English Idioms论文

On the Infulence of Historical Development and Geography Environment on the Formation of English Idioms
Introcduction
When opening Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English; one can see such an entry: “Idiom n. Phrase or sentence whose me aning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit.” English is a language particularly rich in idioms. Lots of cultural information is embodied in idioms. In some senses; idioms are the reflection of the environment; life; historical culture; etc. They are commonly used in all types of language; informal and formal; spoken and written. In brief; idioms are fixed phrases. They go through the test of history and cannot be separated. They are an important part of the general vocabulary of every language.
English idioms are usually widely and commonly used all over the world. They contain brief structures and profound meanings; and are also a group of words with the meaning different from the literal one. As an English learner; we study English everyday; learning its literary works; grammatical functions; use them and so on. Sometimes; we come cross some sentences that we can’t understand; such as; “T here is a black sheep” or “D on’t be a bad apple”; “go over my head” ; “D on’t put your problems at my doorstep”; “j ust bear with me”; “h eap coal of fire on one’s head” etc. Of course we can comprehend the meaning of every single word. Why do we have difficulty in understanding them Because of a low level of linguistic competence in the target language; people who learn English as a second language are at a distinct disadvantage in understanding English idioms. We must know the origins of English idioms so that we can learn English well.
The research to English idioms has a long history. Scholars’study focuses on the following aspects: the oringins of the idioms; comparison between English idioms and Chinese idioms; and
the translation of English idioms. What’s more; they talk about the idioms through its notion of culture. Others schoolars pay attention to the structural; semantic function and rhetoric of idioms. The formation of English idioms is influenced by such cultural factors as geographical conditions; historical developments; customs; religious beliefs; literature and arts of the British nation. So I decided to focuse on the influence of historical development and geography envirnment on the formation of English idioms.
This paper has four parts. The first part is about the definition and features of English idioms; The second part focuses on the influence of historical development. The third part is about idioms originating from geography envirment. The fourth part serves as the conclusion. This paper will help the readers have a better understand of English idioms.
1. The definition and features of English idioms
1.Definition
what are idioms “Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences” and “idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual elements.” Zhang Weiyou; 174 “An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is different or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meanings of the individual words it contains.” A S Honrnby; 2004; B19 such as; “black sheep”害群之马; “Put a sock in it”住口; “go over my head”无法理解.
“Most phrasal lexemes are idioms; especially a sequence of words which is semantically and often syntacticall y restricted.” Hu Zhuanglin; 106 E.g. “Don’t put your problems at my doorstep”归咎于我; “do in Rome as the Roman’s do”入乡随俗; “as poor as a church mouse”一贫如洗
2.Features
1.structural stability
Many English idioms are characterized by structural invariability. Their form is often fixed. The word in idiomatic expressions cannot be deleted; added to; in the idiom live from hand to mouth; it is impossible to say live from hand to the mouth or live from a hand to a mouth; in the idiom to kick the bucket; if the word “bucket” is replaced by “pail”; the meaning of the idiom will no longer mean“die”.
2. semantic unity
Idioms are mainly characteized by their semantic unity. Semantic unity means an idiom functioning as a unit of meaning; and must be learned as a whole. That is; the meaning of the idiom cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of its member words. So; pull one's socks up not at all connected with “socks”; it means to cheer up; work harder;as in “If you want to be considered for promotion next year ; you'd better pull your socks up.” If you want to be promoted next year; you should work harder. Likewise; the meaning of know where the pinches has nothing to do with the meaning of the separate words; it means to know the difficulties.
3.figuraive features
Idioms are often forcible; terse and vivid; because they are used figuratively. Idioms are an important thetorical device in language; and they incorporate various figures of speech; among them; most are similes and metaphors. A great many idioms are used in simile and metaphorical style instead of stating in experience or thought outright to achieve a better expressive effect. For example; similes; such as; as timid as a rabbit; like a red rag to a bull. Metaphors; such as; to help a lane dog over the stiles: to give up somebody who is in difficulty or trouble.
