Usage of idioms in the modern English language

The material under study provides examples which imply the way of life on the frontier. The idiom rope (someone) in reflects the experience of catching and collecting cattle with the help of lassoes by the frontiersmen in the West. That is the direct meaning and the idiomatic meaning is "to include (someone); to persuade (someone) to join in doing something: We roped him in to help." (Kirkpatrick and Schwarz, 1995). The prototype of the idiom this neck of the woods originally denoted a remote community in the woods, later the idiomatic meaning "a particular place or part of the country" developed which can be seen from the example: What do you do in the evening in this neck of the woods? (Kirkpatrick and Schwarz, 1995). Though the frontier was different a lot is connected with a life in the woods that predetermined many typical American characteristics. Billington writes, "No matter how nationalistic the frontiersmen might be, they were backwoodsmen, living in comparable isolation from the main currents of life..." (Billington, 1991: 212-213). The life in the woods is also reflected in the idiom have a chip on one's shoulder, the etymological meaning of which was "a reference to a man who carries a piece of wood balanced on his shoulder in the hope that someone will give him an excuse for a fight by knocking it off". The idiomatic meaning is: "to have rather an aggressive manner, as if always expecting to be insulted, ill-treated etc: He is very difficult to deal with--he's always had a chip on his shoulder about the lack of education." (Kirkpatrick and Schwarz, 1995). The origin of the idiom run-of-the-mill has reference to the life in the woods too. It came to mean "not special or unusual" as can be seen from the example: The film on television last night was very run-of-the-mill. Originally it meant "ungraded sawn timber as produced by a sawmill." (Kirkpatrick and Schwarz, 1995). One more facet of frontier history, the gold rush of the 1850's and 1860's, can be found out in the idiom strike (it) lucky, the etymological meaning of which expressed anticipation of gold miners (forty-niners) to find gold or silver. Idiomatic meaning: "to have good luck in a particular matter: We certainly struck lucky in choosing that school" (Kirkpatrick and Schwarz, 1995).

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2.  Usage of idioms in modern English language

 

1. Idioms used in different spheres

 

Globalization is taking over, our life and different spheres of it go through constant changes. Life changes – language does the same. The reason is language is the mirror of life, and according to the demand of it lexical units of the language (words, word combinations, phrases, sentences) acquire new meanings, which often may be misunderstood or confused. Lexicography – the study of the meaning, evolution and function of the vocabulary units of a language – successfully copes with registration of new meanings of language units. Nowadays there are numerous dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, phrasal verbs and idioms. That is what this course paper focuses on.

Business English has its own stock of idioms.

 

IDIOM		MEANING	EXAMPLE OF USAGE
Across the board		Nothing or nobody would be exempted; everything, everybody	The union wants a salary increase across the board.
Bang for buck		Value for money; To realize the full worth of investments or expenses	We will get a high bang for buck if we put our money in stocks.
Strike while the iron is hot		To seize a present opportunity that may easily go away; To take advantage of an existing chance	The executives decided to strike while the iron is hot and bought into the fast-growing and progressive start-up company quickly.
Saddled with debt		To be burdened with huge debt; Financial crisis	Saddled with debt, the bank filed for bankruptcy and for protection against debt collectors.
Calculated risk		A risk or an action that has been well studied and is thought to have high chances of resulting in success	We were taking a calculated risk when we decided to invest in stocks rather than in bonds.
Captain of the industry and Bigwig		A person considered as an influential leader in an industry. A bigwig is similar to captain in the industry but is often used to refer a ranking or important person in a company	The founder of this conglomerate is a captain of the industry. All the bigwigs working for him in his many companies respect and fear him.
Carve out a niche		Specialize or satisfy a market need that has been unaddressed; Concentrate or focus resources on a particular market need	The shoemaker decided to carve out a niche and not compete with mass shoe producers.
Fair play	Equal and non-discriminating treatment; It is often associated with justice		The technology company has a record of fair play. It treats its union members with respect and has always given them more than what they ask for in negotiations.
Gain Ground and Get off the Ground	To gain ground means to make some progress; Get off the ground is a similar idiom but it is frequently used to refer to progress made at the beginning of a process		The company is gaining ground in its hopes to become a market leader. Two of its three new product lines are getting off the ground and poised to gain large market shares within the current year.
Heads will roll	Someone or some people will be punished; This idiom is meant to be a warning that disciplinary actions will be served		Heads will roll when media people learn about this multi-million-dollar fraud.
Compare apples to oranges	to compare two unlike things; to make an invalid comparison		Comparing a night in a budget motel with a night in luxury hotel is like comparing apples to oranges.
At a premium	at a relatively high price		When flat-screen TVs first came out, they were selling at a premium
Belt-tightening	Reduction of expenses		When worldwide demand for software decreased, Microsoft had to do some bept-tightening.
Brownie points	Credit for doing a good deed or for giving someone a compliment(usually a boss or teacher)		Sara scored brownie points with her boss by volunteering to organize the company`s holiday party.
Cash cow	A product, service, or business division that generates a lot of cash for the company, without requiring much investment		With strong sales every year and a great brand name, Mercedes is a cash cow for DaimlerChrysler
Climb the corporate ladder	Advance in one`s career; The process of getting promoted and making it to senior management		You want to climb the corporate ladder? It helps to be productive and to look good in front of your boss.
Dot your I’s and cross your T’s	To be very careful; To find new customers		When preparing financial statements, be sure to dot your I’s and cross your T’s.

