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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Petr Mařák Comparison of British and American Idioms with Equivalent Meaning B.A Major Thesis Supervisor: PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová 2006 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. . Petr Mařák 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová, for her kind help and valuable advice. 3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION . 5 1 IDIOMS . 6 1.1 Definition of an Idiom 6 1.2 Description of Selected sample 7 2 SELECTED IDIOMS – BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH . 8 2.1 Relationship between British and American English 8 2.2 Differences between British and American English 9 2.21 Differences at the Level of Spelling 10 2.22 Differences at the Level of Vocabulary 13 2.23 Differences at the Level of Grammar 18 2.24 Other Differences 20 3 SELECTED

IDIOMS – CORPUS . 21 3.1 Reasons for Using a Corpus 21 3.2 Corpora In General vs Selected Corpus 21 3.3 Corpus Search 24 3.31 Procedure 24 3.32 Findings 24 3.33 Comments and charts 29 3.34 Tables of Most Frequent Idioms 32 CONCLUSION . 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 38 4 INTRODUCTION The main aim of this thesis is to examine pairs of British and American idioms which have equivalent meaning but differ slightly in form. It is often the case that the information available in a dictionary becomes obsolete and given the great influence of American English on British English, it appears fairly understandable to presume that the labels British and American English at entries for idioms in a dictionary do not correspond with the situation in a corpus and that idioms labelled American English may appear in a purely British corpus with the same or even higher frequency than those labelled British English. The text of the thesis is divided into three main chapters. Chapter 1 called Idioms

should serve as a brief introduction combining the general information about idioms by means of definition with specific information on the selected sample of idioms under examination. Salient facts about the primary source are imparted and selection criteria established. Chapter 2 is then already focused on the selected sample of idioms and the perspective British versus American English is adopted. First the vague terms British and American English are explained succintly with a particular emphasis on the relationship between them. Then the focus shifts towards differences traditionally seen between British and American English and on the basis of three plus one additional levels of differences the selected sample of idioms is divided into distinct parts. Chapter 3 uses the results of Chapter 2 and moves them from an isolated environment into corpus. The reasons for the use of corpus are stated and the selected corpus is described and contrasted with corpora in general. The procedure

is introduced and findings displayed in a table which is accompanied by comments and charts to see to what degree the hypothesis was proved. The final part of Chapter 3 is then dedicated to tables of most common pairs of idioms. 5 1 IDIOMS Spoilt for choice – that is a web page of a British catering company of the same name. Regardless of the level of the service they provide, it would be no mistake to maintain that their name may be easily recalled. This is due to the inescapable fact that idioms are very often used as a very powerful weapon by various companies to attract the potential customer for their product. Idioms are a natural part of each language, it is possible to “see them all around us” (WARREN 1994: A3) and even though “many students view them with the trepidation of a man approaching a well-planted minefield” (COWIE 1990: x), they deserve full attention. In this rather short chapter, a concise definition of an idiom will be provided and then the sample of

idioms which were selected for this thesis will be introduced. 1.1 DEFINITION OF AN IDIOM As the word idiom appears in the actual title of this thesis, it is absolutely essential to define its meaning. Various definitions are given in various materials, ranging from grammar books and manuals on stylistics to dictionaries of idioms. Several examples of all these were studied intensively and if one definition should be chosen for all, then it is convenient to state that “two central features identify an idiom. The meaning of the idiomatic expression cannot be deduced by examining the meanings of the constituent lexemes. And the expression is fixed, both grammatically [] and lexically” (CRYSTAL 1995: 163). Although at least one of the features or, at best, both of them will be mentioned in any material touching upon idioms, it is necessary to say that these features should not be taken for granted. It does not hold true that “speakers are not normally creative in their daily uses

of language and that certain fixed linguistic structures, idioms in particular, cannot be unfixed” (CARTER 1997: 162). Also, “degree of compositionality varies greatly among idioms” (GLUCKSBERG 2001: 69). 6 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED SAMPLE OF IDIOMS It seems virtually unthinkable that the amalgam of expressions which fall under the umbrella term idioms could be treated in much detail as a whole. On the contrary, it proves enormously useful to focus on a rather small group selected in accordance with certain stringent rules. The cardinal rule imposed in this thesis is that a single monolingual dictionary is used as an authoritative primary source. This contributes to the fact that the idioms under study form a coherent, precisely delimited whole. After due consideration, the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms was selected for one principal reason. It has an overwhelming advantage over other dictionaries of idioms in that, as the title suggests, it attempts to

