Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English A Corpus-Based Approach

by Moon, Rosamund

• ISBN13: 9780198236146
• ISBN10: 019823614X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-06-04
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This is a text-based study of fixed expressions, or idioms. Rosamund Moon's central argument is that fixed expressions can only be fully understood if they are considered together with the texts in which they occur. She provides an overview of this area of lexis in current English. Writingfrom a lexicologicalrather than a computationalpoint of view, she gives a detailed, descriptivist account of the findings of research into several thousand fixed expressions and idioms, as evidenced in the corpus text, including information about frequencies, syntax, lexical forms and variations,and metaphoricality. The author argues that examination of corpus text raises questions about many received ideas on fixed expressions and idioms, and suggests that new or revised use-centred models are required. Later chapters of the book demonstrate the ideological and discoursal significance ofidioms, paying particular attention to the ways in which they convey evaluations and have roles with respect to the information structure and cohesion of texts. Series information Series ISBN: 0-19-961811-9 Series Editors: Richard W. Bailey, Noel Osselton, and Gabriele Stein Oxford Studies in Lexicography and Lexicology provides a forum for the publication of substantial scholarly works on all issues of interest to lexicographers, lexicologists, and dictionary users. It is concerned with the theory and history of lexicography, lexicological theory, and related topicssuch as terminology, and computer applications in lexicography. It focuses attention too on the purposes for which dictionaries are compiled, on their uses, and on their reception and role in society today and in the past.

