The categories of Idioms

1.3 The categories of Idioms

Idioms have been classified into several groups. Many idioms are derived from the names of body parts and bodily functions:

·  cover one's back – do something to protect yourself from criticism or future blame;

·  blood, sweat, and tears – great personal effort;

·  in cold blood- without feeling;

·  feel (something) in one's bones – sense something, have an intuition about something.

Other big group is idioms derived from animals names:

·  as weak as a kitten – weak, sickly;

·  hit the bulls-eye – to reach the main point of something;

·  dog-eat-dog – ready or willing to fight and hurt others to get what one wants;

·  monkey see, monkey do – someone copies something that someone else does.

The third big group is idioms derived from food and preparing it:

·  full of beans- to feel energetic, to be in high spirits;

·  grist for the mill- something that can be used to bring advantage or profit;

·  take the cake- to be the best or worst of something;

·  cook (someone's) goose- to damage or ruin someone.

Those are three the most common groups of idioms in English language. All these idioms are based on daily life events. They have risen from daily routine, from following the animal’s behavior as well as the human’s body reaction to different situations. They are often used in every day’s speech and they are quite intelligible.

Other idioms are quite rare in English language. For example, politics idioms:

·  body politics – A group of people organized under a single government or authority (national or regional);

·  fifth columnist – a member of a subversive organization who tries to help an enemy invade;

·  on the stump – politicians are campaigning for support and votes.

One rarer group is idioms based on crimes and police as well:

·  behind bars – to be in prison;

·  new sheriff in town – a new authority figure takes charge;

·  after the fact- after something (a crime etc.) has occurred.

These expressions are quite difficult to understand. For example, idiom new sheriff in town could be understood as a fact that a town has really got a new sheriff.

The category with common names in idioms is not the smallest one but it is not the most common one. We could say with some exceptions.

For example, idioms are widely known and understandable as well as common used in English language. This category we will analyze in our work.

·  Achilles heel – a person's weak spot;

·  Adam’s apple – a bulge in the throat, mostly seen in men.

2. Common names

Common name – a noun that is not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier, as any or some, and that is arbitrary used to denote a particular person, place, thing without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have, as Lincoln, Beth Pittsburgh. (http://dictionary.reference.com). Common names are also called proper names.

According to Valeika (2003:44), “a proper noun is the name of a particular member of a class or of a set of particular members”. Also Valeika (2003) introduces to the idea that the function of a proper noun or name is the same as definite article, because both are particularizes: Smith means the man Smith/the Smith man. Thus, the presented idea reveals the difference between the definite article and proper noun, because the addition of the proper name cause to become the common name semantically unnecessary and it is dropped in the surface structure.

Another difference added by Valeika (2003) concerns the way the two modes of naming explain the problem of the uniqueness of reference: proper names are not always proper, because they may refer to more individual. As the consequence, this shows that proper names may function as common names.

Next, when proper names have no unique reference they behave like common names.

The common meaning of the word or words constituting a proper noun may be unrelated to the object to which the proper noun refers. For example, someone might be named "Tiger Smith" despite being neither a tiger nor a smith. For this reason, proper nouns are usually not translated between languages, although they may be transliterated.

For example, the German surname Knцdel becomes Knodel or Knoedel in English (not the literal Dumpling). However, the transcription of place names and the names of monarchs, popes, and non-contemporary authors is common and sometimes universal. For example, the Portuguese word Lisboa becomes Lisbon in English; the English London becomes Londres in French; and the Greek ἉсйуфпфелЮт (Aristotelēs) becomes Aristotle in English (http://en.wikipedia.org).

2.1 Characteristic of Proper nouns

A proper noun is first of all a kind of noun. Like other nouns, a proper noun may label a person, place, or thing, and may label a concrete object or an abstraction. Most proper nouns refer to a specific person – Julius Caesar, a specific place – Istanbul, a specific institution or organization – the Red Cross, or a specific event – the Renaissance. (http://en.wiktionary.org). In English, there are a few typical characteristics which permit proper nouns to be recognized. A proper noun typically:

1.  ...has its initial letter capitalized.

2.  ...is not used in the plural.

3.  ...is not preceded by adjectives, articles, numerals, demonstratives, or other modifiers.