present the material in an international way. This heavily implies that the labels indicating regional variation are not restricted to British or American English only. With Australian English also included, there is a high probability that the three ‘Englishes’ will be dealt with quite equally. From around 7,000 idioms contained in the dictionary, a more manageable number was chosen under the following conditions:  The idioms must come in pairs at a single dictionary entry, being thus equivalent in meaning but different in form.  One component of the pair must be labelled British or British & Australian and the other must be labelled American or American & Australian to adequately represent the opposite poles of British and American English.  The pairs of idioms labelled old-fashioned must not be included. In this way, the total of 142 pairs of idioms, such as be minting it vs. be minting money, to cut a long story short vs. to make a long story short, etc, were

extracted Those were then subjected to intense scrutiny. 7 2 SELECTED IDIOMS – BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH 2.1 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH Before examining the essential differences existing between British and American English and exploring the way in which they are directly or indirectly reflected in the pairs of idioms in question, it appears perfectly reasonable to ask what the terms British and American English signify. One crucial dimension which presents itself is the geographical distribution. In this case, however, according to Arnold (1986: 240), “American English cannot be called a dialect”, for unlike the various dialects of English, “it has a literary normalized form called Standard American” (ARNOLD 1986: 240). Therefore, a more appropriate term should be used and that is “variant or variety” (ARNOLD 1986: 240). As long as a diachronic perspective is adopted, then it is crystal clear that American English came into existence much

later than British English. In fact, it was the actual British English that was transplanted to the New World and that later underwent a gradual transformation process under the immensely profound influence of the new environment. The prior existence of British English seems to have had a tremendous impact on the way the British and American English were viewed. British English served as a touchstone and even nowadays remains fairly dominant, particularly in the ESL classes throughout the world, considering the disproportionate number of course books and materials from the United Kingdom. Yet another fact can be mentioned to specify the nature of the relationship between British and American English and that is the term Americanism, coined by John Witherspoon. According to The Oxford Companion to the English Language, it “refers primarily to English words and phrases that acquired a new sense (bluff, corn, lumber) or entered the language (OK, racoon, squash) in what is now the US,

but also to features of pronunciation, grammar, and sentence structure” (McARTHUR 1992: 47). If checking the frequency of the word Americanism on the Internet using a Google search, the total number of results shown on the statistics bar is approximately 6,840,000, while for the word Briticism, the search engine retrieves somewhere around 27,800 results. 8 Whatever may be stated to hold true for British and American English and the influence those two variants have upon each other, one fact cannot be disputed. The approach, which is habitually used, is fairly orthodox in that it views English as consisting of two standards, which are formally separated by an unbridgeable gulf. In reality, the gulf between the eastern and western shores of the Atlantic Ocean is not so yawning in terms of language. Quirk (1985: 20) in his A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language speaks about the paramount influence of mass communication and goes on to stress that “the pop music culture,

in particular, uses a ‘mid-Atlantic’ dialect that levels differences even in pronunciation.” This argument appears to be strongly supported by the fact that “even though Americans and Britons are said to be ‘divided by a common language’, standardness is something they largely share with each other and with other varieties worldwide.” (McARTHUR 2002: 247) The information mentioned above aptly illustrates the two important facets of the linguistic relationship between British and American English, namely the similarity on a general basis and the divergence on closer inspection when juxtaposed. Despite being somewhat contradictory, those two facets go hand in hand with each other. In this chapter, the focus is on the divergence, that is the differences. 2.2 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH If learners of English were approached with the question whether British and American English are the same, it is extremely probable that the answer ‘no’ would far

outweigh the answer ‘yes’. This is mainly due to the fact that almost every English textbook or course book touches upon the lexical differences, providing examples of pairs of lexemes which are used to denote the same items in the extra-linguistic reality, for instance lorry versus truck or flat versus apartment. However, it is necessary to remark that this is where the, say, systematic introduction of the differences between the two varieties of English language often ends. From the linguistic point of view, there of course exists more than just one group of differences. Sections dealing with this area of study in various reference books show no apparent discrepancy in saying that the differences between British and American English can be conveniently divided into four general levels: 9  the level of pronunciation  the level of spelling  the level of vocabulary  the level of grammar The following pages will be thus devoted to examining those levels separately,

