English idioms and their Russian equivalents

English idioms and their Russian equivalents

For instance, the phrase "пускать пыль в глаза" (mng: to deceive, to hoodwink) has at least three permanent items of its usage.

We have not been able to avail ourselves, in this case, of the English phrase 'to throw dust in smb.'s eyes' though its dust-in-the-eyes image is similar to the "пыль в глаза" image of the Russian phrase. The usage of this English phrase differs from that of the Russian idiom:

'to throw dust in smb.'s eyes'

use: to deceive by preventing a person from seeing the true state of affairs (as if by impairing a person's vision so that he cannot see things clearly).

Had one translated the phrase "пускать пыль в глаза" by means of `to throw dust in smb.'s eyes' (tr.: сбивать кого-л. с толку) it would have been an error which can be generally considered typical of inexperienced interpreters and translators.

2.1.5 Proverbs Figurativeness and Its Means

Translators are faced with formidable problems. Many writers and poets thought it necessary to voice their opinion of how one should approach proverbs. V. A. Zhukovsky Жуковский В.А., Предисловие к «Дон Кихоту». М., 1805, с. 2 stressed that translators "should produce the effect of the original." Not a few writers likewise opposed literal, word-for-word translations of proverbs (and we know this to be true), the question however remains: how should they be translated? V. G. Belinsky said that "the internal life of the translated expression should correspond to the internal life of the original." Белинский В.Г., Собр. соч., СПБ, 1896, т. 1, с. 299 This is true again. It seems therefore that we should do this, that and the other. We agree to do this, that and the other... But, apparently, we must focus our attention on figurativeness when translating proverbs. Федоров А.В., Введение в теорию перевода, М., 1967, с.172, 174 Thus, our translation of a proverb must either be, in fact, an English proverb or an idiomatic sounding metaphor. And this seems to be the right answer to the question of what we must do above all, especially because "The corresponding image as well as the corresponding phrase do not always present a visible adequacy of words."

The translation difficulties usually arise in cases when (a) there happens to be no corresponding English proverb that we can use for our translation or (b) when the existing "ready-made" equivalent (e.g., an English proverb) cannot be used as it is because, for example, the Russian proverb is innovated in speeсh and, thus, may convey a specific additional meaning.

An analysis of translators' work shows that we may have the following means at our disposal in order to overcome these difficulties and to ensure the figurativeness of our translation: (1) use of rhymed and/or rhythmically arranged metaphors, (2) use of English phrases, proverbs and their components as a basis of one's translation, (3) utilization of the structures of English proverbs, (4) use of innovation as a means of adequacy, (5) use of colloquialisms and special introductions , etc. It is the соmplex use of these means which could guarantee the desired result.

Rhymed Metaphors

A rhyme alone is a supplementary means. For instance, the rhymed words "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" have a meaning which is in no way metaphorical. These cigarettes are real, and one cannot say the same of the words "Либо дождик, либо снег--либо будет, либо нет". Both "дождик" and "снег" are metaphorical. This Russian saying was once translated as "Who knows -- maybe rain and maybe snow, maybe yes and maybe no."

And a rhymed metaphor made this sound proverbial.

Of course, it is hardly possible to make a satisfactory rhymed metaphor in the process of interpretation (not translation). However, it is good to know a number of rhymed metaphors by heart so that they could be used as "ready-made" equivalents of some of the 'difficult' and frequently used Russian proverbs.

Naturally translators must often translate Russian proverbs that do not have their "ready-made" English equivalents. Translations show that some of our colleagues seem to think that one should try to convey only the meaning of such proverbs. Thus, the proverb "Дело не медведь, в лес не убежит" was once translated as 'Business is no bear, to run away to the forest'. (And Prof. M. M. Morozov praised this particular translation. Морозов М.М., Пособие по переводу русской художественной прозы на английский язык. М., 1972, с. 9-10) Yet, the process of this translation was actually terminated at the stage of 'transposition'. It could have been continued: "Дело не медведь, в лес не убежит" -»- (Transposition:) 'Business is no bear, to run away to the forest' (Idiomatization by way of making the metaphor rhymed and by means of grammatical restructuring:) 'Business is no bear, it won't go nowhere'. One can see that we have excluded the word 'forest' as an obviously redundant detail, and used the grammatical colloquialism "won't go nowhere" (double negation).

Suppose we have to construct a pun. As soon as our translation is figurative (i.e. has an idiomatic background), we would have no problem at all in making a play on any of the metaphor's components. Example:

Это неправильно говорится: «Дело -- не медведь, в лес не уйдет». Дело и есть медведь, уходить ему незачем, оно облапило и держит. Дело человеку- барин. (Горький, Дело Артамоновых)

It is not true that 'Business is no bear, it won't go nowhere.' Business is a bear, and there's no reason for it to go. It's got too good a hold on us. Man is a slave of his business!

Use of Proverbs' Structures

Here is an example of an attempt to translate the English proverb "Make hay while the sun shines". This proverb was used in speech being innovated grammatically and lexically: 'to make hell while the sun shines'. The lexical innovation ('hell' instead of 'hay') presents a problem in translation. And life shows Левицкая Т., Фитерман А., Обновление фразеологических единиц, и передача этого приема в переводе. Тетради переводчика, №5, М., 1968, с. 46-48 that the translation practice does not exclude the following way of solving this problem. Example:

I positively refuse to understand those who anywhere and everywhere wish "to make hell while the sun shines."

Я решительно отказываюсь понимать людей, которые везде и повсюду стремятся к тому, чтобы, "пользуясь благоприятны» ми обстоятельствами, натворить как можно больше бед".

True enough, the translator cannot use here the Russian proverb "Куй железо пока горячо" but... we can use its structure to make the 'transposed' translation figurative, that is, to make a solid metaphor out of it.

The Russian proverb consists of two parts: "(1) Куй железо (2) пока горячо". The 'transposed' translation also consists of two parts: (1) пользуясь благоприятными обстоятельствами (2) натворить как можно больше бед.

The process of our translation would be as follows: 'to make hell while the sun shines' (Transposition:) > "пользуясь благоприятными обстоятельствами натворить как можно больше бед" > (Restructuring by means of using the Russian proverb's structure:) "ковать железо пока горячо" > "делать что-л. пока возможно" > "творить как можно больше бед пока возможно" > (Idiomatization by way of making a rhymed metaphor:) "вредить безбожно пока возможно". Thus:

I positively refuse to understand those who anywhere and everywhere wish "to make hell while the sun shines."

Я решительно отказываюсь понимать людей, которые везде и повсюду стремятся к тому, чтобы "вредить безбожно пока возможно."

The conclusion is that one should better not stop at the stage of 'transposition'. One should move farther, till the end of the translation process. As a poet said, "The inn that shelters for the night is not the journey's end."

See the following example of a translation from Russian into English, which is based on an American proverb's structure:

У русских есть такая поговорка: «Всяк кулик свое болото хвалит».

We Russians have a proverb which says that every snipe praises its own bog.