 

 

Drum up business	To create business; to find new customers	Sales have been very slow lately. Do you have any ideas for drumming it up?
Face the music	To admit that there is a problem; To deal with an unpleasant situation realistically	Enron executives finally had to face the music and admit that they were involved in some illegal activities
Fast track of project	To make a project a high priority; To speed up the time frame of a project	Let`s fast track of project. We`ve heard rumors that our competitors are developing similar products.
Generate lots of buzz	To cause many people to start talking about a product or service, usually in a positive way that increases sales	Procter & Gamble generated lots of buzz for its new toothpaste by giving away free samples to people on the streets of New York City.
Jump the gun	To start doing something too soon or ahead of everybody else	The company jumped the gun by releasing a new product before the results of the consumer testing were in.
Keep one`s eyes on the prize	To stay focused on the end result; To not let small problems get in the way of good results	I know it is difficult going to class after work, but just keep your eyes on the prize.
Pull one`s weigh	To do one`s share of the work	Do not rely on others to get your job done. You need to pull your own way.
Rally the troops	To motivate others; To get other people excited about doing something	After the lay-offs and salary cuts, the airline president organized a meeting to rally the troops and plan for the next year.

 

 

In the trade branch idioms are of a great essence. From the table below you can find several examples of the most widely used idioms in the sphere of trade.

 

IDIOM	MEANING	EXAMPLE OF USAGE
Stock in trade	Whatever goods, skills, etc., are necessary to undertake an activity	Packing household goods is my stock in trade.
Jack of all trades is a master of none	If you are able to do a lot of things fairly well, you do not have time to learn to do one extremely well	Harry can do so many things: he writes novels, makes sculptures, plays guitar. But he probably doesn`t do all of them terribly good.
Trade something off	To get rid of something in an exchange	I traded off my old car for a new one.
Do a roaring trade	To sell a lot of goods quickly	The toy department was doing a roaring trade in furry dinosaurs.
Ply your trade	To do your usual work	Fishermen in small boats ply their trade up and down the coast.
The tools of the trade	The things that you need to use in order to do a job	For the modern sales executive, a car phone is one of the tools of the trade.
Crunch time	A short period of time when there is high pressure to achieve a result	It is crunch time for stem cell researches in Korea.
Hard sell	An aggressive way of selling	Car salesmen are famous for using the hard sell on their customer
On top of trends	Aware and responding to the latest tastes	The Gap is on the top of trends, they always have the latest styles in their stores.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained	If you don`t try to do something, you will never succeed	It is risky to spend so much money developing a new brand, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Plug a product	To promote a product; To talk positively about a product	American Express often hires famous people to plug their credit cards.
Scale back one`s hours	To reduce the number of hours one works	When Christine had a baby, she decided to scale back her hours and just work part-time.
Reality check	Let`s think realistically about the situation	You think we can start selling our products through our website next month? Time for a real check! Nobody at our company knows anything about e-commerce.
Work out the kinks	To solve the problem with	The company announced that they will delay the launch of their new product by two weeks. They still need to work out the kinks with their packaging process.
Yes man	An employee who always agrees with the boss or does whatever the boss says	Do not expect Larry to argue with the boss. He is a yeas man.

 

 

English language numbers more than 25 000 idioms, in each sphere people face with the use of the idioms: during negotiations, in a shop, in song lyrics, etc. But the highest possibility of facing with the  usage of idioms is due to the everyday speech. Idioms are a part of our speech that we use absent-mindedly, automatically. Representatives of one language freely operate with idioms in his or her native language, but when learning a foreign language idioms may cause a great deal of misunderstanding. In this case we need to look up the idiomatic expression in dictionaries. The table below shows several of the most frequently used idioms in everyday speech.