repeating an established pattern. A brief overview of the most essential differences at a particular level is presented first. Then follows a table showing the pairs of idioms, which differ in aspects that may be classified as belonging to that particular level. It should be strongly emphasized that these tables are by no means exhaustive and the final decision about what to include under the heading of each level is likely to slightly vary. The pairs of idioms (after further grouping) are listed alphabetically. In conclusion, there is a discussion of to what extent the general differences are reflected in the selected pairs of idioms and whether or not to formulate new kinds of differences. As the central focus of this thesis is on written rather than spoken language, the differences at the level of pronunciation are altogether omitted. Instead, a new category was created and that is the category called Other differences, for there seem to be pairs of idioms with differences which

were not treated at any of the other levels. 2.21 DIFFERENCES AT THE LEVEL OF SPELLING Although it may be said that spelling or orthography is ”from most viewpoints the least important type of linguistic organization” (QUIRK 1985: 18), the spelling differences between British and American English paradoxically “serve as emblems or shibboleths of linguistic nationalism” (McARTHUR 1992: 42). McArthur speaks about two important ways of classifying the spelling differences. For the purposes of this thesis only one of them will be introduced and that is the distinct division into “systemic or non-systemic differences” (McARTHUR 1992: 42). McArthur offers the following definition: “If a difference is systemic, it affects large classes of words; if non-systemic, it affects only one word or a small group of words” (McARTHUR 1992: 42). To put it in another way, the difference between favour and favor is systemic, for the identical spelling is used not only in the derived words

such as 10 favourite/favorite, favourable/favorable, favoured/favored and favouritism/favoritism, but it can be also used as a model for other words which contain the cluster –our in their internal makeup, for instance the word valour. In comparison with non-systemic differences, which are in most cases applicable to one lexical unit, e.g axe/ax, the systemic differences are “productive” (CRYSTAL 1995: 307). The list shown below comprises all the principle systemic differences according to McArthur, that is nine groups. Each of the group would, of course, require a more detailed characterization, but as a brief introduction here, it may be regarded as quite sufficient to reduce the McArthur’s presentation of systemic differences to the name of the group and a few representative examples. When endorsing a very generalized view, it is also possible to assert that, as far as the examples are considered, the alternatives stated first are British as are the spellings including

the letters in round brackets (with the exception of number 5). 1. The colo(u)r group: arbo(u)r, armo(u)r, endeavo(u)r, favo(u)r, flavo(u)r, hono(u)r, humo(u)r, labo(u)r, odo(u)r, rigo(u)r, savo(u)r, tumo(u)r, valo(u)r, vigo(u)r. 2. The centre/center group: centre/center, fibre/fiber, goitre/goiter, litre/liter, meagre/meager, mitre/miter, sabre/saber, sombre/somber, spectre/specter, theatre/theater. 3. The (o)estrogen group: am(o)eba, diarrh(o)ea, hom(o)eopathy, (o)esophagus, (o)estrogen, (o)estrous. 4. The (a)esthete group: (a)eon, arch(a)eology, gyn(a)ecology, (a)esthetics, an(a)emia, encyclop(a)edia, h(a)emophilia, h(a)emorrhage, medi(a)eval, pal(a)eontology. 5. The instil(l) group: distil(l), enrol(l), fulfil(l), instil(l) 6. The final –l(l) group: travelled – traveled, traveller – traveler 7. The –ize and –ise group: civilise/civilize, organise/organize, civilisation/civilization 8. The –lyse and –lyze group: analyse/analyze, paralyse/paralyze 9. The –og(ue)

group: catalog(ue), dialog(ue), monolog(ue), pedagog(ue), prolog(ue) The names and examples were all taken from McArthur (1992: 42-44). From the examples mentioned above, it may be inferred that “AmE spellings tend to be shorter than BrE spellings” (McARTHUR 1992: 44). Also, it is particularly relevant to say that in terms of the pairs of idioms selected for this thesis, some groups of systemic differences are obviously reflected in preference to others. 11 Here follows a table with three groups of spelling differences: Group 1 2 3 British English American English a chink in sbs armour a knight in shining armour be on your best behaviour be off-colour off-colour see the colour of sbs money rose-coloured glasses/spectacles come through/pass with flying colours nail your colours to the mast sail under false colours see sb in their true colours see sbs true colours show sb in their true colours show your true colours a favourite son the flavour of the month a glamour

