[Lexicog] idioms

[Ronald Moe]

Scott N. wrote:

"Bye the way, don't think that a collection of ten or twelve thousand idioms
is nearly enough to call it comprehensive. It doesn't 
work that way."

 

Scott, are you saying that there are more than 12,000 idioms in English? Do
you have an estimate of how many there are, or does it not work that way? I
suspect that 'idioms' grade off into 'common collocates', but I'm not an
expert on this subject. I've written a few little things on the subject, but
feel like I'm in the dark. Can you enlighten us or direct us to some good
books/articles on the subject?

Ron Moe

 

 

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From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of bolstar1
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 9:19 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] On Me One More Time

 

Ken: You're welcome. I actually still us a DOS-based program called Q&A 
(eleqant and simple to program. I then convert selective records to 
windows format when I write for public usage. It came from many years 
of writing on note papers that I carried around in my shirt pocket; in 
addition, screening about twenty idiom dictionaries, cliche 
dictionaries, proverb collections, allusion collections, verbal phrase 
collections (particularly Richard Spears); plus screening regular 
dictionaries (page by page -- Random House, Oxford, Merriam, etc.) 
copying down phrases, both idiomatic and semi-idiomatic, longhand. I've 
often felt like a secretary on steroids. I've done Shakespeare, too -- 
but that's a little different from modern-day linguistic analysis. 
Googling, or doing anything by programming and collecting off of 
the internet net for these things is, up to now and today's state-of-
the-art, totally useless. I won't go into reasons here, but, I've 
tried, and it doesn't work for me, either. There are few shortcuts, 
other than pure plagiarism, to make comprehensive collections of 
phrases or idioms. 
Bye the way, don't think that a collection of ten or twelve 
thousand idioms is nearly enough to call it comprehensive. It doesn't 
work that way. Popular paperbacks may have 7,000 or 8,000, and leave 
out tons of them -- if for nothing else, because proverbs, aphorisms, 
dictums, maxims, allusions, etc. have humungous overlapping 
paparameters.
Good luck in your work....

Scott N. 

 

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