IDIOMSInterface between

Semantics & Pragmatics

Giovanna A. Rovai nº USP 6464489

Ingrid Puchenº USP 7193412

Roberto C. Francisco nº USP 6468198

Tatiana T. Sasaki nº USP 6464663

Yoon Ji Kim nº USP 6518190

Commentator:

Commentator:

TOSS

TOSS

COOKIES

?

?

Commentator:

Commentator:

Toss one’s cookies = to vomit

The spectrum of idiomacity

Semi-Transparent Idioms

Transparent Idioms

Semi-Opaque Idioms

Opaque Idioms

The spectrum of idiomacity

Transparent IdiomsE.g. to see the light = to understand

Semi-transparent IdiomsE.g. break the ice = relieve the tension

Semi-opaque IdiomsE.g. to pass the buck = to pass responsibility

Opaque IdiomsE.g. To burn one’s boat = to make retreat impossible. Spill the beans = reveal a secret

Classification of idioms

by Jennifer Seidl & W.McMordieInformal IdiomsFormal IdiomsVerbal IdiomsIdiomatic PairsIdioms Used in Special FieldsIdioms Related to Special ThemesIdioms with Comparisons

Classification of idioms are very varied according to each scholar

by Fernado Pure idiomsSemi-idiomsLiteral idioms

by HallidayIdeational idiomsInterpersonal idiomsRelational idioms

by Adam MakkaiIdioms of Encoding

(Identifiable)Idioms of Decoding

(Non-identifiable)

And other authors like McCarthy and O’Dell..

Classification of idioms

Why using idioms?

“People use idioms to make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. ”

(Gail Brenner, Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook.

Webster's New World, 2003)

Examples

A Piece of Cake: A task that can be accomplished very easily.

Apple of My Eye: Someone who is cherished above all others.

Bite Off More Than You Can Chew: To take on a task that is way too big.

Cup Of Joe: A cup of coffee.

Cut to the Chase: Leave out all the unnecessary details and just get to the point.

More examples:

Couch Potato

Look daggers at somebodyto look very angrily at someone:I suddenly noticed David looking daggers at me and thought I'd better shut up.

Defining Idioms

PROTOTYPICAL PROPERTIES

CONVENTIONALITY

INFLEXIBILITY

FIGURATION

PROVERBIALITY

INFORMALITY

AFFECT

(NUNBERG, SAG & WASOW, 1994, p. 492-3)

SemanticsMeaning

abstracted away from users

Non-situation-specific meaning

Sentence meaning

Referential

Pragmatics

• Meaning in relation to speakers and hearers

• Situation-specific meaning

• Speaker meaning

• Contextual

(SAEED, 2003, p. 17)

IDIOMS

Semantics’ Approaches

Referential

Put words into relationship with the world is meaning

Show how words can ‘hook onto’ the world

Give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how they relate to situations

Representational

• A language represents a theory, a model about reality, about the types of things and situations in the world

(SAEED, 2003, p. 24)

IDIOMS

Metaphors vs Idioms• Metaphor: “An expression that describes a

person or object by referring to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics.” Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary

Examples: Life is a journey / She is a flower.

• Problem: By adopting fixed structures in a specific culture, some metaphors produce idioms with properties “that have no corresponding counterparts in another language.”

Claudia Leah. Idioms: Grammaticality and Figurativeness. University of Oradea.

Example: clear as crystal > crystal-clear

Idioms, in general, are connected to Culture

ENGLISH:Kick the bucket To die

PORTUGUESE:

Chutar o balde Abandonar tudo/

desencanar

Kick the Bucket Bater as Botas

It’s Raining cats and dogs! Está chovendo

canivetes!

Linguistic Relativity

The way we think about the world is determined by our cultural and linguistic background:

Language mirrors cultural differences;

Different languages, reflecting their speakers’ cultural practices, might embody different conceptual classifications of the world;

“Language is a guide to ‘social reality’.”(Sapir, 1949b, p. 162 apud Saeed, 2003, p. 42)

(SAEED, 2003, p. 42-3)

Play one’s cards right

to do the correct things to achieve a desired result:

If I play my cards right, I could be hired as a consultant on that project.

Idioms are related with context (Pragmatics)

Pragmatics

“A pragmatic theory is a theory which has to explain how a language is used to enable any speaker to communicate with the other”

(Kempson,1975:136)

COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE (GRICE)

“ Participants will be expected to make their contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which they are engaged.” Grice

4 conversational maxims

1. Quantity – informativeness2. Quality – truthfulness3. Manner – Don’t be obscure, ambiguous...4. Relevance – Talk things that are relevant to the

conversation

Idioms cause a break in the cooperation act.

• When a hearer discovers a violation, he tries to reinterpret what was said.

Searle’s analysis

1st – The literal meaning is determined.

2nd – The meaning is checked against the context.

3rd – If there is a conflict between the literal meaning and the context, it is reinterpreted and a conveyed meaning is delivered.

Relationship between speaker and hearer

http://thebackrow105.wordpress.com/

Knowledge as ContextDiscourse context

Knowledge of the preceding discourseKnowledge of the immediate contextFormation of the discourse topic

Background knowledge as contextCommon-sense, encyclopaedic, sociocultural, real-world knowledge

One calculates others would have before a conversation due to belonging to a specific communityAlso labeled common ground

(SAEED, 2003, p. 191-3)

Brazilian Idioms

Even among native speakers,

idioms may be hard to understandbecause of

different cultural backgrounds,

age groups, etc.

Let’s play Guess the Idiom!

Uhm... nevermind!

Idioms and Compositionality

What problems do idioms present for Compositionality?

Idiomatically combining expressions ( e.g. take advantage,

pull strings) and Idiomatic phrases (e.g. kick the bucket)

Synonyms (Paraphrasing idioms)

Passivization

(G. Nunberg, I. Sag and T. Wasow, 1994, pp.491-538.)

References

NUNBERG,Geoffrey, SAG, Ivan A., WASOW, Thomas. Idioms. In Language, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), pp. 491-538. Linguistic Society of America. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/416483

SAEED, J. I. Semantics. 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

WESTERSTAHL, Dag. Idioms and compositionality. Available at: http://www.illc.uva.nl/j50/contribs/westerstahl/westerstahl.pdf

LEAH, Claudia. Idioms: Grammaticality and Figurativeness. University of Oradea. Available at: http://www.theroundtable.ro/Current/Language/Claudia_Leah_Idioms_Grammaticality_and_Figurativeness.pdf

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