girl/puss be/feel honour-bound do the honours gallows humour schoolboy humour a labour of love be cast in a different mould be cast in the same mould break the mould They broke the mould when they made sb/sth. Discretion is the better part of valour. be/take centre stage be given the axe get the axe have an axe to grind be burnt to a crisp a grey area grey matter a kerb-crawler kerb-crawling be a licence to print money practise what you preach be spoilt for choice a chink in sbs armor a knight in shining armor be on your best behaviour be off-color off-color see the color of sbs money rose-colored glasses come through/pass with flying colors nail your colors to the mast sail under false colors see sb in their true colors see sbs true colors show sb in their true colors show your true colors a favorite son the flavor of the month a glamor girl/puss be/feel honor-bound do the honors gallows humor schoolboy humor a labor of love be cast in a different mold be cast in the same mold break

the mold They broke the mold when they made sb/sth. Discretion is the better part of valor. be/take centre stage be given the ax get the ax have an ax to grind be burned to a crisp a gray area gray matter a curb-crawler curb-crawling be a license to print money practice what you preach be spoiled for choice Groups 1 and 2 consist of systemic differences, those of the colo(u)r and the centre/center groups respectively. Group 3 is then made up of non-systemic differences, out of which the differences between be burnt to a crisp versus be burned to a crisp and be spoilt for choice versus be spoiled for choice could be dealt with at the level of grammatical differences, as they both represent the opposite poles of regularity and irregularity of verbs, namely the past participles. Given the information in the table, these also appear to be the only pairs of idioms under study, where American spelling is longer than British spelling. 12 2.22 DIFFERENCES AT THE LEVEL OF VOCABULARY As

the author of The English Word has it, British and American English differ “in pronunciation, some minor features of grammar, but chiefly in vocabulary” (ARNOLD 1986: 241). If one proceeds on the assumption that the lexical differences really occupy a preeminent position, then this should presuppose the existence of a detailed classification system There do exist systemic differences which are “due to two factors: source and subject” (McARTHUR 1992: 46), but to find traces of any categorization at least roughly similar to that of the spelling differences seems to be an impossible task. Strange as it may sound, materials almost invariably contain mere lists of pairs of lexemes. It seems therefore inevitable that only such pairs of lexemes, e.g lorry versus truck, should be taken into consideration here, as those, if the constituents of an idiom, mirror the actual differences between British and American English with respect to vocabulary. However, the approach that was chosen

appears to contradict this in that it views the difference between chew the fat and chew the rag as lexical, for whichever direction British to American or American to British is taken, the change that occurs, is undoubtedly a change of lexical item, i.e either fat for rag or rag for fat The difference between those two equivalent idioms is lexical, even though the words chew, the, fat and rag are widely used in both British and American English. Adopting that particular approach, there are two basic processes taking place, namely substitution (groups 1 to 5) and addition (group 6). Substitution is defined here as replacing a part of word, the whole word or even a couple of words with a part of word, the whole word or a couple of words. Addition, in the context of this thesis, is used to address the situation when the difference lies in the fact that to a shared set of words another word or words have been added. 13 Here follow six tables, each for one group of differences in

vocabulary: Group British English American English a smart-arse a tight-arse bore the arse off sb cant tell your arse from your elbow get off your arse get your arse in gear Kiss my arse! Move/shift your arse! My arse! not know your arse from your elbow Shove/Stick sth up your arse! sit on your arse talk out of/through your arse a kick up the arse/backside be a pain in the arse/backside work your arse/backside off be tight-arsed half-arsed rat-arsed bums on seats a mummys/mothers boy put/throw a spanner in the works 1 a smart-ass a tight-ass bore the ass off sb cant tell your ass from your elbow get off your ass get your ass in gear Kiss my ass! Move/shift your ass! My ass! not know your ass from your elbow Shove/Stick sth up your ass! sit on your ass talk out of/through your ass a kick in the butt/pants be a pain in the ass/butt work your ass/butt off be tight-assed half-assed rat-assed fannies in the seats a mamas boy put/throw a (monkey) wrench in the works Group 1

