[Lexicog] an English idiom

[John Roberts]

With Wayne's query: "Is "My soul is swallowed up in sorrow." an idiom in
(Modern) English?" aren't we struggling with what we understand an idiom to
be?

Most definitions of what an idiom is focus on the decompositional nature of
idioms. For example, these are some definitions I pulled off the net:

% an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the
words that make it up
% An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not compositional - that is,
whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of the individual words of
which it is composed.
% An expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of
its constituent elements, as kick the bucket, hang one's head, etc., or from
the general grammatical tules of a language, as the table round for the
round table, and which is not a constituent of a larger expression of like
characteristics.
% a sequence of words which functions semantically as a unit and with an
unpredictable meaning (eg kick the bucket, meaning die). This is generally
accompanied by a degree of syntactic restriction.
% an expression that does not mean what it literally says (eg, You're
driving me up a wall.)
% An idiom is a phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be understood from
the ordinary meanings of the words.
% a sequence of words which forms a whole unit of meaning
% an expression that does not mean what it literally says
% is a group of words that, taken as a whole, has a meaning different from
that of the sum of the individual words
--- and so on

Under any of these definitions "My soul is swallowed up in sorrow." is an
English idiom.

But some of the definitions pick out another understanding of what an idiom
is - and that is a common expression well known to the speakers of the
language. E.g.

% A common expression that has acquired a meaning that differs from its
literal meaning, such as "It's raining cats and dogs" or "That cost me an
arm and a leg."
% an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be
derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (eg, raining cats and
dogs)

On this basis "My soul is swallowed up in sorrow." is not an English idiom.

A while ago we had someone on this list asking if he could make up English
words. He was told he could but whether they would catch on and actually
'become' English words was another matter. Isn't it the same with this idiom
of Wayne's. Someone has made it up and it qualifies as an idiom in a
technical sense but it has never caught on because most English speakers
have never heard of it.

John Roberts










------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?
Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/HKE4lB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/