It is easy to see that the translation process was as follows: "Всяк кулик свое болото хвалит" -> (Transposition:) 'Everybody speaks well of one's own home [or the like]' -> (Restructuring and idiomatization by way of using the structure of the proverb 'Every cook praises his own broth') 'Every smb (smth) praises his (its) own smth' -> 'Every snipe praises its own bog.'

Metaphors Based on Phrases

The method of making a metaphor based on a "ready-made" phrase (or two), is both productive and substantial. It is substantial to the extent that it does not necessarily need rhyming a metaphor based on an English phrase. For instance, Y. Katzer and A. Kunin made it a point in their book on translation Катцер Ю., Кунин А., Письменный перевод с русского языка на английский, с. 94-100, 104-109 that the Russian proverb "Москва не сразу строилась" could be translated as 'Moscow was not built in a day', that is, they say, it could be constructed "according to the pattern" of the English proverb 'Rome was not built in a day'. In fact, they pointed to the method of making the proverb's translation based on an English saying (i.e., "Москва не сразу строилась" > 'Rome was not built in a day' > 'Moscow was not built in a day').

Some translators might say that to convey the subject-logical content of the information is what we should really want. And some others might say that we can consequently translate, for example, the proverb "Little pitchers have long ears" as "Дети любят слушать разговоры взрослых". However, the emotive-and evaluating content of the information must not be ignored and should be translated. And one can see that "Дети любят слушать разговоры взрослых" does not convey any emotive evaluation. Besides, this translation does not sound proverbial.

The question is what would you feel if you happen to hear the statement "Дети любят разговоры взрослых"? 'So what?' would be your most probable reaction.

Let us make this translation figurative and evaluating: 'Little pitchers have long ears' > (Transposition:) "Дети любят слушать разговоры взрослых" > (Idiomatization on the basis of Russian phrases:) "У [этих] деток слишком длинные уши" or: "Бойтесь детей > у них на макушке любопытные ушки". Thus, we have based our first translation on the Russian phrase "у кого-л. слишком длинные уши" for the purpose of conveying negative overtones? And we based our second translation (a) on the Russian phrase "y кого-л. ушки на макушке", (b) we also added "Бойтесь детей" as a resume and a negative exaggeration bringing positive reaction, (c) and we used the internal addition "любопытные" (which is particularly used in the Russian phrase "Любопытной Варваре HOC оторвали"). As a result, we have got "Бойтесь детей -- у них на макушке любопытные ушки" which is a cause-and-effect relation statement : "Бойтесь детей [because] у них на макушке любопытные ушки". (This can be compared with the metaphor 'Who knows -- maybe rain and'maybe snow, maybe yes and maybe no' which is also a cause-and-effect relation statement.) And now one can make an experiment and check one's possible emotive reaction while comparing the following:

Original: Little pitchers have long ears.

Translation variants:

(1) Дети любят слушать разговоры взрослых. (2) Бойтесь детей -- у них на макушке любопытные ушки. (3) У [этих] деток слишком длинные уши.

Here is an example of a good and illustrative translation from Russian into English. The translator (Olga Shartse) had managed to make the proverb's translation figurative (by means of utilizing the English phrases 'to be brave as a lion' and 'to be like a lamb') which served, then, as a solid basis for her making a pun (and for conveying irony):

-- Люблю парня за ухватку. Сразу видно, что молодец среди овец. (Ю. Герман, Я отвечаю за все)

"I like a good chap for his brave ways'. I can tell right away that you'd be brave as a lion with a lamb." German Y., Eternal Battle, Progress Publishers, Moscow, p. 331

Use of Colloquialisms

The linguistic means to be used in the metaphorical translation of proverbs are lexical and grammatical colloquialisms.

I. K. Sazonova Сазонова И.К., Лексика и фразеология современного русского языка. М., 1963, с. 6 suggested the following examples of the different kinds of "stylistic colouring" which are (a) neutral, (b) bookish and (c) colloquial:

K- Sazonova's examples:

(a) Чтобы не было недоразумений, пойди, пожалуйста, туда и узнай, в чем дело.

(b) Во избежание недоразумений пойди, пожалуйста, туда и выясни, в чем дело.

(c) Сбегай туда и узнай, пожалуйста, что там, а то как бы чего не вышло.

Translations:

(a) Would you please go -and see what is wrong there before something happens.

(b) In order to avoid misunderstanding, would you please be so kind as to clarify the situation there.

(c) Go find out what's wrong, or there may be trouble.

The Russian colloquial-style example presents the said means (lexical: the verb "сбегать", the phrase "как бы чего не вышло"; grammatical: the subordinate clause "что там"). The translation of this example contains English colloquial means (lexical: 'trouble'; grammatical: 'go find out-', 'what's', 'or there may be').

Let us compare now the stylistic colouring of the two translations (given earlier); "пользуясь благоприятными обстоятельствами, натворить как можно больше бед" and "вредить безбожно пока возможно". One can see that their stylistic colouring differs. On the one hand, the words "пользуясь обстоятельствами" sound bookish. On the other hand, the word "безбожно" is a colloquialism and so is the word "пока" (compare: "Коси коса пока роса", "Куй железо пока горячо").

We may also compare the two translations (see this Task): "Business is no bear, to run away to the forest" and "Business is no bear, it won't go nowhere". The first translation has no colloquialisms and its stylistic colouring is neutral. The second translation employs them and all of them are grammatical: "won't" is used instead of the neutral "will not", to say nothing1 of the double negation "won't go nowhere".

Incidentally, there is a very interesting and instructive story of how one translation by M. Lozinsky was once criticized by I. Kashkin as being "stylistically artificial". Федоров В.А., Введение в теорию перевода, М., 1958, стр. 172 Here is M. Lozinsky's translation (of a Roman proverb used by Prosper Merimee in his "Carmen"):

En vetudi panda nasti abela macha. En close bouche n'entre point mouche.

В рот, закрытый глухо, не залетит муха.

What do we find in this translation? The phrase "(туда) и муха не залетит" is colloquial. But this colloquialism is literally depressed by the bookish grammatical means (причастный оборот) "закрытый глухо". Besides, M. Lozinsky did not observe the requirements of proper collocation of words: Russian people never "закрывают рот глухо", they "закрывают рот плотно", if any. The "artificial" way of saying so also makes a bookish effect. (Where neutral-style means may pass being in one sentence with colloquialisms, the bookish-style words or expressions must never be used in a proverb's translation, for they would easily spoil the whole broth). And this is why, it seems, I. A. Kashkin had to suggest his own translation of that proverb:

"В закрытый рот и муха не попадет".

One can see that this translation employs the colloquial phrase "(туда) и муха не попадет" whereas other linguistic means are neutral there.

It is common knowledge that English (and Russian) proverbs may be not only rhymed:

Birds of a feather flock together. (Рыбак рыбака видит издалека.)

Well begun is half done. (Доброе начало полдела откачало.)

but also arranged rhythmically:

God helps those who help themselves. (На бога надейся, а сам не плошай.)