encompasses all pairs of idioms which directly reflect the lexical differences between British and American English, with spanner versus wrench reflected in one example and arse versus ass in the remaining pairs of idioms. The words bum and mummy are both labelled as predominantly British (bum – “mainly UK informal”; mummy – “UK”) in the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary, as opposed to fanny and mama which are labelled as predominantly American (fanny, meaning the body part a person sits on – “US old-fashioned informal”; mama – “UK old use or US informal”). Although the labels attached are not, to a certain extent, unambiguous, the idioms composed of these words were also included. Group 2 British English American English a cross (sb has) to bear a cross (sb has) to carry a skeleton in the/your cupboard a skeleton in the/your closet do the rounds make the rounds one of the lads one of the boys shut up shop close up shop do a roaring trade

do a roaring business 14 Group 2 is based on the concept of synonymy. To precisely determine whether two words are synonymous or not, it may be necessary to consult a dictionary. The words printed in bold are synonyms according to online English Synonym Dictionary. Group 3 British English American English to cut a long story short to make a long story short ham-fisted ham-handed like gold dust like gold be coining it be coining money be minting it be minting money run out of steam run out of gas More power to your elbow! More power to you! Group 3 consists of pairs of idioms, one of which contains a word, whose meaning could be accurately described as more specific. This, firstly, applies to the cases, where a noun is substituted by a pronoun – be coining it versus be coining money and be minting it versus be minting money. In both of the two examples, the noun money is much more specific than the personal pronoun it, as the latter may refer anaphorically to

virtually any entity in the neuter. Secondly, there are obvious examples of relationship between more specific and less specific words that belong to the same parts of speech: the verb cut in to cut a long story short describes the way in which is “the long story shortened” more vividly and supplies far more details than the verb make in the very same place. Similarly, fist is more specific than hand, for its referent in the extra-linguistic reality is not only a body part as such, but a body part whose components, here the fingers and the thumb, are put in a certain position. The connection between gas and steam is almost alike with steam being a special kind of hot gas which is produced during the process of boiling water. Thirdly, mention must be made of the idioms like gold dust versus like gold and More power to your elbow! versus More power to you!, in both of which the variant in British English is more specific in that gold dust excludes other possible forms of gold, such

as gold nugget or gold ingot and in a similar fashion, your elbow excludes all the other body parts that you is divided into. 15 Group 4 British English American English Hypernym a Bible-basher a Bible-thumper a person who hits sb the boot is on the other foot the shoe is on the other foot Footwear Pride comes before a fall. Pride goes before a fall. a verb of motion be in the driving seat be in the drivers seat used by a driver green-fingered green-thumbed have green fingers have green thumbs have the brass (neck) have the brass (balls) a pen pusher a pencil pusher take sth with a pinch of salt take sth with a grain of salt an amount of salt the pink pound the pink dollar national currency blow your own trumpet blow/toot your own horn a musical instrument one of the five parts a hand ends with one of the five parts a hand ends with a body part an object used for writing on paper Group 4 more or less employs the concept of hyponymy in the

highlighted words. As Hladký (1998: 27) puts it: “Hyponymy does not operate systematically outside the systems of scientific taxonomy because there are many gaps, asymmetries and indeterminacies in the natural languages.” When ruminating on the quotation, one inescapable fact seems to come to the surface, that is the fact that calling two words, which are not technical terms, hyponyms may promote a vigorous debate, for the distinguishing between words that are hyponyms and words that are not so interrelated is to a certain degree at the discretion of each individual, even though it surely draws upon common knowledge. The wording “more or less employs the concept of hyponymy” chosen in the first sentence below the table showing the idioms of Group 4 was aimed to make clear that the words in bold are not supposed to be hyponyms to all intents and purposes, but rather that each pair of the words can be covered by what could be called a hypernym. In all but one of the cases, the

hypernym takes form of a couple of words and is stated in the table. 16 Group British English American English be left holding the baby be left holding the bag I wouldnt touch sb/sth with a ten-foot 5 I wouldnt touch sb/sth with a barge pole. pole. swear blind swear up and down Joe Bloggs Joe Blow blow a raspberry give a raspberry a blue-eyed boy a fair-haired boy king of the castle king of the hill as straight as a die as straight as a pin march to a different drummer march to a different tune chew the fat chew the rag get into your stride hit your stride like the cat that got the cream like the cat that ate the canary sbs pet hate sbs pet peeve hum and haw hem and haw kick up a stink make/raise a stink be as happy as larry/a sandboy be as happy as a clam the lie of the land the lay of the land be easy meat be an easy mark off the peg off the hook send sb on a guilt trip lay/put a guilt trip on sb from/since the year dot from the year

