinese L2 learners at a Midwest University participated in the study. They were asked to comprehend 15 unknown colloquial idioms in and out of context. All of the participants were native speakers of English. The 15 target idiomatic phrases differed in terms of the degree of L1–L2 similarity, including 5 matching idioms, 5 partially matching idioms, and 5 non-matching idioms. In the decontextualized condition, the participants were given a list of the target colloquial idioms without contextual information, whereas in the contextualized condition, the target colloquial idioms were embedded in short paragraph context. For both tasks, the individual participants were required to verbalize their thought processes as they arrived at the meanings of the target colloquial idioms. Think-aloud protocols were employed to collect qualitative data. It was discovered that context substantially facilitated the comprehension processes of the target colloquial idioms, especially with respect to the partially matching category. The degree of L1–L2 similarity significantly affected the ease with which the participants understood the Chinese colloquial idioms in the decontextualized and contextualized tasks. In the decontextualized condition, the participants generally adopted a “part-to-whole and literal-to-figurative” approach to interpret the target items, whereas in the contextualized condition, the participants adopted a heuristic method and employed a wide range of strategies (e.g., sentence translation, component words, and background knowledge) to access meaning of the target idioms. Among the strategies identified, semantic processing and pre-existing knowledge were strong predictors of accurate idiom interpretation. Instead of using existing L1 idiom comprehension models to explain the comprehension of idioms in an L2, a tentative model of idiom comprehension was proposed. L2 learners appeared to undergo two stages in comprehending unknown Chinese colloquial idioms: an initial prediction stage and a verification stage.

<p>The aim of this study has been to analyse metaphorical strings which have been interpreted literally, a process referred to as metaphor reversal. This was first described by Löflund (1999:18) and the specific term was later coined by Alm-Arvius (2006:6). Metaphor reversal is basically a subcategory of the broader term polysemy punning.</p><p>When a metaphor unexpectedly is interpreted literally, a humorous effect takes place and a pun is created. Especially if the metaphorisation in question has an entrenched figurative meaning, the unexpectedness of the literal interpretation is greater and the pun more obvious. The examples of these puns exploiting metaphor reversal have been taken from films featuring the verbal comedian Groucho Marx (GM), who frequently used this type and other kinds of puns in his films.</p><p>The terms internal and external metaphor, coined by Alm-Arvius (2003:78), have been used in order to distinguish between two different types of metaphorisations. Internal metaphor refers to metaphors with obvious internal collocational clashes and external metaphor refers to metaphors without such clashes, which can thus be given a literal as well as a figurative reading. However, this is not a clear-cut distinction and occasional overlapping between the two categories is common. Therefore, a continuum has been given which shows the overlapping category ‘more figurative external metaphors’. These are metaphors without collocational clashes, but with entrenched figurative meanings which make them metaphorical and not literal.</p><p>GM does not only revert external metaphors; he also reverts internal metaphors although this category contains collocational clashes which should make a literal interpretation impossible. Internal metaphor puns tend to be more absurd than external metaphor puns due to the collocational clashes which make the literal interpretation less probable. Reverted external metaphors are referred to as REM and reverted internal metaphors as RIM.</p><p>Most examples analysed are metaphorisations with idiom status with clearly preferred figurative meanings. Consequently, their figurative meanings are deeply entrenched and should not be altered. However, these figurative meanings are altered by GM in his punning; they are reverted and interpreted literally. This indicates that one of the few occasions when it is accepted or even possible to interpret a metaphorical idiom literally is in punning.</p>

<p>Den här uppsatsen behandlar idiomatiska uttryck i det svenska språket. Huvudsyftet har varit att undersöka i vilken utsträckning det svenska folket känner till betydelsen av ett utvalt antal idiom samt också i vilken mån dessa idiom används. Undersökningen genomfördes med enkäter där 139 informanter, varav ungefär hälften gick i högstadiet och den andra hälften var över 50 år, fick kryssa i flervalsfrågor om betydelse och användning för 20 idiom. Resultatet visade att de äldre informanterna inte bara hade en bättre kännedom om idiomens betydelser, utan också använde sig av idiomen i större utsträckning än de yngre. Vidare gick det att utifrån resultatet se att några av idiomen, främst "Göra en björntjänst", håller på att genomgå en förändring i sin betydelse medan andra idiom, såsom "Vara en katt bland hermeliner", verkar vara på väg att försvinna ur vårt språk.</p>

