Idioms beyond their dictionary borders: how figurative meaning functions in texts

By November 17, 2016,
Page 715-719
Author Ekaterina Lukyanova
Title Idioms beyond their dictionary borders: how figurative meaning functions in texts
Abstract This paper discusses semantic approaches to idiomatic meaning and their implications for lexicographic practice, focusing on idioms, whose meaning is described as ‘figurative’ and is generally thought to be non-compositional. It is argued that figurative meaning is a function of so-called 'literal' meaning, and can only exist on the basis of compositional semantic structures. Idioms are approahced as expressions that employ culturally prominent source domain scenarios in a figurative way with the purpose of projecting a clear evaluation onto a complex target situation. This hypothesis is supported by an analysis of how two idioms - 'carry the ball' and 'carry the can' - function in a number of texts.
Session Collocations, phraseology and idioms
Keywords idioms, figurative meaning, literal meaning, text, experiential domains
BibTex 
@InProceedings{ELX12-063,
	   author = {Ekaterina Lukyanova},
	   title = {Idioms beyond their dictionary borders: how figurative meaning functions in texts},
	   pages = {715--719},
	   booktitle = {Proceedings of the 15th EURALEX International Congress},
	   year = {2012},
	   month = {aug},
	   date = {7-11},
	   address = {Oslo,Norway},
	   editor = {Ruth Vatvedt Fjeld and Julie Matilde Torjusen},
	   publisher = {Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo},
	   isbn = {978-82-303-2228-4},
	}
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