one sleeping partner silent partner wash your dirty laundry/linen in public air your dirty laundry/linen in public Group 5 is the last of the groups dealing with substitution. It lists all the remaining pairs of idioms which were not treated in the previous four groups of lexical differences. From the inspection of the words in bold in individual pairs, it can be discerned that an overwhelming majority of them are the same parts of speech and between some of them a possible connection can even be traced, such as drummer and tune in the idioms march to a different drummer and march to a different tune, respectively, both carry a meaning associated with music. Also, like cat that got the cream and like cat that ate the canary both depict the situation of an animal, probably a pet, which gets hold of gourmet food. Generally speaking, some of the substituted words, despite not being British and American variants, synonyms, hyponyms or pairs of general versus more specific words, they

still bear a certain similarity. 17 Group 6 British English American English a know-all a know-it-all be all fingers and thumbs be all thumbs die a death die a natural death know sth backwards know sth backwards and forwards leave well alone leave well enough alone left, right and centre left and right / right and left no ifs and buts no ifs, ands or buts wont say boo to a goose wont say boo The very last group of differences at the level of vocabulary is Group 6 and unlike the previous groups it illustrates the process of addition rather than substitution. 2.23 DIFFERENCES AT THE LEVEL OF GRAMMAR As was shown above, the differences between British and American English at the level of spelling and vocabulary assume considerable importance. Even though it has already been mentioned, it is worth stressing that, strange as it may seem, there are “relatively few grammatical differences between educated BrE and AmE” (CRYSTAL 1995: 311). To put it differently, it

could be justifiably claimed that “grammar is the area of the underlying similarity” (GREENBAUM 1985: 180). If the assumption is accepted that vocabulary, as against syntax, is a set of single, say, unrelated units and syntax is a process of combining these units into a certain whole, in which the rules of normative grammar become apparent, then the words of Hudson that “vocabulary is a marker of divisions in society” (qtd. in GREENBAUM 1985: 180) whereas “syntax is the marker of cohesion in society” (qtd. in GREENBAUM 1985: 180) seem to illustrate the point further in a more general way. Where the differences between British and American grammar do exist, they appear to be more often than not concentrated around one particular lexical category, i.e verbs 1. Shall and will 2. Should and would 18 3. Can and may 4. Must and have (got) to 5. Let’s not – Don’t let’s – Let’s don’t 6. Subjunctives 7. Perfectives 8. Time expressions 9. Some differences in the

use of prepositions The differences were all taken from McArthur (1992: 44-45). These do not correspond with the differences found in the selected sample of idioms. Group No. 1 British English American English be well in pastures new be in well new pastures Group 1 differs in word order. Group No. 2 British English American English a home away from home as best as you can in a pinch on the double be cooking with gas be fresh out of swh give sb a new lease on life go over with a bang like death (warmed over) try sth on for size a home from home as best you can at a pinch at the double be cooking on gas be fresh from swh give sb a new lease of life go with a bang like death (warmed up) try sth for size Group 2 differs in prepositions, conjunctions and adverbial particles. Group No. 3 British English American English be at a loose end even stevens kids stuff on second thoughts be at loose ends even steven kid stuff on second thought Group 3 differs in plural versus

singular. 19 Group No. 4 British English American English in the light of in light of Group 4 differs in articles. 2.24 OTHER DIFFERENCES No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 British English American English a dark horse a down and out a rough diamond arty-farty highly-strung like a headless chicken Prevention is better than cure. You live and learn. dark-horse a down-and-outer a diamond in the rough artsy-fartsy high-strung like a chicken with its head cut off An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Live and learn. 20 3 SELECTED IDIOMS – CORPUS 3.1 REASONS FOR USING A CORPUS A dictionary such as Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms used as a source could well be assigned the attributes authoritative, informed, reliable or reputable. But what seems particularly noteworthy is the fact that despite possessing those attributes, generally associated with the books published by Oxford University Press or Cambridge University Press, it is still a dictionary and as such