Once bitten twice shy. (Пуганая ворона куста боится.)

Making our proverbs' translations arranged rhythmically or/and rhymed is also a productive method. Example:

-- И какая странная идея пришла в голову этому Привалову... Вот уж чего никак не ожидал. Какая-то филантропия...

-- Это нам на руку: чем бы дитя ни тешилось, лишь бы не плакало. (Мамин-Сибиряк)

"Besides, what has gotten into Privalov? Who would think of it? Philanthropy!"

"He" s playing into our hands. As the saying goes, whatever toy or play makes the baby gay..."

And such translations as "Leave the child its toy -- as long as it's amused" or "It does not matter what you do to humour your child as long as it does not cry" (etc.) speak for themselves. They do not sound proverbial.

The analysis of translators' works shows that this method is frequently neglected by or remains unknown to a number of translators. Here is just one example of how such 'difficult' proverbs happen to be translated. Let us see some of the published translations of the proverb "Это--цветочки, ягодки впереди":

(i) It was only the beginning, the rest was still to come. "The Newcomer" by G. Nikolayeva, F. L. P. H., Moscow, 1955, p. 45

(ii) That is mere blossoms, we'd like to show you the fruit and how it grows. "The Cause You Serve" by Y. German, F.L.P.H., Moscow, p. 105

(iii) This is only child's play to what is ahead of us. "Volokolamsk Highway" by A. Bek, F.L.P.H., Moscow, p. 91

We have to say (in all fairness) that the last (iii) translation compensates the lack of rhythm (and rhyme) in it considerably by using two English expressions: (1) "to be child's play" and (2) "to be (or: lie) ahead (of smb)". The phrase 'to be ahead' has a neutral colouring. Its synonym 'to be in store (for smb)' is a bit more idiomatic to suit our aims:

"This is only child's play to what is in store for us."

Now, if we ensure proper rhythm in it, the translation may sound proverbial:

"It's child's play to what's in store."

This translation seems almost satisfactory. Yet, we can do more. We can try to make it rhymed:

"It is child's play: it's not as bad compared to what lies ahead."

Stop! That won't do. The words 'compared to' are bookish. They spoil the beans. Let us make another try:

"It's child's play: it's not as bad as what lies ahead."

The stylistic means are correct here. But the rhythm leaves much to be desired, to put it mildly. Besides the translation is too long. Let us make still another try:

"It's-only child's play to what is on the way."

Now, we can call it a day. The translation is all right. In other words, we have managed to arrange rhythm and rhyme.

We wouldn't say that these translation variants are absolutely tiptop. Yet, they are better than those quoted above. And they can be an example of several methods of translating used in complex: rhythm and/or rhyme, colloquialisms and English phrases. All of these taken together help to provide our translation with the necessary idiomatic background, that is, to make it figurative.

A rhythmically arranged translation of a proverb might be still in need of a preliminary 'introduction' like "as the saying goes", "as we in Russia say", etc. (Such an 'introduction' is, in fact, an "appeal" to the listener or reader: "Please understand that this is said figuratively!"). And a rhymed translation may nоt need this at all.

Epigrams and translation.

"А ларчик просто открывался" (which is a quotation from the fable "Ларчик" И. А. Крылова) is a stylistic device termed an epigram. Such quotations from writers' works have become proverbs. Consequently, this permits us to treat epigrams as proverbs in the process of translation.

This means 1hat our translations of epigrams should be rhymed and have rhythm as proverbs often should (and be brief as proverbs should, too, because proverbs are used mostly in monologues and dialogues and not in author's narration). And this is why we have to foresee the possibility of translating epigrams in the form of two-line rhymed verses.

For instance, the translation

Нельзя ли для таких прогулок Подальше выбрать закоулок?

Could you not choose, When forth you sally, Some more remote And proper alley?

...is the translation of the epigram made as a verse and not proverb-like. (It is too long in space to be used in one's interpreting, say, a conversation or speech without difficulty.) We have to make it sound brief and, thus, proverbial. For instance, the variant:

"It's no place for your parades. It's no place for promenades."

...may satisfy us because the epigram really means "Never choose this place for your promenades" or "It's net a proper place for your promenades," or the like. However, this epigram sounds sarcastic ("Нельзя ли...") and this effect should be reproduced in our translation:

"It's no place for your parades, nor for Sunday promenades."

Another specific point in translating epigrams is that 'transposition' itself may not convey the idea of the epigram in full for the reason that a Russian listener takes in not merely what an epigram says but what is behind it, what it means being a small part of a bigger context.

One of K. S. Stanislavsky's ideas was that an actor (i.e. a translator, in our case) should know well not only the words he had to say (i.e. the meaning of the epigram's components,, in our case) but also what events had taken place behind the stage (i.e. the situation that had given life to the epigram) prior to the moment he started acting accordingly. And this may be applicable to our translating epigrams more often than not.

Hence, our proverb-like translation should better convey the highlights of the general situation in which the epigram gets its specific meaning. For instance, life shows that one might translate the epigram:

"Раззудись, плечо! Размахнись, рука!"

...as (a) "Don't hustle, don't bustle, But strain every muscle!"

This is sure to convey the idea of the epigram's components, of the words ("Strain every muscle") neglecting the situation of 'cutting hay' as is actually described in the whole verse (and which the English listener, unlike the Russian one, will never presuppose nor understand upon hearing the epigram's words only). This is why we suggest the variant:

(b) "Swing and sway -- Cut the hay!"

We could not ignore the bigger context ('hay-cutting') which is always presupposed by the Russian people when they use this epigram.

Classification of translations

As far as the results of our translation process are concerned, they can be classified as follows.

(1) Translation by an English absolute monoequivalent. Галперин И.Р., Информативность единиц языка. М., 1974, с. 85

Example:

время -- деньги - time's money

(2) Translation by an English relative equivalent.

Example:

семь бед -- один ответ - we might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb

(3) Translation by a synonymous equivalent.

In the original: выносить сор из избы.

In translation: to tell tales out of school;

(4) Translation by a translator's equivalent.

(a) being an innovated English proverb, example:

Ларчик открывается просто.

It's easy to open this poke and see the pig.

(b) based on English phrases or/and their components; example:

-- Молодец! -- сказал Цветков.-- Люблю парня за ухватку. Сразу видно, что молодец среди овец. (Ю. Герман, Я отвечаю за все)

"Good chap," Tsvetkov said. "I like a good chap for his brave ways. I can tell right away that you'd be brave as a lion with a lamb."

(c) based on an English proverb's structure; example:"

Всяк кулик свое болото хвалит.

Every snipe praises its own bog.

(d) arranged rhythmically or/and rhymed; example:

На войне, чтобы обмануть врага, чтобы нанести ему неожиданный удар, придется совершать марши подлиннее и потяжелее, чем этот. Это -- цветочки, а ягодки будут впереди. (А. Бек, Волоколамское шоссе)

In war, to surprise the enemy, and to deal him a blow from an unexpected quarter, we will have to make much longer and more difficult marches than this one. It's only child's play to what is on the way.