2.English idioms originating from historical developmen t
Looking back at the development of human being; the great influences on national cultures are mainly the changes of the earth’s crust; national movement; the national conquest and assimilation; and the war between nations. The Britain has a long history. In English; thousands of idioms originated from great historical events and the societies’ transformation
1.The Influences of Roman Conquest on English Idioms
In 55 BD; the commander in chief of Roman; Julius Caesar; came to the Great Britain after conquering the Gaul; but did not have conflict with the local Celts. And the next year Caesar came to the Great Britain second time. But this time he made his root firmly in the northeast of the Great Britain; he fired with the local ones. Although the Caesars won but they did not bring the Celts to their knees; so they did not make great influences on the social cultures of the Great Britain.
“Appeal to Caesar”; “Great Caesar”;“render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” ; these three idioms are left by the emperor Caesar who had captured the Great Britain. “Appeal to Caesar;” means that resorting to the highest leading bodies. “Great Caesar” equals Great Heavens. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s;” mean s that everything belongs to its own. So from these we can see that Caesar had influenced the language a lot till now.
“Worth one’s salt”; In the period of Roman; salt was very valuable. In the army; the soldier’s payment contained a part of salt and then it changed as some security named solarium that evolved salary. But “ salt equals salary in idiom” is widely used nowadays. So now if someone says “worth his salt” means that he is an employee who proved reliable. For example; any engineer who is worth his salt should know how machine works.
The Rome captured Great Britain for nearly 400 years. Till 407; the Rome had to withdraw from Great Britain because Roman was besieged inside and outside. Four hundred years is enough time to form British Latin culture. Rome went away; but the influences of Great Britain on their culture were still there on the island. “Do in Rome as the Romans do.” “Rome was not built in a day.” “All roads lead to Rome.” From these idioms we can found the influences of Roman Conquest are so tremendous.
3.The Influences of Teutonic Conquest on English Idioms
In about 449; three German Tribes; resided in the northwest of Europe; invaded the Great
Britain. They were Anglos; Saxons and Jutes. They crossed the North Sea and took advantages of the waning in power of Roman who could care nothing but them. They came into the Great Britain and met great defense of Celts; which made the conquest delayed one and a half centuries. At the end of 6th century; the Celtics; the original residents of the island of Great Britain; almost died out. This was the most famous conquest in the history of Britain named Teutonic Conquest.
“Cut someone to the quick”; here; “quick” means “skin” especially; “the skin of the nail” that will make you painful when you touch. “Quick” here is a word of Anglo-Saxon. This idiom infers that hurt somebody in motion. For example; “Her cruel words cut him to the quick.” “Go through fire and water” ;these idioms stemmed from the law of Declare Guilty in the period of Anglo-Saxon. If the suspect’s hands were good enough after makin g them into the boiling water; he was not guilty. So the meaning of this idiom is that defying all difficulties and dangers. It was widely quoted in the past. For example; I would go though fire and water to find out the truth of that matter.
In fact; Anglo-Saxon was the origin of Modern English. Or more actually that West Saxon; the language of Saxon dwelling on the south of Thames; was the origin of the Standard English. So the influences of Teutonic Conquest on English were overall and had great decisive influences. The Anglo-Saxon was one of the three origins of Modern English vocabulary. Many English Idioms from this period could be taken as evidence.
3. The Influences of Invasion of Vikings on English Idioms
In about 9th century; Britain was facing the widely invasions of Vikings especially the invasion of Dane which began at the end of 8th century and lasted nearly three hundred years. At the beginning; they invaded as pirates and did not stay along. In the middle of 9th century; the Danes began to m igrate nationwide. They annexed another country’s territory and established the “Danelaw” in the northeast of Britain. When Alfred the Great ruled the Britain in 871-899; the Danes fought against the Dane; they did not drive the Dane out of Britain. So in 878; Alfred the Great was forced to sign the treaty Peace of Wedmore. According to the treaty; the Danes still owned the “Danelaw”.
Because of the invasion and occupation of Scandinavians; the large part of Britain suffered great influences by the North European culture. Nowadays the names of the north and the east part of Britain were from Scandinavian. And also some people’s names were from Scandinavian such as Jackson; Thompson; Stevenson; and Johnson and so on. “Rain cats and dogs” stemmed from mythology of the north Europe. The main Gods of Norsemen Odin; dog and wolf symbolized “wind” and cat symbolized “rain”. So cats and dogs had the meaning of violent storms. E.g.: You cannot go out tonight; it is raining cats and dogs. “Six of one and half a dozen of the other”; 12 binary system was brought in by Danish conquest. And it was used till now.