retains one characteristic and somewhat negative feature, common to other printed dictionaries. That feature was put into words as early as the eighteenth century by Doctor Johnson: “no dictionary of a living tongue can ever be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away” (qtd. in TOTTIE 2002: 94) In conformity with Doctor Johnson’s idea, it is almost invariably the case that due to the long-termed process of compilation of a dictionary, “it no longer reflects the current state of knowledge or language” (BOWKER 2002: 15). When it comes to the “current state”, or to be more precise, the current frequency of certain chunks of language, it proves invaluable to consult an up-to-date corpus. 3.2 CORPORA IN GENERAL VS SELECTED CORPUS A corpus can be defined in various ways, as exemplified by the diverse range of definitions provided by Sinclair, Francis, and McEnery and Wilson, each of which touches upon slightly different

aspects of a corpus, laying down some additional criteria for it, but all making use of the term collection, or collection of texts. To illuminate the nature of a corpus as used nowadays, the idea of a collection of texts is apt to represent a fundamental starting point. It is logically necessary to supplement it with further characteristics. These characteristics are as follows (BOWKER 2002: 9):  ‘authentic’  ‘electronic’  ‘large’  ‘specific criteria’ 21 Although all of those characteristics are worthy of closer attention, a passing remark will be made here about the last of them, for it is not an adjective which may occur in predicative position to describe the noun corpus and might therefore require a clearer explanation. Specific criteria should be understood as the fact that “a corpus is not simply a random collection of texts” (BOWKER 2002: 10). On the contrary, “the texts in a corpus are selected according to explicit criteria in order to

be used as a representative sample of a particular language or subset of that language.” (BOWKER 2002: 10) It follows that there are several types of corpora and it seems absolutely imperative to impart as much information regarding the selected corpus as possible if the findings based on it are to be of some relevance. The corpus used in this thesis is an electronic collection of issues of Sunday Times published in 1995. It contains roughly 48,200,000 words and was donated to the Masaryk University by Tim Johns at a workshop in Usti nad Labem in 2000 (Seznam dostupných korpusů). If an attempt is made to draw a comparison between the corpus consulted here and other corpora in existence, then a viable option is to apply the following taxonomy of binary oppositions (BOWKER 2002: 10):  general reference corpus vs special purpose corpus  written vs spoken corpus  monolingual vs multilingual corpus  synchronic vs diachronic corpus  open vs closed corpus The corpus in

question could be then defined as closed, synchronic, monolingual, written, special purpose corpus. This is because it consists exclusively of one kind of text, that is newspaper article, hence special purpose, which does not embrace spoken language, hence written. As the corpus covers the issues of The Sunday Times which came out in 1995, its language is naturally English, hence monolingual and it ‘presents a snapshot of language use during a limited time frame” (BOWKER 2002: 12), hence synchronic. A closed corpus, by definition, is “one that does not get augmented once it has been compiled” (BOWKER 2002: 13), which is obviously the case here, hence closed. 22 When the attention is focused on the question why the corpus described in the previous paragraph is chosen for the analysis in this thesis, then it is necessary to state some facts. Among linguists, there has been considerable debate about corpora and their function as a representative sample of language. According

to Akimoto (1983: 24), “a corpus provides objective information to the researcher.” This proposition, although expressed in the narrow context of the corpus-based and intuition-based approaches being compared and contrasted, rings true in general. Given the strict selection criteria, a corpus should really serve as a sufficiently reliable test bed for various investigations, providing the researcher with objective facts about observable linguistic phenomena. Considerable difficulties in sticking to an objective approach might crop up, though, when the process of interpretation takes place. Therefore all the findings presented in this thesis are interpreted in the light of the corpus, on which they are based. Referring back to the concept of representativeness and objectivity of a corpus, it might appear that a corpus of news compares unfavourably to general reference corpus, such as the British National Corpus in the sense that it is too limited in its scope. But if the

proposition, “Newspaper language and conversation are among the most familiar kinds of writing and speech” (BIBER 1999: 9), put forward in Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written Language, is accepted, then this limited scope could be viewed as a significant advantage. Firstly, unlike academic English or some other registers of English, newspaper language displays the quality of being readily comprehensible to most native speakers of English. It is therefore more than possible that it is constituted of such pieces of language which are common knowledge and could be considered a norm, The Sunday Times being no exception to the rule. Secondly, as is perfectly clear from the very beginning of the process of consulting the corpus, such a corpus as the one used in this thesis deals exclusively with one register, which is exactly defined in terms of the name of the newspaper and the year of the publication of the issues compiled in the corpus in question. Its main aim is thus not