(e) by metaphorical explanation; example:

Вот уж воистину голодной лисе всё куры снятся!

This is really a case оf a hungry fox dreaming about chickens.

Translating by English equivalents

Translating by English equivalents (being relative more often than riot) seems to be the most productive way of making our proverbs' translations figurative.

When using this method, translators and interpreters have to observe that an equivalent is properly selected from the dictionary, that is, the chosen equivalent:

(a) should be able to convey the Russian proverb's indices for interpretation: meaning, usage, overtones and style;

(b) it should particularly answer the obligatory requirement that its meaning could be understood even by those who hear the English proverb for the first time.

(c) Besides, it is preferable that the equivalent itself should not be archaic,

(d) and its image should be as close to that of the Russian proverb as possible.

(e) The equivalent should not have undesirable connotations.

Chapter 2. The Development of Students Language Awareness on the Base of Using Idioms in Classes

2.2.1 Pedagogical implications

This paper offers some suggestions (including sample exercises) for the teaching of idiomatic language. First, the relation between non-idiomatic and erroneous language in foreign language learning is examined, and it is concluded that non-idiomatic sentences do not so much break categorical rules as venture into the grey area of weak combinatorial probabilities between linguistic items. Idiomaticity is thus seen as a scale, but less idiomatic is not necessarily to be equated with less acceptable, since both conventionalised and original language have their place in discourse. Crucial is the issue of appropriateness in context. Full-blown idioms represent firm collocations whose meaning is conventionalised and metaphorical. Where this meaning takes on an aphoristic quality we have proverbs. The underlying principle of metaphor provides a structural systematicity to the lexis, which extends far beyond full idioms into all but the most core uses of lexical items. It is suggested that exercises of a problem-solving nature will help learners to unearth these pervasive metaphors in idiomatic language, and some exercises are presented.

This has important pedagogical implications. Bartlett Bartlett , F . C . Remembering : A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . 1932 . (1932) established in a whole series of experiments in which subjects were presented with incomplete or inconclusive drawings or narratives that subjects sought to impose meaning on the item by fitting it into their own meaning structures. Thus, stories which contained references to unfamiliar cultural practices were modified in memory so as to fit in with subjects' own cultural expectations. Bartlett called this essential characteristic of human cognitive processing "effort after meaning". The very fact that idiomatic language and proverbs are so semantically opaque makes them excellently suited to a problem-solving approach in teaching which can exploit learners' innate cognitive drive to make sense out of their environment. The exercises presented below are intended to be purely indicative of the approach I am advocating, rather than being a recipe for success. There is nothing cut and dried about them. Rather, they are intended merely as guidelines whereby the teacher can stimulate cognitive activity. They are intended to be used not as a testing instrument but as a teaching aid to provoke discussion and brain-storming. Comparisons with the L1 should be encouraged so that learners become aware in which respects their language resembles English in the underlying conceptual metaphors it employs and where it differs. In multi-cultural classes interesting patterns of similarity and difference emerge here, and clearly this is a field which has been hardly researched. Students will become highly motivated to translate their language's metaphor into English so as to impart to the class their own culture's method of metaphorical encoding. Sometimes reasons for similarities and differences among languages can be adduced from obvious cultural differences (e.g. metaphors deriving from the Bible in Christian cultures, or differences concerning gastronomy, climate, geography), but some- times differences are not explicable. I have also found that students react evaluatively to different metaphors in different languages, such as English a bull in a china shop compared to German an elephant in a china shop. One can debate which the «better» metaphor is.

Sample Exercises: A

Task: 1) Try to work out the meaning of these idioms.

2) Do you have idioms in your language which have the same meaning as some of these?

a storm in a teacup

to have your heart in your mouth

to have a bone to pick with someone

to cut off your nose to spite your face

to drink like a fish

to kill two birds with one stone

to be like a cat on hot bricks

to make a mountain out of a molehill

to pull someone's leg

once bitten twice shy

Comment: This exercise should be done in groups. The teacher should
first make sure that the literal meaning of each lexical item is known to the class. (Dictionaries should not be used). Otherwise students are not in a position to employ inferencing strategies. Often L1 idioms will help students to arrive at the solution. Sometimes there will be false friends, however. This is all to the good, since when the teacher goes through the solutions, it is the incorrect guesses which will be focused on so as to aid retention in memory of the correct solution, which the teacher will first try to coax from students and, if all fails, will explain.

In the above form the exercise is suitable for advanced students. Much interesting discussion and exchange of information will arise from inter-lingual comparisons in a multilingual class, as students work hard to literally translate their own L1 equivalent idiom. This promotes the sort of cognitive analytic activity which will help to build a separate store of L2 idioms linked by meaning associations to the much richer L1 store. All students will benefit from the realisation that different languages may use different conceptual metaphors.

For less advanced classes the task can be facilitated by means of line drawings of the idioms' underlying metaphor which students first have to match to the appropriate idiom. Next, they may match idiom and drawing to a jumbled list of definitions which the teacher has prepared.

For even weaker classes some vestige of cognitive activity can still be maintained while employing a rather spoon-feeding method of presentation. Exercise B is an example of this (using different idioms). Here, students do not even have to match idioms to a jumbled list of definitions. The idiom is followed by its definition, but a key word is missing. Key words are presented separately in jumbled order and the exercise operates on a cloze principle. This exercise is suitable for individual work. Experience has shown me that the idioms are better retained in this way than if they had merely been presented with definitions already complete.

Exercise B

Task: 1. Complete the blanks below with the correct word. Use each word only once.

2. Do you have equivalent idioms in your language for any of these meanings? "Translate" your native idioms into English. See if the person next to you understands.

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

This means: DON'T BE OVER- -----

He is like a bull in a china shop.

This means: HE IS VERY- -----

His bark is worse than his bite

This means HE IS ----- THAN HE LOOKS.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

This means: THERE IS SOME ----- IN EVERY BAD EVENT.

Hold your horses.

This means: ----- A MOMENT.

She is down in the dumps.

This means: SHE IS -----

He couldn't keep a straight face.

This means: HE COULDN'T KEEP HIS FACE -----

WORDS: good, clumsy, kinder, optimistic, serious, depressed, wait.

Comment: Task 1 is best done individually. In Task 2 the opportunity is
provided for pair work in the multilingual class. Afterwards results can be compared in plenum concerning those idioms, which are comprehensible when "translated" into English from various.

Exercise C

Task: Express the underlined sections of the following text with
language which expresses the same meaning more or less.

Example: I was feeling a bit down in the dumps - I was feeling a bit depressed

I was feeling a bit down in the dumps because it was raining cats and dogs, so I went to see Bill. Bill drinks like a fish because his work drives him up the wall. He is an EFL teacher. But he would never leave you in the lurch. Today I found him like a cat on hot bricks because he was bored. We decided to kill two birds with one stone by going to the pub and the launderette. We had a bone to pick with the barman in any case because he had forgotten to reserve the dartboard for us the previous day. We decided that not to go to the pub in protest would be just cutting off our noses to spite our faces. We did not want to make a mountain out of a molehill either.