4. The Influences of Normandy Conquest on English Idioms
In 1066; Edward died. Because he had no son to succeed his throne they chose Harold Godwin to be the successor. This had enraged the cousin of Edward William; a Normandy duke; who intended to succeed the throne. William led the French army and fleet cross the sea and invaded Britain on September 1066. They defeated the British troops and killed Harold. At last; William entered London and became the King named William I. It was the Beginning of House of Normandy in British history.
“Go Dutch” means pay one’s own expense; share expenses. The meaning had been suited by the people and had been used widely in the English daily life. Dutch was either a country or the people in Dutch. Why does “go Dutch” had a different meaning not go to Dutch There was an interesting history. In the 16th century; English and Dutch became the opponents because of the competition of forces on sea and trade. And Englishmen; not only soldiers but also businessmen; hate more through many failures. Businessmen's subjective idea was that Dutch wouldn't pay for the others if they did not pay for the full money. And they think it was their inherent quality .So they must order Dutch to pay for the full money at the first time. They shared the expense with Dutch every time. So from that time on; people used "go Dutch” to express the meaning of sharing expenses and pay one's own expense to express their rival sense to Dutch.
5. The English Idioms Originated from World War I
In 19th century; British shipping and fleet has an overwhelming advantage in terms of the total ton. The hegemony in the sea has been shaken after the First World War; but the total ton ranked the first in the world. America replaced the position of the hegemony in the sea with U.K ’s after the Second World War; while U.K also took the third rank. Owing to the development of seafaring; there are so many idioms relative to the voyage emerged.
The English always toast by saying “Here's mud in your eye ”. Why they toast like that Here was a parlance. During the World War I; it was widely used in the army. And it meant that mud in your eye was better than the bullet in you r body. So after that the sentence “Here's mud in your eye”had the meaning of good wishes.
“Cup of tea” is a common ph rase of spoken English. It means the things you like every much. For example; traveling is just his cup of tea. And football is not his cup of tea. This phrase just brought during the First World War and the Second World War. In the Victorian age; Tea was not universal in all walks of life; especially between the men. At that moment if someone wanted to express the metaphor of somebody’s app reciation of something; they were almost rooted from food and drink; such as “somebody’s port of beer”. Afterwards the women worker were increasing; they brought the afternoon tea to the office; the men worker gradually joined in the group to have afternoon tea. So tea was considered to be a popular drink. However; the personal taste of tea is different. Somebody likes Chinese tea; others like Indian tea; somebody likes the thin tea; others like the thick tea; somebody likes the tea with milk or sugar; others like the tea without milk or sugar; or the other even like the tea with lemon. So the different taste of tea had brought out the expression of “cup of tea”; and had been extended to the things be suitable of taste.
6. The English Idioms Originated from World War II
The Second World War; remained fresh in people’s memory; brought many new words to English. First; the war brought many military words. Clothing; foods and daily necessities were
assigned to deliver by Government Issue.
The War was not only making new words but also giving the old words new meanings. “Appease” had the meanings of “calm down”; “console” and “alleviate”. But in 1938; Neville Chamberlain; British Prime Minister at that movement; tried to appease Adolph Hitler to let him not to i nvade Britain; but making Hitler more aggressive. So from that time on; “appease” had another meaning of “pacify” and “indulge” in a derogatory sense. Today in English if we say; “appease another nation”; it means that in order to avoid war-currying favor with another country through yielding on politics and economy in preparing to pay prices of principles.
“Forlorn hope” was the transliteration of “verloren hoop”Dutch but here hoop was not related to hope. The original meaning was suicide squadron when the phrase was first used in English. But from 1641; the phrase of English had different meaning that was related to hope. And the main meaning was a plan of attempt that was very unlikely to succeed. E.g.: My mission was a forlorn hope. There were many other phrases like “forlorn hope” such as “the fifth column” “Quonset hut” “Gremlin” “A-bomb” and “block-buster” and so on.