 

 

IDIOM	MEANING	EXAMPLE OF USAGE
To have a narrow escape	To be very close to danger or something terrible but manage to escape	I had a narrow escape this morning. I was cycling to  work when a  lorry knocked me off my bike.
To be/go as white as a sheet	To be very pale in the face, especially because of illness or great fear	She went pale as she heard about the terrible murder happened in the house.
Shaking like a leaf	To tremble with a fear or great anxiety	I was shaking like a leaf when my neighbor`s big dog was running up to me.
The sky`s the limit	You haven`t got any limits to improve yourself	I dare to dream big and only the sky is the limit for me.
That is beside the point	It doesn`t concern the matter	We are talking about ballet, IT technologies is beside the point.
To get one`s hand on somebody	To interfere into somebody`s business	He was too annoying so I asked him to get his hands out my business.
A write-off	Completely destroyed	The car cannot be used anymore, it`s write-off.
To have a real heart-to-heart with	To have a friendly conversation	When I last saw him we had a real heart-to-heart in that cozy restaurant on the Gastings avenue.
That`s all water under the bridge	To forget everything (esp., bad things) which took place in the past	They split up a year ago, but agreed on that`s all water under the bridge.
Hit below the belt	To act in an unfamiliar way	The candidate of the opposition party spread false rumours about the Minister. People felt that he was hitting below the belt.
Gift of the gap	The ability to speak well	I was able to keep the audiences amused with her stories. She surely has the gift of the gab.

 

Make a mountain out of a molehill	To give great importance to minor things	Aisha stopped talking to Jadyra because she did not lend him her notebook. I think she is making a mountain out of a molehill.
Make hay while the sun shines	Make the best of a good situation while it lasts	Mr. Begaliyev got the big contract to supply machine parts to a big Japanese company. He should make hay while the sun shines.
Hit the nail on the head	Be exact or accurate	Darkhan is a genius. He hit the nail on the head when he said that the car was overheating because of a leaking radiator.
Throw in the towel	To admit being defeated	I am unable to solve this question. I am ready to throw in the towel.
No stone unturned	Make all possible efforts	He is leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to get into an engineering college.
Born with a silver spoon in one`s mouth	To be born in a very rich family	Priya was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her father gave her an expensive car on her eighteenth birthday.
Keep one`s fingers crossed	Hope for a positive outcome	My results will come out day after tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Break the ice	Overcome the initial shyness	The teacher asked the students to introduce themselves to each other to break the ice.

at loggerheads	To differ strongly	The two brothers can never work together. They are always at loggerheads.
Pull up one`s socks	to make an effort to improve	Aidar scored only forty on his English mid-term exams. He needs to pull up his socks if he wants to do well in his finals.

 

Whichever sphere one considers he or she will inevitably face with the usage of terminology and idioms. Idioms always give the meaning totally different from that of its components may mean separately. And in different spheres idioms refer to absolutely different essence. However, there are idioms which are unrestricted in their use which means that they can be used in several spheres equally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Differences in the  usage of idioms in British and American English

 

 

If you look up the word idiom in Webster, you will be given the following definition: Idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent element as kick the bucket, hang one's head etc., or from the general grammatical rules of language, as the table round for the round table, and which is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics. This definition seems a bit dry and doesn't really tell anything about the function of idioms in English language.  
            English is a language particularly rich in idioms - those modes of expression peculiar to a language (or dialect) which frequently defy logical and grammatical rules. Without idioms English would lose much of its variety and humor both in speech an writing.  
             The background and etymological origins of most idioms is at best obscure. This is the reason why a study of differences between the idioms of American and British English is somewhat difficult. But it also makes the cases, where background, etymology and history are known, even more interesting. Some idioms of the "worldwide English" have first been seen in the works of writers like Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Lewis Carroll or even in the paperbacks of contemporary novelists. An example of Shakespearian quotation can be found in the following sentence:"As a social worker, you certainly see the seamy side of life." Biblical references are also the source of many idioms. Sports terms, technical terms, legal terms, military slang and even nautical expressions have found their way to the everyday use of English language. Following are some examples of these, some used in either American or British English and some used in both:  
"Having won the first two Tests, Australia is now almost certain to retain the Ashes." (Ashes is a British English idiom that is nowadays a well-established cricket term.)  
"In his case the exception proves the rule." (A legal maxim -- in full:"the exception proves the rule in cases not excepted". Widely used in both American English and British English.)  
"To have the edge on/over someone." (This is originally American English idiom, now established in almost every other form of English, including British Emglish.)  
"A happy hunting ground." (Place where one often goes to obtain something or to make money. Originally American English idiom from the Red Indians' Paradise.)  
           In the old days English idioms rarely originated from any other form of English than British English. (French was also a popular source of idioms.) Nowadays American English is in this position. It is hard to find an American English idiom that has not established itself in "worldwide English" (usually British English). This is not the case with British English idioms which are not as widespread. It has to be remembered that it is hard to say which idioms are actively used in English and which are dying out or have already died. Idioms are constantly dying and new-ones are born.  
            Some idioms may have gone through radical changes in meaning. The phrase - There is no love lost between them - nowadays means that some people dislike one another. Originally, when there was only the British English form, it meant exactly the opposite. The shift in meaning is yet unexplained. All dialects of English have different sets of idioms and situations where a given idiom can be used. American English and British English may not, in this respect, be the best possible pair to compare because they both have been developing into the same direction, at least where written language is concerned, since the Second World War. The reason that there is so much American influence in British English is the result of the following:  
1. Magnitude of publishing industry in the U.S.;  
2. Magnitude of mass media influence on a worldwide scale;  
3. Appeal of American popular culture on language and habits worldwide;  
4. International political and economic position of the U.S.  
All these facts lead to the conclusion that new idioms usually originate in the U.S. and then become popular in so-called "worldwide English". This new situation is completely different from the birth of American English as a "variant" of British English. When America was still under the rule of the Crown, most idioms originated from British English sources. Of course there were American English expressions and idioms too, before American English could be defined as dialect of English.