Comment: This exercise is best done in groups. Learners should be encouraged to use the context for meaning clues rather than puzzling over the surface meaning of the idiomatic units devoid of context. The passage has been deliberately contrived to provide lots of semantic clues: for example, if it is raining one tends to feel depressed rather than elated, and one is more likely to feel depressed if it is raining heavily rather than lightly. Again, the "two" birds with one stone are picked up by the two nouns "pub" and "launderette". For this reason, another approach to the exercise would be for the teacher to take the class through the reasoning processes by which meaning may be inferred from context by paying attention to anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference.

Exercise D

Task 1): Arrange these proverbial expressions into pairs of opposite (or at least "near opposite"!) meaning:

1) No man is an island

2) Necessity is the mother of invention

3) Spend and God will send

4) The more, the merrier

5) We are ships that pass by night

6) He who hesitates is lost

7) You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

8) Many hands make light work

9) Too many cooks spoil the broth

10) Fools seldom differ

11) Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise

12) A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

13) Look before you leap

14) Great minds think alike

15) Two's company, three's a crowd

16) A man's reach should exceed his grasp

17) Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves

18) We can't go through life with our heads buried in the sand

(Answers are: 1 & 5, 2 & 7, 3 & 17, 4 & 15, 6 & 13, 8 & 9, 10 & 14, 11 & 18, 12 & 16)

Task 2): For each of the following two proverbs find a proverb in the
above list which is very similar to it in meaning?

19) Faint heart never won fair maid

20) Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

(Answers are: 19 & 16, 20 & 13)

Comment: This exercise is again best done in small groups or pairs. Learners should be encouraged to look for "easy" pairs first, rather than going through the list one by one. Sometimes the lexical items are clues to the contrasting pairs (e.g. 1 & 5, where "ship" and "island" function as mutual clues and cues). The exercise can be made less demanding by the teacher prompting and helping the learners in this way. Sometimes the lexical link is not quite so obvious, but nevertheless can be uncovered (e.g. 4 & 15, where "two, three" cue "more"). Note, how "fools" in 10 contrasts with "great minds" in 14, whereas within 20 the contrast is between "fools" and "angels", a contrast which may not be at all obvious to all learners, involving as it does what Leech calls "historical meaning" of the word "angel". Learners should be encouraged to puzzle over this and access their world knowledge, but the teacher must ultimately be prepared to provide elucidation. It is less important how many of the pairs learners get right than that they get to grips with the detailed semantics of these proverbial expressions, becoming conscious of both literal surface meaning of the individual parts and the total metaphorical meaning of the expression. In this respect reference to how L1 expresses the same ideas may be helpful. A tolerant attitude to some "second best solutions" should be adopted by the teacher. For instance, 1 and 18 could also go together as opposites, and this solution is rejected only because 11 and 5 form a poor pair of opposites. This exercise can be used as a point of departure for discussion in various directions, and has certainly been far from exhausted when the tasks listed above have been done. The exercise thus provides a lead-in to these literary texts, excerpts from which could be read to show how the expression was first used. Experience proves that if such expressions are not to go in one ear and out the other, then intensive work of this nature is necessary. It is interesting to uncover the basic image underlying these expressions which in some cases is not obvious, for example, the ostrich in 18, the metaphorical force of "mother" and the sense of "invention" (i.e. "initiative", "inventiveness") in 2.

I would like to offer one final exercise to show how the metaphor approach towards idiomatic language may be extended to teaching vocabulary more generally, not only to firmly fixed idioms. The point I wish to make is that certain lexical fields can be applied to various contexts in a way which is not always realised. It is in this way that words acquire a range of meaning, even if the proficient language user is not aware of this, precisely because the given non-linguistic context already delimits his or her meaning expectations for various lexical items. Situational and communicative approaches to language teaching often stop short of showing how vocabulary learned for a particular context can be reapplied in others, although this is what is continually being done in language use, for example, as mentioned above, when the economy is discussed in terms of the lexis of sickness and health.

The following example exercise would be intended as a follow-up to a comprehension passage done in the previous lesson and seeks to activate the slumbering vocabulary recently encountered. It takes the vocabulary of emotion as used in a passage from a novel dealing with the death of a young boy, and places it in a very different context, namely a football match. Cognitive effort is thus required by the learners to lift vocabulary out of one context, perceive its semantic characteristics and apply it appropriately in another context. Below is a condensed version of the comprehension passage.

Comprehension Passage to precede Exercise E

It was about three weeks after my little brother had died. Barely were we all sitting together in the living room when my mother and aunts began talking about Edward. At first their voices were subdued, but gradually they rose as the women became more and more excited, and the words came flooding out. "Yes," cried my Aunt Lucy and my mother in chorus. He was too good to stay with us, too good. He was a saint!" Carried away by their own emotion, they became almost ecstatic in their exaggerated utterances. I sat there very quiet and afraid, I too was carried away by the emotion; I felt feverish and my eyes grew moist. My father was perfectly still. Once in a while I glanced at him. He looked very upset and he didn't join in the conversation. I knew there was going to be an incident. The tension mounted. Suddenly he rose to his feet. His eyes flashed violently.

"Stop it," he said, and real anger was in his voice. "Stop talking about him like that. He wasn't a saint; he was just an ordinary boy, guilty of wrong like anyone else, and I won't have you talk about him like that." The underlined words represent those that will be required in the following exercise. To what extent the teacher would single these out for pupils and focus attention on them is up to him or her and the level and ability of the class in question. Of course, there are other vocabulary items pertaining to emotion in the passage (e.g. "moist", "flashed", which it has not been possible to incorporate into the exercise. This is in the nature of things if the following contrived passage is to be both short and reasonably natural.

Exercise E

Task 1): Fill in the blanks in the passage below with the underlined words and phrases from the passage above. Use each word or phrase once only. You may change the morphological form of words (e.g. tense and aspect of verbs, number of nouns) or the grammatical class (e.g. you may make a noun from a verb or an adjective from an adverb etc.).

(The passage is presented below with the blanks completed)

Once in a while I go to see a football match. Last Saturday I joined the thousands of fans flooding into St. James's Park to watch Newcastle United play Leeds United. I arrived two minutes before kick-off, so I was barely in time. The first few minutes of play were rather subdued, but then the tension mounted, the crowd cried out in chorus, and, carried away by the emotion, I joined in. Soon Newcastle was feverishly attacking the Leeds goal. The Newcastle fans became almost ecstatic when their team scored. However, the goal was disallowed. This upset the Newcastle fans, who believed the referee had been guilty of showing favoritism, and there were some violent crowd incidents as angry fans ran onto the pitch.

Comment: As a further exercise for an advanced class learners could be asked to continue the football passage for themselves, trying to use some more vocabulary items from the original passage.

