Publications

Publication details [#7246]

Lennon, Paul. 1998. Approaches to the teaching of idiomatic language. 20 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Some suggestions are offered for the teaching of idiomatic language. The relation between nonidiomatic and erroneous language in foreign-language learning is examined, and it is concluded that nonidiomatic sentences venture into the gray area of weak combinatorial probabilities between linguistic items. Idiomaticity is seen as a scale, with both conventionalized and original language having their place in discourse. The issue of appropriateness in context is crucial. Full-blown idioms represent firm collocations whose meaning is conventionalized and metaphorical. In proverbs, this meaning takes on an aphoristic quality. The underlying principle of metaphor provides a structural systematicity to the lexis, which extends far beyond full idioms into all but the most core uses of lexical items. It is suggested that exercises of a problem-solving nature will help learners to unearth these pervasive metaphors in idiomatic language; some exercises are presented. (LLBA 1999, vol. 33, n. 4)