idiom
Idiom comprehends the specific
characteristics of a language, dialect or
speech community. Idiom is not based on logic, nor is it the same in two
languages or indeed in the same language at different times in its history. It
may comprehend the syntactic, lexical and semantic idiosyncrasies of a language
and seems to be learnt as we absorb the customs and conventions of our society.
Idiom may change with time. Shakespeare, for example, could form
interrogatives and negatives without the use of the dummy auxiliary DO:
Like you this? I like it
not.
Today, these
structures are unidiomatic, although they are still intelligible.
Idiomatic units may be words, phrases, syntactic structures (as above)
or rhetorical devices. For example, we normally say:
She cares for sick children.
and not:
*She cares for
ill children.
Idiomatically
sick tends to be used attributively
and ill predicatively:
She’s a sick child.
She’s very ill indeed.
Similarly,
we can say:
I bumped into my friends in town.
but not
(without a marked change of meaning):
*I bumped off/onto/over my friends in town.
The patterns
for figurative language and
rhetorical devices are also conventionalised. We can transfer epithets, for
example, in only very limited ways, so that it is acceptable to say:
It was a sad journey.
implying that
the one who made the journey was sad, but it is not usual to say:
*It was an ebullient journey.
although the
person who made the journey may well have been ebullient.
Because there are no general rules by which we can analogise about
idiomatic usages, this area can present particular difficulties for learners of
a language. For example, a fluent user of English as a second language may
still not be aware that the expression:
There’s no question of your doing the book.
implies a
negative and the opposite of what was intended:
There’s no doubt/debate that you will do the
book.
Problems of
idiom arise in even the most apparently straightforward of statements. Where
English has:
I am thirsty.
French has:
J’ai soif (I have
thirst). and Gaelic:
Tá tart orm (BE thirst on me).
and an
examination of different translations of the Bible will reveal many differences
not only of nuance but of fundamental meaning.
Much of this book is concerned with the idiom of English, the
conventions, habits and idiosyncrasies that allow speakers of English to
express their aspirations, fears, ideals, prejudices and preoccupations in a
unique manner.
See: hypallage, idioms, synonym.
idioms
Idioms can be defined as phrases whose
meanings cannot be deduced from an understanding of the individual words in the
phrase. Thus the following expressions mean
‘die’:
bite the dust
go to the happy hunting ground
although a knowledge of the
meanings of ‘bite’, ‘dust’, ‘go’, ‘happy’, ‘hunting’, ‘ground’ would not help
us to interpret the phrases.
Idioms can be
totally opaque (i.e. there is no resemblance whatsoever between the meaning of
the idiom and the meaning of the individual words):
a hat trick (taking three
wickets with successive balls) semi-opaque (where part of the phrase is used
literally):
eat humble pie (forced to
behave humbly) or fairly transparent in terms of metaphor:
burn the
candle at both ends
Some idioms
are totally fixed. We rarely find 1 word substitution. We can have:
kick the bucket
but not:
*kick the pail
*kick a pail
*hit the bucket with the
foot
2
nominalisation. We have:
bite the dust
but not:
*the biting of
the dust
3
comparatives or superlatives:
once in a blue
moon
but not:
*once in a
bluer moon
4 change
of number:
raining cats and dogs
but not:
*raining a cat
and a dog
Others allow some variation:
cut a handsome/fine/sorry figure blind alley(s)
The
commonest types of idiom are: 1 noun phrases:
a wild goose
chase
2
preposition phrases:
by the skin of
his teeth
3
rhyming or alliteratively linked phrases:
odds and sods hale and hearty
4 frequently
used similes:
as fit as a
fiddle
5
verb+adverb:
give in (yield)
6
verb+preposition phrase:
be in the black/pink/red
7
metaphorical use of body parts:
finger a criminal head for the hills
Colours are sometimes used
quasi-idomatically:
white coffee white wine
are not ‘white’ and:
red tape
is neither ‘red’ nor ‘tape’.
See: dyad,
metaphor, simile.
-ie, -o endings
-ie(-y) endings can:
1 indicate affectionate
diminutives:
Billie
doggie
2 imply
an informal approach to a person’s place of origin:
Aussie<from
Australia
townie<from
a town
3 be used
as a mild form of abuse or as a means of reducing fear or tension:
commie<communist
leftie<left of centre politically
-o is less widely used as a suffix than -ie but it occurs in:
boyo
bucko
cobbo<cobber (friend)
words implying that the person
described has all the attributes normally associated with a young man.