Abstract Language is a repertoire of culture and a powerful and versatile medium in communication. Idioms mirror human wisdom in the process of conceptualization of the world. Idioms have interlocked and grown into records of a community’s past culture. Idioms therefore constitute a rich, but at the same time elusive, area of cross-cultural exchanges. Idioms reflect the colour and variety of human social activities, and so play an important role in the linguistic ontologization of emotions. The vocabulary of emotions has been the object of intensive investigations in many languages, but bibliographical exploration reveals that idioms as a component of the lexicon are not yet part of the main field of theoretical interest. In particular, while there have been studies of idioms of emotion in English, there have been few on emotion idioms in Vietnamese, and very few systematic investigations of emotion idioms (EIs) across English and Vietnamese. Hence, our linguistic study of the conceptualization of emotions in English and Vietnamese will significantly contribute to the development of this research domain with data from a language other than English. The study undertakes a contrastive investigation of idioms that express the seven basic emotional concepts of HAPPINESS, SADNESS, ANGER, DISGUST, LOVE, FEAR, and DESIRE in English and Vietnamese. There are three foci: (1) similarities and differences in formal structure between the EIs in English and Vietnamese; (2) similarities and differences in semantics between such idioms; and (3) an investigation of the patterning and regularities of the established similarities and differences between the EIs in the two languages. To the end, we have conducted a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages, which has enabled the establishing of a corpus of 1065 entries (603 for English and 462 for Vietnamese). As regards the formal structure, the study sets up the lexicogrammatical frames for the canonical forms and variation patterns of the idioms, and interrelates quantitatively and quantitatively the relationship of the idioms’ variant form vis-à-vis the canonical form. In light of the findings, the study has shown that a high level of canonicity is observed in the idioms in both English and Vietnamese. In general, they conform to a restricted number of construction types: verbal, nominal, adjectival, prepositional, and sentential. Nevertheless, many other idioms permit variable flexibility in their composition: the substitutability of their component parts, insertion of lexical items, and some variation in syntactic patterning. For the idioms which are logged as canonical and variant, we have suggested rules to cover the patterns. As regards the semantic features of the idioms, the study is substantially reliant on the theory of conceptual metaphor (CMT) and metonymy, as first developed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), to analyze the data. The data analysis leads to the discovery of conceptual mappings/correspondences from the various source domains on to the target domains of emotions, which are very productive of idioms. An in-depth analysis of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural aspects in the idioms is provided to determine similarities and differences in terms of conceptualization of the emotions between the two languages. The contrastive analysis of idioms reported in the traditional literature is usually the comparison of idioms with body-part terms: e.g., mát mặt (‘cool face’) ‘HAPPINESS’ in Vietnamese; lose one’s head in English, animals: e.g., gầm như hổ đói (‘roar like tiger hungry’); go ape ‘ANGER’, and colours: e.g., đỏ mặt tía tai (‘red face purple ear’); blue in the face ‘ANGER’. The present analysis seeks greater explanatory depth and theoretical grounding in the framework of cognitive linguistics. We present the semantic patterning of the idioms, and the patterning in turn reveals how English and Vietnamese people talk about and structure the abstract conceptual domains (i.e., emotions) (Gibbs & Wilson, 2002). In light of the findings, this research has revealed both commonalities and differences in the conceptualization of the emotions in English and Vietnamese. The affinities are grounded in common bodily experiences. On the other hand, cross-cultural variations are also obvious. The most important conclusion that can be drawn for the study is that metaphors and metonymies involved in emotion-expressing idioms are not only heavily subject to physiological basis (Solomon, 1984), but also to cultural influences on the basis of the cultural image schemas (Dobrovol'skij & Piirainen, 2006; Emanatian, 1995; Geeraerts & Grondelaers, 1995; Ungerer, 1993). The thesis also presents implications concerning the linguistic ontologization of emotions, and their application to second language learning and the translation of idioms.