第六章 成语谚语&明喻.doc

idioms What is an idiom? An idiom is an element ofa language that possesses a unique way of expression based on its time-honored use. That is to say, an idiom isa fixed group of words ora single word, or even a sentence, with a special meaning that cannot be guessed from its structure. The meaning of an idiom must be learned asa whole. The 9 features of English idioms: 1 English idioms can be very short or rather long An Indian summer; 风和日丽的日子 forty winks; 午睡 You never know the worth of water till the well is dry. 井干方知水宝贵 You may take a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. 领马河边易,逼马饮水难。 2 English idioms take different structures. 1) an irregular and illogical structure In the sentence “I’m good friends with him ”,“ Good friends with ” is irregular in structure. be good friends with 与…交友,和…友好 In the idiom “ diamond cut diamond ”,“ cut ” is ir regular and illogical form 棋逢对手 2) regular structure but meaning is not clear To have a bee in one ’s ( 软帽), for instance, has a regular structure, but the meaning is not clear. It means “ to have a strange fixed idea about something ”. 异想天开,有点神经不正常 To give someone the green light 批准;允许 3) both structure and meaning are irregular “ To do through thick and thin ” is an example. It means “ through both good and bad times ” or“ in spite of all the difficulties. ”在任何情况下; 不畏艰难困苦 go great guns 高效地干 3 the idioms which cannot be changed at all are called fixed idioms. Such as: “A stitch in time saves nine ” isa fixed idiom, because no one word can be changed in it. It is not possible to say “ one stitch saves nine, ” or“A stitch in time saves eight. ”小洞不补大洞吃苦 To paint the town red 狂欢作乐 To fight shy of something 避免与…正面接触 wear the trousers 掌权当家 At the top of the tree 处于首要地位,占显著地位( 特指在本人的行业中) The idioms are not fixed in all parts are considered partly fixed idioms. Such as, “ to take forty winks ”,we can say “ to have forty winks ”, or to enjoy forty winks, but we cannot say “ fifty ” or“ eighty winks. e toa bad/ nasty/ stick