3. English idioms originating from geography environment
The geography environment is connected to the human's lives closely. From the ancient times; the human tried their best to conquer the nature; to rebuild it. At that time; the most important function was to improve the production. So in this period; the human's civilizations were influenced by the geography.
The England located in the east of the Atlantic Ocean. The England is an island country. It consists of three big islands. In the west of the England; there is the Atlantic Ocean; which is narrow and suits to sailing. In the east of the England; there is the England Channel; which is peaceful and could be passed safely.In the three islands; the land is small; and the land is for stock breeding. Also the farmer in England is few. Because of these reasons; the English people make their living in the sea
In the western countries; especially in the Greece; the mother of the western civilization; has small land for tillage; the land is for the stock breeding. While the Greek have less land to develop
the agriculture; they live near the sea; the Mediterranean; so they can sail in the sea for commerce. English culture is from the Greek civilization; so the English culture is the sea civilization.
In England; the sea is connected to the people’s life closely. England is an island country. In England; the field is less; the land is for stock breeding. The English people always make their living on the sea. So there are many idioms about the sea ;the boat and the fish.
1.Idioms about water
Because all around England is sea;the sea is full of water;there are idioms about the water.
(1)Fish in trouble waters
Meaning: to profit in a confused environment
e.g. Don’t fish in trouble waters; that does you no good.
(2)Pour /throw cold water on
Meaning: to discourage
e.g. The board of director poured cold water on his new investment proposals in that
region.
(3)Be in /get in hot water or In deep water
Meaning: to be in or get into trouble.
e.g. She has got into hot water again for her inquisitive nature recently.
(4)spend money like water
Meaning: someone spend money very much.
e.g. Some super star spends money like water.
5 To hold water
Meaning: Someone looks for the excuse; proposed the reason; or said the speech is truly;
can stand firmly
e.g. That excuse simply doesn't hold water.
6 water off a duck's back
Meaning: Dose not have an effect.
e.g. I keep telling my friend it's foolish to gamble all his pay; but it's like water off a
duck's back.
7 to make my mouth water
Meaning: Let me be mouth-watering.
e.g. The roast duck that restaurant serves is my favorate dish. Every time I think about it;
it makes my mouth water.
2.Idioms about sea
The idioms are the essence of the culture; they are cohering the wisdom of the people.We can see that the geography influenced t he human’s culture deeply. H uman’s culture could not depart from the environment. The western people live in the seaside and had small land for tillage; so their livings are connected to the sea.
(1)Make waves
Meaning: to make trouble
e.g. They lift it was not the time to make waves by staging a sit-in.
(2)Go with the stream
Meaning: do as others do
e.g. He listened to the same music and dressed the same way as his friends. He went with
the stream; for he lacked confidence in making his own decision.
(3) A drop in the bucket/ocean
Meaning: a negligible or tiny quantity; something that make little difference
e.g. Ten cents means a lot of money to the beggar on the street; but is a drop in the ocean
for most people.
(4)At sea
① On a ship; etc on the sea
e.g. spend three months at sea
② Not know what to do; confused
e.g. I’m all at sea ; I have no idea how to repair cars.
(5) A sea change
Meaning: a complete change
e.g. The huge increase in the number of people working freelance represents a sea
change in patterns of employment over the last 10 years.
(6)Get one's sea legs
Meaning:one's ability to tolerate the movement of a ship at sea.
e.g. Jean was a little awkward on the cruise at first; but in a few days she got her sea legs
and was fine.You may feel a little sick until you get your sea legs.
3.Idioms about fish
Fishing seize on a quite important station in the Britain economy;the lifestyle of sailing and fishing;left mang idioms about fish.
(1) A big fish in a little pond
Meaning: an important person in a small community
e.g. I told you when George came to our department two years ago that he’d soon job-hop.
He is a big fish.
(2)Another kettle of fish a different kettle of fish
Meaning: A completely different person or thing from the one previously mentioned
e.g. He is good at playing tennis in private; but playing in public is a different kettle of
fish.
(3) A cold fish
Meaning: A seeming unfriendly person
e.g. He didn’t say one word the whole night;I think he must be a cold fish.