Alternatively they could be asked to paraphrase the vocabulary items used for both passages as follows: half the class would paraphrase the vocabulary as used in the original comprehension passage, and half as used in the football passage. This will underline for learners how the same words actually mean very different things in the two passages, but that there is a unifying common thread of meaning between them in the two contexts; For example, "upset" in the original passage means something like "deeply grieved", "near to tears with grief", "sad and angry". In the football passage it means (as a verb) "to annoy", "to irritate", "to exasperate". Note also the difference between "to feverishly attack a goal" and "to feel feverish", between a "violent incident" and "eyes flashed violently". Learners should be alerted to the processes of metaphor and metonymy at work here, for these are the processes by means of which the proficient language user finds words
for thought, and which we as teachers usually expect our learners.

Exercise:

Using the list of idiomatic expressions given below

a) make up a story;

b) make up dialogs.

Try to use as much idiomatic expressions as possible.

to be in a bind box;

to keep one's eyes peeled;

to go at it hammer and tongues;

to lose one's temper;

to take it on the chin;

to turn thumbs down;

to paddle one's own canoe;

big frog in a small pond;

by word of mouth;

to burn the midnight oil;

bent out of shape;

to bite off more then one can chew;

to jump all over someone;

until you are blue in the face;

to be all ears.

The next task is to render the poem using the idioms under study.

They walked in the lane together,

The sky was covered with stars.

They reached the gate in the silence,

He lifted down the bars.

She neither smiled nor thanked him

Because she knew not how:

For he was just a farmer's boy

And she the farmers cow.

To broaden the students' language awareness of idioms we can suggest the following exercises:

I. Insert the missing element; use each idiom in a sentence.

shoot ... one's mouth make ... one's mind

fly ... one's handle prick ... one's ears

go ... one's head turn ... one's nose

II. Supply the necessary words.

play ... /действовать наверняка/ keep ... /скрывать/

drop ... /упасть замертво/ go ... /спятить/

take .../застать врасплох/ go ... /умереть/

think ... /хорошенько подумать/ make ... /удостовериться

make ... /быть высокого мнения/

III. Give Russian equivalents for:

back and forth once and for all

up and down on and off

to and fro then and there

through and through one and all

over and above all and sundry

now and again first and foremost

IV. Think of fifteen idioms that initiate with the preposition in

V. Insert articles if necessary.

take ... dislike to produce ... impression on

take ... liking to keep ... secret from

take ... fancy to cast ... glance on

make ... fuss about make ... attempt at

lend ... hand to pay ... visit to

VI. Analyse the structure of the idioms; compare the three groups from the viewpoint of grammar.

gain ground take an interest take the trouble

give way run a risk get the hang

get wind take a chance have the cheek

leave effect win a victory have the guts

take heed make a stand spill the beans

do good stretch a point know the ropes

mean harm lend a hand take the lead

eat dirt produce an effect take the starch

take action keep a secret tell the truth

lose interest make a crack blow the gab

give consent lift a finger save the day

make pretence cast a glance

VII. Define the meaning of each idiom; use thorn in a story.

take pains take chances

make friends make arrangements

speak volumes take steps

take decisions make plans

VIII. Arrange the following into groups of semantically related idioms.

at best at least at first

at last at worst at latest

at most at farthest at nearest

IX. Reproduce an episode from the book you are reading; employ the given idioms.

come to a head take into account

arrive at a decision come into existence

fly into a passion come into sight

X. Recall some more idioms of a similar structure: Verb + Preposition + Noun.

fall in love take by surprise

keep in check keep in mind

take in tow roll in money

XI. Give an idiom for each number.

1. pass away 5. fall for

2. take to 6. see through

3. make out 7. chime in

4. give in 8. pass on

XII. Group the idioms according to their structure.

in any case, in a whisper, in full cry, at all costs, on no account, in bad shape, at any rate, into the bargain, in deep water, at the same time, under the weather, in the long run, in a tight corner, at a moment's notice, in no time, by no means, on excellent terms, in a bad way, in a flash, in good humour, at arm's length, in the end, At close quarters, on a high horse, with breakneck pace.

Puzzle - making

The next task for students is to work out the puzzle by marching the idioms and their definitions. First, put puzzle-pieces on the desk with the word facing up Take one and match the idiom to the definition. Having done that, place the puzzle-piece, word-side-up, in the chosen rectangle. When you have used up all the pieces, turn them over. If they form a picture of a landscape, the choices are correct If not, rearrange the picture and check the idiom-definition correspondences.

The game objectives. To work out the puzzle, students had to match idioms with their definitions. The objective of the game was for each pair to cooperate in completing the activity successfully in order to expand their vocabulary with, in this case, colloquial expressions.

All students were active and enjoyed the activity. Some of their comments were as follows: "Very interesting and motivating" "Learning can be a lot of fun" etc.

Students also had to find the appropriate matches in the shortest time possible to beat other participating groups. The element of competition among the groups made them concentrate and think intensively.

Translation activity. The other group of students had to work out the meanings of the idioms by means of translation. Unlike the previously described group, they did not know the definitions. The expressions were listed on the board, and students tried to guess their proper meanings giving different options. My role was to direct them to those that were appropriate. Students translated the idioms into Russian and endeavoured to find similar or corresponding expressions in their mother tongue. Unlike the game used for the purpose of idiom introduction, this activity did not require the preparation of any aids. Fewer learners participated actively or enthusiastically in this lesson and most did not show great interest in the activity.

Administering the test. In order to find out which group acquired new vocabulary better, I designed a short test, for both groups containing a translation into English and a game. This allowed learners to activate their memory with the type of activity they had been exposed to in the presentation. The test checking the acquisition of newly-introduced reading vocabulary I. Match the definitions of the idioms with the pictures and write which idiom is depicted and described:

to he inexperienced

to listen very attentively

to be terrified

to be dominated by someone

to be attentive

to be insincere, dishonest

The proper answers are the following:

d., to be wet behind the ears

a., to be all ears

e., to have one's hair stand on end

f., to be led by the nose

b., to be all eyes

с., to be two-faced.

II Translate into English (the translated sentences should be the following):

He is soft in the head.

She is two-faced, always criticizes me behind my back.

Mark has a sweet tooth, so he is not too slim.

Will you hold your tongue if I tell you something?

Why are you such a loose mouth?

Don't be nosy! This is none of your business.

Description of vocabulary picture puzzle

To prepare the puzzle. I cut two equal-sized pieces of cardboard paper into rectangles. The selected idioms were written onto the rectangles in the puzzle-pieces board and their definitions on the game board. On the reverse side of the puzzle-pieces board. 1 glued colourful photographs of landscapes and then cut the puzzle-pieces board into individual pieces, each with an idiom on it. The important thing was the distribution of the idioms and their definitions on the boards. The definitions were placed in the same horizontal row opposite to the idioms so that when put together face to face each idiom faced its definition.

