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njamesd
Joined: 25 Sep 2006
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 Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:29 pm Post subject: grammar question - lexical phrases vs idioms |
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As I was searching the internet for some material for class, my mind began to go blank and drift to that useless place where nothing gets done. I was also reading articles way above my grammar level for some odd reason which may explain the drifting. I began to wonder (don't ask me why) what is the difference between an idiom and a lexical phrase? Is there a difference? This is not that important to me, just idle curiosity.
Cheers for any answers. |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:29 am Post subject: Re: grammar question - lexical phrases vs idioms |
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| njamesd wrote: |
As I was searching the internet for some material for class, my mind began to go blank and drift to that useless place where nothing gets done. I was also reading articles way above my grammar level for some odd reason which may explain the drifting. I began to wonder (don't ask me why) what is the difference between an idiom and a lexical phrase? Is there a difference? This is not that important to me, just idle curiosity.
Cheers for any answers. |
Not much difference but it would certainly depend on how you define those categories.
In general, lexical phrases...or collocations...are words commonly found together and have pragmatic function.
Idioms...while also being included under the new umbrella in corpus linguistics with lexical phrases...collocations...except that idioms are unique in that they tend to have obscure meaning to those other than first language learners...in other words...they make no sense...the parts of the verbal phrase(idiom) make a new meaning not resembling the original parts.
For what this is worth...and certainly not much....hope it helps. |
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