A philosophical consideration of proper nouns finds three properties:

·  Uniqueness of referent. According to J. S. Mill (1843), proper nouns identify a specific thing, one that is unique. The differentiation, therefore, between general names, and individual or singular names, is primal; and may be considered as the first grand division of names. A general name is closely prйcised, a name which is able of bring truly affirmed, in the same sense, of each of an indefinite number of things. An individual or singular name is a name which is only able of being truly affirmed, in the same sense, of one thing.

·  Specificity of label. J. Locke (1869) noted that this property originates from the way in which proper nouns are used to separate one particular item from all other similar ones. Likewise persons, countries, cities, rivers, mountains, and other distinctions of place have usually found peculiar names, and that for the same reason ; they being such as men have often an occasion to mark particularly, and, as it were, set before others in their discourses with them.

·  Does not impart connotation or attributes. According to J. S. Mill (1843), proper nouns do not carry meaning other than as a label for a specific object and they are not translated. Thus, man is capable of being truly affirmed of John, Peter, George, and other persons without assignable limits: and it is affirmed of all of them in the same sense; for the word man expresses certain qualities, and when we predicate it of those persons, we categorically state that they all own those qualities. But John is only capable of being truly affirmed of one single person, at least in the same sense. For although there are many persons who bear that name, it is not conferred upon them to indicate any qualities, or anything which belongs to them in common; and cannot be said to be affirmed of them in any sense at all, consequently not in the same sense.

Proper names could be divided into several groups:

1.  Place names;

2.  Personal names;

3.  Diacritics.

In our work we will research place and personal names in the idioms.

2.2 Place names

Geographical or place names are the nouns we use to refer to specific places and geographic features. They are also called toponyms.

Toponyms can be both place names, real or imaginary, as well as names derived from places or regions. They can be found in many different arenas of industry, enterprise, culture, and current events. It is not unusual to find toponyms used for places that withdraw other places, as well as wars, treaties and agreements, bands, food, and fabric, among other items (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-toponym.htm). For example, there are many places beginning with the word new that are toponyms named to recall or honor other places. In North America – New Hampshire named after Hampshire, England; New Jersey named for the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel; New Mexico, recalling the country to south; New York, after York, England; and the Canadian province Nova Scotia, which means “New Scotland.” Toponyms can be found in almost every sphere of our life.

Some modern-day bands have toponyms for their name. Chicago (the American rock band formed) takes its name from the city of Chicago. The Manhattan Transfer (an American vocal group) has a name that is a toponym once-removed: it is named after novel Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos, after Manhattan Transfer train station in Harrison, New Jersey. The rock group Styx, originally called The Tradewinds, drew their toponymic second name from the river in Greek mythology. The Shangri-Las, named after the Himalayan utopia in James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon, was an all-girl American pop trio.

A number of fabrics have toponyms that notice their place of origin. The shirt fabric called Oxford takes its name from Oxford, England. The two thick cotton materials used for pants, denim and jean, are both place names: the first derives from the fact that it came from Nоmes, France – “de Nоmes”, Jeans comes from the French pronunciation – Gкnes – of its city of origin, Genoa.

There are toponyms of food as well. Hamburgers, named for Hamburg, Germany, and frankfurters or hotdogs, named for Frankfurt, Germany. Also, two nicknames for coffee, Java and Mocha, referencing cities in Indonesia and Yemen. Tangerines are a popular fruit named for Tangiers, Morocco, but the Barbados cherry, Natal plum, and Java plum might be less familiar. Using the name "Champagne," a name for sparkling wine, is illegal in a number of parts of the world unless the product originates in the Champagne region of France.

In addition to that, the well-known names are derived from toponyms:

·  Event and agreements. For example, Jackon State (Mississippi) – the Jackon Statelkilling in 1970; Maastricht (The Netherlands) – the Maastrict treaty of 1992; Potsdam (Germany) – the Potsdam Conference in 1945. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

·  Cheese: Edam after town of Edam in the Netherlands; Parmesan, from Parma Italy; Roquefort after a village in southern France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

·  Wine: Bordeaux, Chablis, Madeira wine, a fortified wine and Plum in madeira, a dessert – Madeira islands of Portugal. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

·  Corporations: Nokia, Vaasa, Raisio – some corporations whose name is simply the same as their original location. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

·  Derivations from literary or mythical places: Eden, any paradisiacal area, named after the religious Garden of Eden; El Dorado, any area of great wealth, after the mythical city of gold; utopia, term for organized society – Utopia, fictional republic from the book of the same name. (http://en.wikipedia.org/).