Puzzle Pieces Board

The idioms and their definitions were the following The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms, New York, 1989, p.77:

to be soft in the head: foolish, not very intelligent;

to have one's hair stand on end: to be terrified;

to be two-faced: to agree with a person to his face but disagree with him behind his back;

to make a face: to make a grimace which may express disgust, anger;

to be all eyes: to be very attentive;

to be an eye-opener: to be a revelation;

to be nosy: to be inquisitive, to ask too many questions;

to be led by the nose: to be completely dominated by, totally influenced by;

long ears: an inquisitive person who is always asking too many questions;

to be all ears: to listen very attentively;

to be wet behind the ears: to be naive, inexperienced;

a loose mouth: an indiscrete person;

one's lips are sealed: to be obliged to keep a secret;

to have a sweet tooth: to have a liking for sweet food, sugar, honey, ice cream, etc.;

to grind one's teeth: to express one's fury;

to hold one's tongue: to say nothing, to be discrete;

Exploring metaphors in the classroom

When our students listen to pop songs in English, browse web sites in English or watch movies in English they frequently meet language rich in its use of metaphors. Yet metaphors are often rather neglected in the classroom. So what kinds of metaphors should we teach, why should we teach them and how can we do so effectively?

Kinds of metaphors

Our students may meet many different kinds of metaphors in English. We usually think of metaphor as being a comparison between two things which are not usually connected with each other, so that the characteristics of the one are carried over to the other. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, for example, Romeo famously compares Juliet to the sun, so that the qualities of the sun (radiance and warmth) are carried over to Juliet. Not only literary English, but everyday English is full of these kinds of metaphors. For example, there are many fixed expressions found in dictionaries which can only be understood metaphorically, such as:

'a step in the right direction' or

to 'sell like hot cakes'

There are also many words which can have both literal and metaphorical meanings:

verbs such as to' hammer' or 'to stream'

adjectives such as 'infectious' or 'lukewarm'

nouns such as 'ingredients' and 'foundation'.

Increasing student vocabulary

Metaphors provide a handy and memorable way of organizing new vocabulary to be learned. Most teachers are familiar with the notion of a lexical set, where vocabulary is grouped according to a topic area, such as 'food' or 'transport'. This idea can be extended to create 'metaphorical sets', where we group together the words and expressions that have a metaphorical, rather than a literal, meaning. Here are some examples:

Body vocabulary

the heart of the city

the foot of the mountain/bed/stairs

to give a hand

to break somebody's heart

Weather vocabulary

a warm welcome

to freeze somebody out

to be snowed under

to storm out

a hail of abuse

Colour vocabulary

to see red

a grey area

a white lie

to give somebody the green light.

Two activities

In the classroom, there are different ways we can incorporate this idea of metaphorical sets.

One way is to ask students in groups to research and design a poster related to a particular topic. Take the body, for example.

Students could be asked to draw an outline of a human body on a large sheet of paper, and to include a heart, feet, hand, eye, nose, etc.

Using English dictionaries, they could then research any metaphorical uses of language connected with the different parts of the body and write them in the appropriate place on the poster.

The same activity can be done for weather vocabulary (using little sketches of different types of weather) or for colours (using sheets of paper of different colours).

Another way is to ask students to brainstorm the words in a particular lexical area, such as plants. They may come up with words such as: roots, branches, seed, to blossom, to bloom, to plant.

Once you have checked that students have understood the literal meaning of all the words involved, ask them to guess what the metaphorical meaning of these words might be.

And once you have established the metaphorical meanings for these words (such as the roots of a problem or to plant an idea in somebody's mind) ask students to write a story using as many of these words as they can.

I find the stories are always very inventive, and reveal the real pleasure that students take in using another language creatively.

Improving knowledge of 'chunks'

Many metaphors occur not as isolated words, but in 'chunks' of language. Some of these 'chunks' are idioms that cannot really be varied. Some examples are:

to be 'down in the dumps'

to 'fight like cats and dogs'

Other 'chunks' can be varied, but generally occur as collocations in fairly limited combinations. Some examples are:

a 'fatal mistake / decision'

to 'waste time / money'

When teaching metaphors we should encourage students to note them down and learn them as 'chunks' - this will help students to remember them better and use them appropriately.

We can revise students' knowledge of these chunks by writing a list of chunks on the board with important words missing, e.g. fatal in fatal decision, or cat in to fight like cat and dog. Working in teams, students should then fill in the missing words and write sentences using the chunks.

Using English creatively

As we have seen, many metaphors in English form part of the ordinary repertoire of the native speaker. We can help students to learn some of these fixed metaphors while simultaneously encouraging them to play creatively with language. One way is to ask students to write short poems with one of the following titles:

Weather metaphors

A sunny smile

An icy look

A stormy relationship

People metaphors

A chip off the old block

A rough diamond

A shoulder to cry on

An ugly duckling

A fairy godmother

Parts of proverbs

A new broom

Early birds

Birds of a feather

Silver linings

A rolling stone

Developing student autonomy

Finally, we can develop students' awareness of metaphors by encouraging students to 'collect' metaphors - by noting them down when they encounter them on the Internet, in pop songs, etc. These metaphors can then be explained and discussed in the classroom. You may even want to keep a record of these on a wall poster….and at the end of the term ask students to vote on the most useful metaphor, the most surprising metaphor, their favorite metaphor, etc.

2.2.2 Focus on authentic speech and idiomatic language in classes

Objectives: Developing students' guessing skills, developing reading and listening skills on the base of idioms.

Target group: 4th year students

Level: Intermediate

Organization: Class

Time: 80 min.

Step 1. Reading the Text.

Read the text “The Case of the Friendly Prank”

People love Tom Comeuppance because of all of his good traits--and despite his one very bad trait. Tom is never satisfied with anything. He always finds something to complain about and wish for, and he usually complains and wishes about the same thing for a long time. Most of the time, he also ends up getting what he has been wanting, but even then he still finds something to complain about soon after. This kind of behavior sometimes drives his family and friends crazy.

Lately, Tom has been complaining about needing a car even though his family just recently helped him get his own apartment near the school he attends, the Merlin Institute of Technology (MIT). His friends also got together and bought him a ten-speed bicycle for his birthday. This is what Tom has been saying:

"I'm tired of walking and riding around so much. I need a car. I sure wish I owned that 1965 Ford Mustang that's for sale over at Bob Fisher's used-car lot."

His friends at MIT, who are studying mechanical engineering with him, are also tired -- they're tired of hearing this from him so much. In fact, they cant stand it any more. They've put up with it long enough. In other words, they are simply fed up. This is the way they let him have it in the cafeteria Friday afternoon.

'"Car, car, car'--that's all we ever hear from you these days. It's really wearing thin."

"Enough already! You sound like a broken record!" 'Yeah, could you change the record, please?"

But these words didn't hurt Tom. They rolled off him like water off a duck's back. He wasn't even bothered when the same kind of thing happened at his family's house, where he went for dinner on Saturday. The members of his family are very different in their jobs and interests--his father is a crane operator, his mother is a science fiction writer, his sister is a body builder, and his brother is a magician--but they are all alike in loving Tom very much. Even so, there is a limit to how much their love can tolerate from him. These were their words:

"Tom, you're starting to get on my nerves with all this car talk."