(4)Be like a fish out of water
Meaning: To feeling uncomfortable or awkward because one is in surroundings that are not familiar.
e.g. When I first live inabord; I am like a fish out of water.
(5)Have bigger/other fish to fry
Meaning: To have more important or more interesting things to do
e.g. I don’t want to watch TV; because there have bigger fish to fry.
(6)Drink like a fish
Meaning: the meaning is drink like an ox;drink a lot of.
e.g. Look at her;drinking like a fish; she may be very thirsty.
7 To teach a fish how to swim
Meaning:To propose others the completely unnecessary suggestion or advice..
e.g. My son; fresh out of college; keeps telling me how to run my business. But I've been
making good money for 30 years so he's teaching a fish how to swim.
4. Idioms about sailing
Because of the lacking of inland; the agriculture production in the England couldn’t meet the needs of the population; the people had to make a living in the sea. For these reasons; to develop the stock raising; fishing and sailing; to conquer the transmarine land is the main way to keep the pot boiling.
(1)Burn one’s boat
Meaning: to do something that makes it impossible to go back
e.g. Starting your own business has a lot of risk ; so think twice before you burn your boat.
(2)Paddle one’s own canoe
Meaning: to depend on oneself
e.g. Don’t worry too much about your son ; he is big enough to paddle his own canoe.
(3)Miss the boat
Meaning: Miss an opportunity; be too late to participate in something
e.g. She put her application in for her interview one day late. Unfortunately for her the
university authorities could do nothing and she had missed the boat.
(4)be in the same boat
Meaning: To be in the same difficult circumstance
e.g. Tom and Jay all didn’t pass the exam;they are in the same boat.
(5)plain sailing
Meaning: Everying is ok
e.g. The life is not plain sailing.It’s full of frustrations and sinuations
(6)in full sail
Meaning: Do with the whole heartedly
e.g. We will save the lives in earthquake in full sail.
7 tower one’s sail
Meaning: The acknowledgment is inferior to other people
e.g. His English is very good; I towered my sail.
8 trim one’s sail
Meaning:play to the score and have it both way.
e.g. First this candidate said he wanted to cut social security. But when he saw most voters
were against such cuts; he quickly trimmed his sails and completely changed his
position.
9 sail close to the wind
Meaning:to do something that is dangerous or only just legal or acceptable.
e.g. I think she realized she was sailing a little too close to the wind and decided to tone
down her criticism.
5.Idioms about wind
The word wind is related with sailing;especially in the sailboat age; the boat sailing cann’t dowithout the wind; for example:
1 a straw in the wind
Meaning: something that shows you what might happen in the future .
e.g. There were one or two straws in the wind yesterday that suggested an offense was
imminent.
2 take the wind out of someone’s sails
Meaning: to challenge someone's boasting or arrogance.
e.g. Learning that one has been totally wrong about something can really take the wind out
of one's sails.
3 take the wind out of your sails
Meaning: to make you feel less confident or determined.
e.g. I was really mad at him; but he greeted me with flowers; which immediately took the
wind out of my sails.
4 gone with the wind
Meaning: gone as if taken away by the wind.
e.g. Everything we worked for was gone with the wind.
5 second wind
Meaning: one's stabilized breathing after exerting oneself for a short time.
e.g. John was having a hard time running until he got his second wind.Bill had to quit the
race because he never got his second wind.
6 three sheets in the wind
Meaning: intoxicated and unsteady. Sheets are the ropes used to manage a ship's sails. It is assumed that if these ropes were blowing in the wind; the ship would be out of
control.
e.g. He had gotten three sheets to the wind and didn't pay attention to my warning. By
midnight; he was three sheets.
4.Conclusion
Idiom is a mirror of a nation. They comprise the historical and cultural background as well as the attitude to life and the ways of people. The formation of English idioms is influenced by such cultural factors as geographical conditions and historical developments.
To sum up; historical development; such as; Rome Conquest;Teutonic Conquest; World I and WorldⅡhave great influence on the formation of English idioms. Geography environmet; such as; wind; sailing; sea; and water has also greatly influenced the formation of English idioms.
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