Idioms with the Vehicle Component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish Languages
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LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY JOLANTA LIUBKEVIČ-BEDULSKAJA IDIOMS WITH THE VEHICLE COMPONENT IN THE ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN AND POLISH LANGUAGES MA THESIS Academic advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daiva Verikaitė-Gaigalienė Vilnius, 2016 LIETUVOS EDUKOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS FILOLOGIJOS FAKULTETAS ANGLŲ FILOLOGIJOS KATEDRA IDIOMOS SU TRANSPORTO KOMPONENTU ANGLŲ, LIETUVIŲ IR LENKŲ KALBOSE Magistro darbas Magistro darbo autorė Jolanta Liubkevič-Bedulskaja Patvirtinu, kad darbas atliktas savarankiškai, naudojant tik darbe nurodytus šaltinius _______________________________ (Parašas, data) Vadovas doc. dr. Daiva Verikaitė-Gaigalienė ______________________________ (Parašas, data) 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TOWARDS IDIOMS ................................................................................. 9 1.1 Traditional approaches .................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 Approaches in applied linguistics ............................................................................................... 11 2. IDIOMS AND CULTURE .................................................................................................................. 14 3. ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF IDIOMS ...................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Borrowed idioms ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Idioms from folklore ................................................................................................................... 18 4. CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL INISGHTS ............................................................................................. 20 4.1 History of the Modern United Kingdom ..................................................................................... 20 4.2 History of the Modern Lithuania ................................................................................................. 22 4.3 History of the Modern Poland ..................................................................................................... 23 5. IDIOMS WITH THE VEHICLE COMPONENT IN ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN AND POLISH ......................... 25 5.1. Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 25 5.2 The vehicle component ............................................................................................................. 26 5.2 Semantic areas of the idioms .................................................................................................... 33 5.3 Analysis of the equivalent idioms ............................................................................................ 41 5.4 Cultural insights of the language specific idioms .................................................................... 48 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 55 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................. 57 Idiomos su transporto komponentu anglų, lietuvių ir lenkų kalbose ................................................... 57 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 59 SOURCES ................................................................................................................................................ 63 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................................... 64 3 ABSTRACT The current research aims at investigating comparatively semantic and etymologic peculiarities of vehicle idioms in the three languages: English, Lithuanian and Polish. It deals with 159 idioms collected manually from the dictionaries. The English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms containing vehicle component are analyzed in terms of origin and semantic characteristics applying quantitative method in order to retrieve the quantitative data to serve as the basis for comparative analysis of the equivalent idioms, components and semantic areas of the idioms containing vehicle component in the three languages. The research as well deals with the comparative analysis of the origin and semantic characteristics of idioms containing vehicle component in the analyzed languages and discusses the reasons behind the semantic transformations of idioms containing vehicle component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. 4 INTRODUCTION The term idiom dates back to Ancient Greece and depending on the linguistic school is substituted by other terms, such as phraseologism, phraseological unit, or idiomatic expression. The field of idiomaticity is broad and is researched in the main fields of linguistic studies, such as semantics, syntax, morphology and lexicology. Despite that, there is no universal definition of idiomaticity. Linguists attempt to define the term idiom so that it would agree with their research field, therefore different fields of linguistics and applied linguistics would ascribe different characteristics of the idiom as the most important. The most common characteristics of the idiom include fixedness, compositionality, motivation, institutionalization and figurativeness. The complexity of the idioms enables linguists to use different methods and approaches in order to investigate them. The use of the variety of methods and approaches provides a full picture of the phenomenon. The development of applied linguistics in the last decades broadened the understanding of the idiomaticity and contributed to the existing knowledge about idioms. Comparison and contrast of the idioms became a valuable source of sociolinguistic knowledge, as “phraseology is a domain of linguistic study which to high degree illustrates the correlation between language and culture” (Teliya et al., 1998, 55). The rapport between culture and language is highlighted in the meanings of the idioms, their components, and the areas of their use. The sociolinguistic approach considers an idiom as influential factor of the culture. As suggested by Casas (1995), there are two levels of the society reflection in the idioms – micro level, where an idiom reflects the individual and macro level, where an idiom reflects the society as a whole. The current research deals with the phenomenon of an idiom as the mirror of society and individuals. Origin of the idiom is one of the ways of reflecting the society. Idioms come to language not only from the culture and folklore of the country where the language is spoken, but also from international sources. Therefore, the research concerning more than one language presents the similarities and differences between the languages and cultures and provides the network of the points of contact of the different societies. The points of contact might originate from religion, literature or history. Bible is one of the worldwide sources for figurative expressions, e.g. to wash your hands in the English language, nusiplauti rankas in the Lithuanian language and umywać ręce in the Polish language. Greek mythology has also influenced many languages in terms of idioms. Greek idioms have been translated to 5 numerous languages and such expressions as Achilles’ heel can be found not only in English (Achilo kulnas in Lithuanian, Pięta Achilesa in Polish, etc.). Not only Greek, but also other internationally appreciated literature has imprinted in different languages. Such idioms as to fight the windmills and waiting for Godot came from different works of fiction. Another source of idioms is history. Historical events may have united or separated countries throughout ages, but they have made the ground for internationally recognized and worldwide used idioms, such as to cross the Rubicon. Some of the idioms coming from Latin are used in their original form, e.g. persona non grata (Antrushina et al. 1985). This research takes an insight into how the idioms came into the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. The countries chosen for the analysis are the United Kingdom, as it is the motherland of Standard English, Lithuania and Poland as these are the countries where the Lithuanian and Polish languages are official languages. The investigation deals with both international idioms and idioms that come from folklore. International idioms reveal the points of contact of the three cultures. The idioms that come from folklore indicate the uniqueness of the culture, therefore the analysis of the folklore idioms is necessary in order to provide the distinctive cultural features of the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland. Folklore idioms as well reveal language patterns, e.g. different sentence structures, use of slang, etc. Idioms might also account for the development of the language which is the basis for any linguistic study of this kind. The cultural aspect of the