Chinese Idioms

An idiom (, ?special property?, f. , ?special feature, special phrasing?, f. , ?one's own?) is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate to the literal or definition of the words of which it is made.The Oxford Companion to the English Language(1992) pp.495?96. There are estimated to be at least 25,000 idiomatic-like expressions in American English.Jackendoff, R. (1997). The architecture of the language faculty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality; yet the matter remains debated. John Saeed defines an ?idiom? as words collocated that became affixed to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilized term.Saeed, John I. (2003), Semantics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 60. This collocation ? words commonly used in a group ? redefines each component word in the word-group and become an idiomatic expression. The words develop a specialized meaning as an entity, as an idiom. Moreover, an idiom is an expression, word, or phrase whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply. When a speaker uses an idiom, the listener might mistake its actual meaning, if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before.Saeed, John I. (2003), Semantics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Idioms usually do not translate well; in some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, either its meaning is changed or it is meaningless.