Idioms and Language

An idiom is is "an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements." It is a statement that conveys a meaning that is different than its literal meaning, and cannot be directly translated.

The word "idiom" has a very broad, general definition and can include "anything from the colloquial to the metaphor." Idioms, like slang, generally are contained within different regions or classes of people and can create subcultures within a larger group of people. Idioms have been around for an extremely long time, considering that some are found in places like the Bible and works by Shakespeare.

Here is a list of "Popular Idioms" given on the website. (Although I must admit that some of these I have not heard of at all).

•Accident waiting to happen: Hindsight phrase, frequently used in the wake of a disaster.

•Ace in the hole: A hidden advantage or secret source of power. An American phrase used as the title of a Cole Porter song in the show "Let's Face It" (1941). It originated from the game of stud poker. A "hole" card is one not revealed until the betting has taken place. If it is an ace, so much the better.

•Acid test: A crucial test. Originally an "acid test" involved the use of aqua fortis to test for gold.

•Bark up the wrong tree: This phrase meaning "to follow a false scent" is of U.S. origin (by 1832) and is said to come from raccoon hunting. As this activity is done at night (raccoons being nocturnal) and as, if chased, raccoons run up trees, it would be quite possible for a dog to bark mistakenly under the wrong tree.

•Eat humble pie: Meaning, "To submit to humiliation." The "humbles" or "umbles" were the less appealing parts of a deer killed in a hunt. They would be given to those of lower rank and perhaps served as "humble pie" or "umble pie."

•Hair of the dog: Meaning, "Another drink of the same to help cure a hangover." This comes from the old belief that a bite from a mad dog could be cured if you put hair from the same dog's tail on the wound.

•Ivory tower: Meaning, "To live in intellectual seclusion and protected from the harsh realities of life." The expression comes from Sainte-Beuve writing in 1837 about the turret room in which the Comte de Vigny, a French writer worked.

It appears that idioms are present in many languages other than English as well. For example, in German, people sleep like woodchucks and marmots, rather than logs. Instead of pulling someone's leg, in German you take someone in your arms, and in Spanish you take them by the hair.

American Sign Language has been found to have a few idioms, although idioms do not seem to be as prevalent in American Sign Language as in English. One ASL idiom, "train go sorry", means that the person speaking will not repeat what has been said because it is the listener's fault for not paying attention. Another "swallow fish", is similar to the English idiom, "you fell for it, line, bait, and sinker." Many people argue, however, that sign language idioms are not really idioms within sign language, but simply briefer deviations of English idioms that are not unique. A potential counterexample to this statement that is interesting is the idiom "Fish", meaning "I am done; it's over." The idiom plays on the fact that when deaf people mouth the word "finish", their lip movements appear ot be saying "fish."

Because idioms have been found in languages like English, Spanish, German, and American Sign Language, idioms clearly must be a universal element of language (just kidding!). But it is interesting that they appear in more than one language.
What purpose do idioms serve in language? Do they have a specific function?

Idioms can be difficult to understand, especially with the mass media in the world today. Idioms can spread through television, movies, and music so rapidly that soon their original meanings are lost. Generally idioms "stem from something real", but over time the specific reference to which the idiom was created is almost always forgotten along the way. David Simpson, an English professor at the University of California Berkeley, claims that the origin of an idiom is nearly impossible to identify. People often make up stories that are inaccurate to explain idioms, such as explaining that eating "a square meal" originated because people used to use square plates.

Does the fact that their origins are often lost suggest that idioms may have a negative impact on language? Do they make language more difficult to understand and unclear? Or do they enhance language and thought by comparing our experiences to abstract ideas? Does it even really matter that most people cannot track idioms to their original references if the people still know what the idiom means?

Susan Gass, a professor of linguistics at Michigan State University, claims that, "Somebody born in the '80s or '90s probably knows what it means but doesn't really understand the concept when it originated." She uses the example of a person sounding like a broken record, who says things over and over again like a record does when it becomes scratched. People who never listened to records probably do not understand the direct reference, but they do understand that people who sound like a broken record keep repeating themselves. In this sense, if the meaning of the idiom is understood, is it really that big of a deal if the origin is not understood? As long as the meaning is conveyed, is the origin even significant?

Translation of idioms could potentially cause confusion. For example, (in the idiom mentioned above) "taking someone in your arms" in German refers to "pulling their leg" in English. A monolingual English person and a monolingual German person would have very different ideas about what each of the phrases meant. They would be likely to take the other language's idiom literally in translation, and even if they were told the meaning might struggle to understand the idiom because they were unaware of the origin.

Idioms are an interesting element in language. What drives humans to use these metaphors and comparisons? How is it that idioms continue to carry meaning between generations and cultures (such as the "broken record" idiom) when what they describe is no longer remembered? I would love to hear your thoughts :)!


Links:
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-sundaylifeidioms.artnov25,0,2633476.story
http://www.able2know.org/forums/about3936.html
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/idioms.htm
http://deaf-tea-time.blogspot.com/2007/06/idioms-does-asl-have-idioms.html