Other examples of -o as a suffix suggest addiction and
disapproval:
dipso<a dipsomaniac
metho<a drinker of meths/denatured alcohol
wino<a drinker of wine
although in Australia the -o ending is often used as a simple
colloquial ending:
arvo—afternoon
salvo—member of the
Salvation Army
smoke-o—tea break
See: Australian English.
ill, sick
There is some overlap between
these words. They both relate to bad health, with ill being the preferred formal variant in the UK.
Ill can refer to a temporary
state of discomfort or nausea:
She felt quite
ill when she saw their injuries.
In the UK it can also refer to
longer term or serious illnesses:
He is
seriously ill and his condition is
being monitored every fifteen minutes.
Ill is normally used
predicatively (i.e. after the subject and predicate).
In UK usage sick has two
main implications.
1 When used predicatively, it
usually implies vomiting:
I feel sick. I’m going to be sick.
He’s just been sick.
2 When used attributively (i.e.
before a noun) it usually refers to chronic or long-term illness:
She nursed her sick husband for eighteen months.
Ill is the preferred usage and can cover both transitory and
chronic bad health. Sick is still
used, however, in such fixed phrases as:
off sick
on sick leave
a sick joke
In US English sick can cover a wider range of illness
than in the UK:
Our teacher is sick.
I’m sick to my stomach. He’s a very sick man.
It has also been extended
metaphorically to mean ‘tired of’:
I’m sick of baseball.
See: idiom,
UK and US words.
imagery
The term imagery occurs frequently in discussions of literature. It is often
used vaguely to cover:
1 the
descriptive words and phrases in a literary text, especially those relating to
the senses:
The sensuous imagery in Keats’s ‘Eve of St Agnes’ in
part accounts for the popularity of the poem.
2 the use of figurative
language, especially similes and metaphors:
Discuss the
thematic imagery in King Lear.
See: figurative language, metaphor, simile.
imperative
Imperative structures are used in
giving commands:
Go away.
Don’t put it
on my chair.
The verb form
used in affirmative imperatives is the base
form of the verb (identical to the infinitive
without ‘to’). In negative imperatives, the base form of the verb is
usually preceded by Don’t but very
occasionally negative commands involve Let
and May:
Let me never hear
you say such a thing again.
May you never lack company.
The second
person pronoun you is not normally
used in imperative sentences, although it can occasionally be used for
emphasis:
You come here at
once.
Occasionally,
imperative structures do not involve verbs:
Home!
Out!
Such
imperatives are indicated by intonation in speech and by an exclamation mark in
writing.
The imperative does not show person contrasts because it always implies
a second person subject. Nor does it show tense changes, referring always to
the future, immediate, proximate or remote:
Do it at once.
Do it as soon
as you can. Do it before you die.
See: auxiliary,
curse and swear, Hiberno-English, indicative, subjunctive.
imply, infer, insinuate
These three
verbs are often confused. They are related in meaning in that they are all
associated with the processes by which meaning is conveyed. Imply and insinuate are concerned with production and infer with reception.
Imply derives from Latin implicare (to involve) and means ‘hint’
or ‘suggest something indirectly’:
He implied that he would not tolerate any
opposition.
Infer derives from Latin in+ferre
(to bring in) and means ‘deduce’ or ‘come to a conclusion based on what is
implied by someone or something else’:
I can’t infer anything from such conflicting
pieces of data.
Infer has been used so frequently for imply that it is possible its specific
meaning will be lost.
Insinuate derives from Latin in+sinuare
(to curve) and is closely related to imply
in that they both specify production. However, insinuate normally carries unpleasant, derogatory connotations:
He insinuated that we were little better
than liars.
See: problem pairs.
(more) importantly
The use of importantly instead of important as a sentence modifier has attracted hostility from purists, who object to such sentences
as:
More importantly, our exports are being affected.
It is not,
however, surprising that people have analogised with pairs of similar words
such as:
impressive/impressively notable/notably serious/seriously
and created a distinction
between important used as an
adjective and importantly used as an
adverb.
