Idioms & Phrases – Advanced Study Notes
(MIT‑Level, from first principles to cutting‑edge theory)
Goal – Build a rigorous, interdisciplinary framework for understanding, analysing, and teaching idiomatic language.
Audience – Graduate students in linguistics, computational linguistics, or applied linguistics.
1. Foundations – What is an Idiom?
| Aspect | Definition | Example | Edge Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idiomaticity | A lexical or syntactic construction whose meaning is not derivable from its parts. | Kick the bucket → “die” | Kick the bucket is also used literally (e.g., in a church service). |
| Phrase | A group of words that functions as a single syntactic unit. | in spite of | Phrases can be idiomatic or literal. |
| Multi‑word Expression (MWE) | A term for any non‑compositional sequence of words (idioms, collocations, phrasal verbs, etc.). | make a decision (collocation) | Distinguishing MWEs that are idiomatic vs. those that are just high‑frequency. |
Key point: Idioms are a subset of MWEs that exhibit strong non‑compositionality and fixedness.
2. Linguistic Taxonomy
| Category | Typical Features | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idioms | Fixed forms, non‑compositional meaning, often metaphorical | spill the beans | Rarely allow internal modification. |
| Phrasal Verbs | Verb + particle, partially compositional | turn down (refuse) | Some allow object movement or substitution. |
| Collocations | Frequent co‑occurrence, compositional | make a decision | Not idiomatic, but a strong lexical association. |
| Fixed Phrases | Fixed sequence, usually idiomatic | by and large | Often used as discourse markers. |
Edge Cases
- Literal‑idioms – idioms that have become literalized (e.g., turn over a new leaf).
- Semi‑fixed idioms – allow optional substitutions (*eat * up the world → eat up the world vs. eat up the world).
- Phrasal‑verb idioms – where the particle is essential to idiomatic meaning (give up vs. give).
3. First Principles – Language as a System of Compositionality
3.1. Compositionality Principle
- Principle: The meaning of a sentence is a function of the meanings of its constituents and the way they are syntactically combined.
- Formalization:
[ \text{Meaning}(S) = f(\text{Meaning}(w_1), \dots, \text{Meaning}(w_n)) ] - Violation: Idioms break this rule; the function (f) cannot be recovered from the parts.
3.2. Non‑compositionality as a Lexical Phenomenon
- Idioms are stored as single lexical items in the mental lexicon.
- Lexical entry:
{ID: "kick_the_bucket", type: idiom, meaning: die, syntax: VP} - The lexical representation bypasses the standard compositional machinery.
3.3. Cognitive Load & Processing
- Processing advantage: Idioms are retrieved as wholes (chunking), reducing working‑memory load.
- Experimental evidence: Faster reaction times in lexical‑decision tasks for idioms compared to compositional paraphrases.
4. Theoretical Frameworks
4.1. Generative Syntax
- Lexical‑based approach: Idioms are lexically specified.
- Syntactic derivation:
- kicking the bucket is generated as a VP via the idiom entry.
- No internal syntactic movement needed.
4.2. Cognitive Semantics
- Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson)
- Idioms often encode metaphorical mapping (e.g., kick the bucket → end of life).
- Prototype Theory
- Idioms represent prototypical uses of a figurative concept.
4.3. Frame Semantics (Fillmore)
- Idioms evoke semantic frames (e.g., DEATH, FINISH).
- Example: spill the beans → REVEAL, CONFIDENTIALITY frame.
4.4. Formal Semantics
- Use lambda calculus to encode idiomatic meaning:
[ \llbracket \text{kick_the_bucket} \rrbracket = \lambda x.; \text{Die}(x) ] - Non‑compositionality expressed by a semantic macro that bypass