Table of Contents

Copyrights	xii	(1)
Conventions	xiii
1 Introduction and Background	1	(25)
1.1 Terminology	2	(4)
1.1.1 Fixed expressions and the scope of this book	2	(1)
1.1.2 Idiom	3	(2)
1.1.3 Other terms	5	(1)
1.2 Idiomaticity	6	(3)
1.2.1 Institutionalization	7	(1)
1.2.2 Lexicogrammatical fixedness	7	(1)
1.2.3 Non-compositionality	8	(1)
1.2.4 Other points	8	(1)
1.3 Phraseological models	9	(10)
1.3.1 Broader and semantic approaches	10	(2)
1.3.2 Lexicalist approaches	12	(2)
1.3.3 Syntactic approaches	14	(3)
1.3.4 Functional approaches	17	(1)
1.3.5 Lexicographical approaches	17	(2)
1.4 A typology of FEIs	19	(7)
1.4.1 Anomalous collocations	20	(1)
1.4.2 Formulae	21	(1)
1.4.3 Metaphors	22	(1)
1.4.4 Dual classifications	23	(3)
2 Collocation and Chunking	26	(18)
2.1 Collocation	26	(4)
2.1.1 Sinclair's `idiom principle'	28	(1)
2.1.2 The idiom principle, FEIs, and discourse	29	(1)
2.2 Psycholinguistic aspects of chunking	30	(6)
2.2.1 Processing of FEIs	31	(5)
2.3 Lexicalization	36	(4)
2.4 Diachronic considerations	40	(4)
3 Corpus and Computer	44	(13)
3.1 Databases of FEIs	44	(2)
3.1.1 The set of FEIs	44	(1)
3.1.2 The structure of the database	45	(1)
3.2 Corpus and tools	46	(5)
3.2.1 The corpus	48	(1)
3.2.2 Searching the corpus	49	(2)
3.3 Computational issues	51	(6)
4 Frequencies and FEIs	57	(18)
4.1 Frequency and significance	57	(2)
4.2 The recording of frequency	59	(1)
4.3 Overall frequencies	60	(1)
4.4 Frequency and general typology	61	(1)
4.5 Distribution of anomalous collocations	62	(1)
4.6 Distribution of formulae	62	(1)
4.7 Distribution of metaphors	63	(1)
4.8 Corpus comparisons	64	(4)
4.9 Corpora and genre	68	(7)
5 Lexical and Grammatical Form	75	(45)
5.1 Lexis and anomaly	75	(8)
5.1.1 Word rankings	75	(3)
5.1.2 Median lengths of FEIs	78	(1)
5.1.3 Cranberry collocations	78	(2)
5.1.4 Ill-formed FEIs	80	(3)
5.2 Frequencies of grammatical types	83	(2)
5.3 Grammatical types and structures	85	(9)
5.3.1 Predicate FEIs	85	(2)
5.3.2 Nominal groups	87	(2)
5.3.3 Predicative adjectival groups	89	(1)
5.3.4 Modifiers	89	(1)
5.3.5 Adjuncts	89	(2)
5.3.6 Sentence adverbials	91	(1)
5.3.7 Conventions, exclamations, and subordinate clauses	92	(2)
5.3.8 Other classes	94	(1)
5.4 Inflectability	94	(4)
5.4.1 A note on tense and mood	97	(1)
5.5 Regular slots in FEIs	98	(6)
5.5.1 Subject slots	99	(1)
5.5.2 Non-subject slots	100	(1)
5.5.3 Possessives	101	(2)
5.5.4 Open slots	103	(1)
5.6 Transformations	104	(12)
5.6.1 Polarity	106	(1)
5.6.2 Passivization	107	(3)
5.6.3 Nonfinite uses	110	(1)
5.6.4 Embedding	110	(1)
5.6.5 Pronominalization	111	(1)
5.6.6 Nominalization	112	(2)
5.6.7 Transformation to adjectives	114	(1)
5.6.8 Transformation to predicates	115	(1)
5.7 Colligations, collocations, and other structures	116	(4)
6 Variation	120	(58)
6.1 Types of lexical variation	124	(15)
6.1.1 Verb variation	124	(2)
6.1.2 Noun variation	126	(1)
6.1.3 Adjective and modifier variation	127	(1)
6.1.4 Particle variation	128	(1)
6.1.5 Conjunction variation	129	(1)
6.1.6 Specificity and amplification	130	(1)
6.1.7 Truncation	131	(1)
6.1.8 Reversals	132	(1)
6.1.9 Register variation	132	(1)
6.1.10 Variations between British and American English	133	(2)
6.1.11 Spelling, homophonous, and erroneous variations	135	(2)
6.1.12 Calques and non-naturalized FEIs	137	(1)
6.1.13 False variations	138	(1)
6.2 Systematic variations	139	(6)
6.2.1 Notions of possession	139	(1)
6.2.2 Causative and resultative structures	140	(3)
6.2.3 Aspect	143	(1)
6.2.4 Reciprocity	143	(1)
6.2.5 Other case relationships	144	(1)
6.2.6 Delexical structures	145	(1)
6.3 Frames and variation	145	(11)
6.3.1 Similes	150	(2)
6.3.2 Binomial expressions	152	(4)
6.4 Antonymous and parallel FEIs	156	(2)
6.5 Free realizations	158	(3)
6.6 Idiom schemas	161	(9)
6.7 Exploitations	170	(4)
6.8 Interruption and insertion	174	(4)
7 Ambiguity, Polysemy, and Metaphor	178	(37)
7.1 Ambiguity and homonymy	178	(7)
7.1.1 Ambiguity and evidence	180	(4)
7.1.2 The ambiguity of body language FEIs	184	(1)
7.2 Ambiguity and the interpretation of the unfamiliar	185	(2)
7.3 Polysemy	187	(6)
7.3.1 Polysemy, meanings, and variations	189	(3)
7.3.2 Polysemy and frequency	192	(1)
7.3.3 Polysemy and ambiguity	192	(1)
7.4 Metaphoricality, metonymy, and non-literal meaning	193	(9)
7.4.1 Metonymy	194	(1)
7.4.2 Personification	195	(1)
7.4.3 Animal metaphors	196	(1)
7.4.4 Hyperbole, absurdity, and truism	197	(3)
7.4.5 Irony	200	(1)
7.4.6 Incorporated metaphors	201	(1)
7.5 Conceptual metaphors	202	(5)
7.6 Meanings and mismatching	207	(8)
7.6.1 Predicate FEIs	208	(3)
7.6.2 Nominal groups	211	(1)
7.6.3 Adjectival groups	211	(2)
7.6.4 Adjuncts	213	(2)
8 Discoursal Functions of FEIs	215	(29)
8.1 A classification of text functions	217	(2)
8.2 Distribution and text functions	219	(2)
8.3 Informational FEIs	221	(2)
8.4 Evaluative FEIs	223	(2)
8.5 Situational FEIs	225	(1)
8.6 Modalizing FEIs	226	(7)
8.6.1 Epistemic modalizers	228	(4)
8.6.2 Deontic modalizers	232	(1)
8.6.3 Other kinds of modalizer	232	(1)
8.7 Organizational FEIs	233	(6)
8.7.1 FEIs that organize propositional content	234	(2)
8.7.2 FEIs that organize the discourse	236	(3)
8.8 Multiple functioning	239	(2)
8.9 Cross-functioning	241	(3)
9 Evaluation and Interactional Perspectives	244	(34)
9.1 Evaluation and attitude	244	(16)
9.1.1 Evaluation and modality	250	(2)
9.1.2 Negotiation of evaluation	252	(2)
9.1.3 Subversion of evaluation	254	(3)
9.1.4 Ideology and shared evaluations	257	(3)
9.2 Politeness	260	(10)
9.2.1 Face, person, and FEIs	260	(4)
9.2.2 Periphrasis	264	(3)
9.2.3 Solidarity	267	(3)
9.2.4 Maxims of idiom use	270	(1)
9.3 FEIs and speech acts	270	(4)
9.4 Stylistics and interaction: interest and banality	274	(4)
10 Cohesion and FEIs	278	(31)
10.1 Grammatical cohesion	279	(4)
10.1.1 Cohesion through conjunction	279	(2)
10.1.2 Cohesion through reference	281	(2)
10.2 Lexical cohesion	283	(10)
10.2.1 Lack of cohesiveness and incongruity	283	(3)
10.2.2 Extended metaphors	286	(2)
10.2.3 Humour and puns	288	(2)
10.2.4 Headings and headlines	290	(3)
10.3 Semantic cohesion	293	(7)
10.3.1 Relexicalization and substitution	294	(3)
10.3.2 Prefaces	297	(1)
10.3.3 Summaries and evaluations	298	(2)
10.4 Spoken interaction	300	(5)
10.5 Signalling of FEIs	305	(4)
11 Afterword	309	(3)
References	312	(21)
Index	333