See: hopefully, hypercorrection, modifier.
indicative
The terms indicative and declarative are interchangeable and refer to verb phrases, clauses
and sentences which make statements. They contrast with imperative, interrogative and subjunctive:
Be a good boy. Imperative
He is (not) a good boy. Indicative
Is he (not) a good boy? Interrogative
If only he were a good boy. Subjunctive
See: imperative, interrogative, mood, subjunctive.
individual
Use of the noun individual to mean ‘person’ has been
severely criticised. H.W.Fowler in A
Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2nd
ed. revised Ernest Gowers, 1983:279) quotes a description of individual as ‘one of the modern
editor’s shibboleths for detecting the unfit’ and the Oxford English Dictionary declares its use to be a ‘colloquial vulgarism’.
There is little objective evidence to explain why individual should have been given such unfavourable attention but
as a synonym for person as in:
He’s a strange
individual.
it has been regarded as inferior. The ‘proper’ use of the noun individual is when it contrasts with a
group:
In the long
term, the new agricultural policy will benefit all farmers, but in the short
term individuals may suffer.
It is acceptable, in all but the
most formal situations, to use individual
as a synonym for
person.
See: ‘chestnuts’, shibboleth.
Indo-European
Indo-European is a classification label for a family of related
languages, all of which are thought to be descended from Proto-Indo-European as
in the following family tree:
The West and
East Branches are then further subdivided so that Celtic comprehends Breton,
Irish and Scottish Gaelic and Welsh; Germanic can be subdivided into Danish,
Dutch, English, Flemish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish; and
Balto-Slavic can be subdivided into Bulgarian, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Polish, Russian and Serbo- Croatian.
Among the languages in Europe which are not classified as Indo-European
are Basque and Finnish.
See: family tree.
infinitive
This term usually applies to the non-finite part of the verb prefixed
by to: to go (simple infinitive)
to have been swimming (complex infinitive)
although some linguists
prefer to call such forms to-infinitives.
Infinitives
are negated by being preceded by not:
I asked him not to go.
I couldn’t persuade her not to swim.
In many languages, the
infinitive is a single form:
French
Latin English aimer amare
to love porter portare to carry
and such forms could not be
split. Because Latin could not have a split
infinitive, there developed the belief that split infinitives such as:
to boldly go
should be avoided in English. Such
usage is common in colloquial English as is the anaphoric use of to in such exchanges as:
Why didn’t you go?
I didn’t want to.
The to-infinitive can also
function as a noun:
To err is human.
See: split infinitive, verb phrase.
inflection/inflexion
Inflection (formerly called ‘accidence’) refers to suffixes which do not change word
classes but which indicate such relationships as:
1 plurality:
boy boys
2
possession:
the boy’s books the boys’ books
3
tense or aspect:
look looks
looked looking
4 grading
of adjectives and adverbs
big bigger
biggest
slowly more
slowly most slowly
See: affix, derivation, suffix.
-ing forms
Traditional grammars divided -ing forms such as dancing and
walking into three categories:
1 present participles, where they were part of
the verb phrase:
They have been dancing together all night.
He was walking home because he had missed the
bus.
2 adjectives:
I can’t find
my dancing/walking shoes.
3
gerunds, -ing forms which functioned
as nouns:
Dancing is good for
you.
I enjoy walking.
The
term -ing form is neutral as to the
function of a verb-derived -ing form.
In
Standard English WANT is usually followed by the past participle:
Do you want your windows cleaned?
Increasingly, however, in
colloquial UK English, the -ing form is replacing the past participle:
Do you want your windows cleaning?
Many stylists object to this usage
but since it is in many instances the preferred form of the young, it is likely
to become acceptable.
Spelling
problems can arise when -ing is added
to certain verbs. The general rules are: 1 When a verb ends with a silent e, the e is deleted before -ing:
bridge bridging live living fatigue fatiguing sue
suing
The main exceptions to this rule are verbs which end
in ee, inge, oe and ye:
agree agreeing see seeing
singe singeing swinge swingeing canoe canoeing shoe shoeing
eye eyeing dye dyeing
Where the loss
of an e would result in ambiguity so
that dying (ceasing to live) and dyeing (colouring) would become
identical, the tendency is for the e to
be retained. Where the loss of the e would
not cause confusion, as in eying, the
form without e is permitted.
2 When a verb ends in ie, the ie is replaced by y before
-ing:
die dying tie tying lie lying vie
vying
See: aspect,
gerund, participle, verb phrase.
innuendo
Innuendo (pl. -oes/-os) is a type of irony consisting of an oblique or
indirect allusion, often reflecting maliciously or injuriously on a person’s
character, reputation or ability:
The tenor sang in tune several times during the evening.