Some examples of these early American English idioms follow:  
"To bark up the wrong tree." (Originally from raccoon-hunting in which dogs were used to locate raccoons up in trees.)  
"Paddle one's own canoe." (This is an American English idiom of the late 18th Century and early 19th Century.)  
Some of these early American idioms and expressions were derived from the speech of the American natives like the phrase that "someone speaks with a forked tongue" and the "happy hunting ground" above. These idioms have filtered to British English through centuries through books, newspapers and most recently through powerful mediums like radio, TV and movies.  
Where was the turning point? When did American culture take the leading role and start shaping the English language and especially idiomatic expressions? There is a lot of argument on this subject. Most claim that the real turning point was the Second World War. This could be the case. During the War English-speaking nations were united against a common enemy and the U.S. took the leading role. In these few years and a decade after the War American popular culture first established itself in British English. Again new idioms were created and old ones faded away. The Second World War was the turning point in many areas in life. This may also be the case in the development of the English language.  
In the old days the written language (novels, poems, plays and the Bible) was the source from which idioms were extracted. This was the case up until WWII. After the war new mediums had established themselves in English-speaking society, there was a channel for the American way of life and the popular culture of the U.S. TV, movies and nowadays the interactive medium have changed the English language more to the American English direction. Some people in the Europe speak the Mid-Atlantic English, halfway from the British English to American English.  
           The influence of American English can even be seen in other European languages. In Finland, we are adopting and translating AmE proverbs, idioms and expressions. It can be said that the spoken language has taken the leading role over the written and the only reason for this is TV and radio. Most proverbs and idioms that have been adopted to British English from American English are of spoken origin. This is a definite shift from the days before WWII. What will this development do to the English language? Will it decrease its value? This could be argued, but the answer would still be no. Languages develop and change. So is the case with English language and idioms.  
           How then does American English differ from British English in the use of idioms? There are no radical differences in actual use. The main differences are in the situations where idiomatic expressions are used. There have been many studies recently on this subject. American English adopts and creates new idioms at a much faster rate compared to British English. Also the idioms of American English origin tend to spread faster and further. After it has first been established in the U.S., an American idiom may soon be found in other "variants" and dialects of English.

Nowadays new British idioms tend to stay on the British Isles and are rarely encountered in the U.S. British idioms are actually more familiar to other Europeans or to the people of the British Commonwealth than to Americans, even though the language is same. The reason for all these facts is that Britain is not the world power it used to be and it must be said that the U.S. has taken the role of the leading nation in the development of language, media and popular culture. Britain just doesn't have the magnitude of media influence that the United States controls.  
            The future of idiomatic expressions in the English language seems certain. They are more and more based on American English. This development will continue through new mediums like the Internet and interactive mediums. It is hard to say what this will do to idioms and what kind of new idioms are created. This will be an interesting development to follow, and by no means does it lessen the humor, variety and color of English language. 

 

III   Practical part

CHAPTER 3. How idioms are used in translation

 

The fullest understanding of the native speakers can be received from the idioms of initial language because it is the idiom that shows history and culture, mode and world perception of a nation.

The way in which an idiom or a fixed expression can be translated into another language depends on many factors. It is not only a question of whether an idiom with a similar meaning is available in the TL. Other factors include, for example, the significance of the specific lexical items which constitute the idiom, i.e. whether they are manipulated elsewhere in the ST, as well as the appropriateness of using idiomatic language in a given register in the TL. The acceptability of using any of the strategies described below will therefore depend on the context in which a given idiom is translated. The first strategy described, that of finding an idiom of similar meaning and form in the TL may seem to offer the ideal solution, but that is not necessarily always the case. Questions of style, register and rhetorical effect must also be taken into consideration. Fernando and Flavell are correct in warning us against the “strong unconscious urge in most translators to search hard for an idiom in the TL, however inappropriate it may be” (1981:82).