"You're really rubbing me the wrong way, too."

"I'll be even more honest with you -- you're going to drive me to drink!"

"Tom, you know the expression, Every cloud has a silver lining'? For you, the expression should be, 'Every silver lining has a cloud.'"

On Sunday, Tom spent the whole day in the library. When he got back to his apartment Sunday night, he found a very big and very unusual gift waiting for him. You could have knocked him over with a feather when he saw it. There was a note attached to it that read.

"Surprise! You've been driving us up a wall. Now it's your turn. And this time, for once, don't look a gift horse in the mouth!"

Step 2. Idioms from the case.

Make a list of idioms in “The Case of Friendly Prank”, and beneath them write your guesses as to their meanings. Compare your results in class.

Step 3. Guessing the Meaning of Idioms I.

Listen to the tape and write the idioms that you hear in the blank spaces below. Then guess their meanings and write them on the lines beneath.

Exercise 2

Idioms

1. Hold your horses. I'll be ready to leave in just a minute.

2. I'm afraid that Hideo let the cat out of the bag and now everybody knows our plans.

3. Ravi thought he was being funny, but the fact is his joke went over like a lead balloon.

4. The basketball team is on a roll. They've won their last five games.

5. Nui is all up in the air about her planned vacation in Paris.

6. I was supposed to meet a new friend for dinner last night, but she stood me up.

7. Mr. Sato says that we have to learn to get our work done on time, so he has drawn the line on late homework.

8. Amedeo got in a jam with his parents because he forgot to tell them how late he would be getting home.

9. Fahad should have known better what to say in that situation. He sure put his foot in his mouth that time.

10. Martin was a great soccer player for many years, but he's all washed up now.

11. The police strongly suspected the owner of having burned down his own store in order to collect the insurance, so they asked him to come clean with them.

12. Some sales people have just the right touch--they can sell anyone anything.

13. Microwave ovens cook so fast that they really make cooking a breeze.

14. Her excuse for not getting her homework done was pretty wild, but it still rang true.

15. Mei-Ling got the jump on her homework and finished it a day early.

Step 4. Guessing the meaning of the Idioms II.

Listen to the idioms on the tape, think about the context they are in, and write your best guess as to their meanings. If you cannot guess the meaning, then try to include the idiom in a request for an explanation.

Exercise 3

Idioms

1. Mohammed didn't come to class because he's feeling under the weather.

2. Santha is great at growing plants--she really has a green thumb.

3. When her husband died, she went to pieces.

4. It's okay to be busy, but maybe you're spreading yourself too thin.

5. I haven't heard a word from you this morning. What's the matter--cat got your tongue?

6. Because of her husband's illness, Mary has become the breadwinner for their family.

7. I believed her! I thought she was serious, but of course she was only pulling my leg.

8. Anna has worked so hard for so many years that she's feeling burned out in her job.

9. With all the problems that Luis has, is it any wonder that he's got a bad case of the blues?

10. The basketball game wasn't even close. Our team got blown away.

11. On only our second date, he asked me out of the blue to marry him!

12. I knew my boss was having a bad day, but I didn't expect him to bite my head off.

13. Have you ever noticed how some people will talk your head off on the telephone?

14. People on the street who ask Mr. Lee for money aren't going to get any--they're barking up the wrong tree with him.

15. The view from the top of this mountain will take your breath away.

Step 5. Idioms from Students.

Present to your classmates other English idioms that you have heard, and they will share some with you. Try to guess meanings, and ask for explanation when you are not able to guess correctly.

Step 6.

Determine what an idiom is.

CONCLUSION

This paper has discussed the nature of idiomaticity versus nonidiomaticity in learner language and compared and contrasted nonidiomaticity with error. The complementary nature of generated language and formulaic, conventionalised language in discourse has been discussed and the gradational nature of idiomatic language has been delineated. The metaphorical nature of much idiomatic language has been emphasised and the central importance of metaphorical multiword units in language use has been insisted upon. In the context of Bartlett's Bartlett, F . C . 1932 . Remembering : A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. (1932) principle of "effort after meaning" pedagogical implications in terms of encouraging students to perform cognitive, problem-solving exercises in order to unearth the underlying meaning of the pervasive and structured metaphors informing idiomatic language have been sketched out. Finally, exercises indicative of these principles have been presented. At the end of my research the following conclusions can be made .The origin of idioms is closely connected with people's mentality .The present day English can't be considered full of value without idiomatic usage, as the use of idioms is the first sign of a certain language's developing. Idiomatic sentences enrich a language and the knowledge of idioms signal that the speaker knows the language on the level of a native speaker. The belles-lettres investigated by us revealed a great number of idiomatic sentences used by prominent writers in their works to make their language more expressive and colourful. This research proposes practical hints for teachers wishing to diverse their lessons with idioms. And we concluded that even languages belonging to different families may have similar or hemi similar idioms and those which differ dramatically can be guessed within the context. So idioms are integral part of language which make our speech more colourful and authentically native.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Bartlett, F. C. Remembering : A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . 1932

2. Michael McCarthy, Felicity O'Dell. English Vocabulary in Use. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

3. The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms, New York, 1989.

4. Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка. М.: 1959.

5. Бархударов Л.С., Язык и перевод. М., 1975.

6. Бархударов Л.С., Рецкер Я.И., Курс лекций по теории перевода, 1-й МГПИИЯ, М., 1968.

7. Галперин И.Р., Информативность единиц языка. М., 1974.

8. Каменецкайте Н. Л. Синонимы в английской фразеологии. М.: «Международные отношения», 1971.

9. Катцер Ю., Кунин А., Письменный перевод с русского языка на английский. М., 1964.

10. Кузьмин С., Употребление - главное звено механизма переводческих показателей (на примере фразеологизмов). Тетради переводчика, М., 1972.

11. Kuzmin S.S., Translating Russian Idioms, Higher School, M., 1977

12. Левицкая Т., Фитерман А., Обновление фразеологических единиц, и передача этого приема в переводе. Тетради переводчика, №5, М., 1968.

13. Морозов М.М., Пособие по переводу русской художественной прозы на английский язык. М., 1972.

14. Сазонова И.К., Лексика и фразеология современного русского языка. М., 1963.

15. Федоров А.В., Введение в теорию перевода, М., 1967.

16. Bek A., "Volokolamsk Highway", F.L.P.H., Moscow.

17. Белинский В.Г., Собр. соч., СПБ, 1896, т. 1.

18. German Y., “Eternal Battle”, Progress Publishers, Moscow.

19. German Y., "The Cause You Serve", F.L.P.H., Moscow.

20. Жуковский В.А., Предисловие к «Дон Кихоту». М., 1805.

21. Nikolayeva G., "The Newcomer" , F. L. P. H., Moscow, 1955.

22. Internet site: http://vernadsky.dnttm.ru/h4/w01358.htm `Phraseology of modern English`

23. Internet site: http://durov.com/lectures/OCR/Halperin.htm

Страницы: 1, 2