He works hard, does everything himself, doesn’t like delegating.
Innuendo
works by implication rather than by overt comment.
See: irony.
instrumental
Many languages
can express the relationship ‘by means of a noun/ with a noun’ by using a case ending traditionally referred to
as instrumental. The term is applied
in case grammar to nouns such as
‘hammer’ in the following sentences:
He broke the window with a hammer.
The hammer broke the window.
The instrumental is the case of the
inanimate object causally involved in the action of the verb. The term instrumental can thus be applied to
‘knife’ in:
He opened the moneybox with a knife.
because
the agent ‘he’ caused the moneybox
to open by using a knife.
See: case grammar.
intensifier
The term intensifier is normally applied to a set
of adverbs (e.g. very, terribly, too) which intensify the
meaning of an adjective or adverb:
He is 
funny even though he talks 
slowly.
The simplest
test for an intensifier is to see if it can replace very.
In UK usage, a number of intensifiers (e.g. awfully, frightfully) are class marked. They tend to be used by
upper-class speakers and by people who are keen to improve their social
standing.
A number of adjectives (e.g. absolute,
mere, sheer) which tend to be used attributively have also been described
as intensifiers:
It’s absolute lunacy!
See: adjective, adverb.
interrogative
The word interrogative is applied to sentences which ask questions:
Are you tired?
There are two types of
interrogative sentence: those like the above which expect a yes or no answer, and sentences which begin with a question word (e.g. How?,
When?, Who?, Why?) and cannot receive a yes/no
answer:
Why are you
going?
Yes/no questions involve the inversion of the subject and predicate
when the predicate is BE, HAVE or the modals:
He is handsome. Is he handsome? He has arrived. Has he arrived?
He can’t swim. Can’t he
swim?/Can he not swim?
DO is
required with other verbs:
He likes milk.
Does he like milk?
Non-yes/no questions involve the use of interrogative adjectives:
I saw a man. Which man did you see?
interrogative adverbs:
I saw a man. When did you see him?
and interrogative pronouns:
He said this. What did he say?
Occasionally, the intonation of
questions is used with a declarative structure to form an interrogative
sentence:
You’re tired?
See: declarative question, inversion,
question, question tag, sentence.
intonation
Intonation can be most simply described as the melody of speech
utterances: a falling melody usually signals statements or questions using
question words:
He’s coming.
When is he coming?
and a rising melody tends to
indicate a yes/no question:
Is he going?
Intonation can
also indicate a speaker’s attitude to a listener or to the subject matter,
since it is involved in implying respect, admiration, insolence, sarcasm,
disbelief and enthusiasm.
It seems very likely that intonation may vary between regions, so that
one person’s request may have the melody of another person’s command.
See: paralinguistic features, tone languages.
intransitive
This term is applied to verbs which do not take an object:
She arrived.
It suddenly emerged
Many verbs in English, especially
those involving change or movement, can occur in both transitive and intransitive constructions:
The prior rang the bell.
The bell rang.
and many others can occur in
pseudo-intransitive structures.
We eat at
8.
is clearly related to:
We eat dinner at 8.
and:
The potatoes are selling at 20c a pound.
can be derived from:
X is selling potatoes at 20c a pound.
The difference between a
pseudo-intransitive and an intransitive sentence is that a transformed sentence
can elicit an object for pseudo-intransitive verbs:
What do we eat
at 8? Dinner.
What is selling at 20c a
pound? Potatoes.
whereas no object can be elicited
for an intransitive verb:
*What did she
arrive?
*Whom did it emerge?
See: active voice, ergative,
transformations, transitive, verb.
inversion
Inversion involves reversing the order of a series or part of a
series:
He is clever.→Is he clever? (ABC→BAC)
The commonest form of inversion
in English involves changing a statement into a
question by inverting the subject and BE/DO/HAVE/ modals:
He is a fool. →
Is he a fool?
He doesn’t like X. →
Doesn’t he like X? He has been singing. → Has he been singing?
He won’t come. →
Won’t he come?/Will he not come?
See: interrogative, transformations.
Irish English
English is an
official language in Eire (population 3.5 million) and the official language of
Northern Ireland (population 1.5 million). Irish
English is the general term for the various types of English used in the
island. These varieties can be simplistically represented as follows:
 |
The diagram is
oversimplified in that it suggests that the subvarieties are discrete, whereas
they influence each other and are all influenced by media norms.