necessarily to be representative of the language in general, as is the case with general reference corpora. To sum up, a newspaper corpus such as the one used in this thesis does not represent the English language as a whole, but it could be, to a certain degree, taken for granted that if a piece of language, here an idiom, say, American idiom appears in a corpus of British newspaper articles, it is of considerable significance. 23 3.3 CORPUS SEARCH Initially, it is convenient to state that the approaches to studying a corpus may vary. The approach chosen in this thesis is the so-called “corpus-based approach” (Pearson 1998: 50). According to Atkins, this approach is used by theoretical linguists “to provide a check on the evidence of their own, or their informants’ intuitions” (qtd. in PEARSON 1998: 50) So first a hypothesis was formulated and then the following procedure was adopted. 3.31 PROCEDURE 1. No searching a corpus would ever be possible without an appropriate

tool Hence, the first step was to decide on the tool. The Faculty of Informatics of the Masaryk University makes it possible for the students in the Department of English and American studies to use the Manatee system, which is a corpus manager, together with Bonito, “a graphical user interface” (Bonito), which “helps users to create queries and displays its results (concordance lists) from different viewpoints“ (Bonito). 2. The second step taken was the actual searching the corpus for British idioms and their American counterparts. 3. Finally, tables showing the findings were compiled and afterwards comments were added. 3.32 FINDINGS The tables with findings are provided on the following few pages. Each table consists of pairs of idioms arranged in such an order that they correspond precisely with the levels of differences between British and American English explored in some detail in the previous chapter, including all the groups of differences set up within the particular

levels. On the left a British idiom is given, on the right its American equivalent is positioned, both of which are accompanied by a total number of hits in the Sunday Times corpus. The tables are designed to embrace the whole sample of idioms under study; therefore information regarding the frequency of a particular pair of idioms can be directly accessed. However, for the purposes of this thesis it is necessary to essay a generalization and it appears in the section Comments and Charts. 24 Systemic differences at the level of spelling BrE be on your best behaviour 16 a chink in sbs armour 8 see the colour of sbs money 0 nail your colours to the mast 6 show sb in their true colours 1 show your true colours 7 see sb in their true colours 0 see sbs true colours 2 Discretion is the better part of valour. 0 sail under false colours 0 a favourite son 28 the flavour of the month 6 come through/pass with flying colours 30 gallows humour 9 a glamour girl/puss 7 be/feel honour-bound 7 do

the honours 0 AmE be on your best behavior 0 a chink in sbs armor 0 see the color of sbs money 0 nail your colors to the mast 0 show sb in their true colors 0 show your true colors 0 see sb in their true colors 0 see sbs true colors 0 Discretion is the better part of valor. 0 sail under false colors 0 a favorite son 0 the flavor of the month 0 come through/pass with flying colors 0 gallows humor 0 a glamor girl/puss 0 be/feel honor-bound 0 do the honors 0 a knight in shining armour 7 a labour of love 22 be cast in the same mould 0 be cast in a different mould 0 break the mould 45 They broke the mould when they made sb/sth. 0 be off-colour 3 off-colour 3 rose-coloured glasses/spectacles 3 schoolboy humour 4 be/take centre stage 54 a knight in shining armor 0 a labor of love 0 be cast in the same mold 0 be cast in a different mold 0 break the mold 0 They broke the mold when they made sb/sth. 0 be off-color 0 off-color 0 rose-colored glasses 0 schoolboy humor 0 be/take centre stage 0

Non-systemic differences at the level of spelling BrE get the axe 1 be given the axe 0 have an axe to grind 7 be spoilt for choice 31 be burnt to a crisp 0 grey matter 11 25 AmE get the ax 0 be given the ax 0 have an ax to grind 0 be spoiled for choice 4 be burned to a crisp 2 gray matter 0 Non-systemic differences at the level of spelling (ctnd) BrE a grey area 46 a kerb-crawler 9 kerb-crawling 9 be a licence to print money 4 practise what you preach 17 AmE a gray area 0 a curb-crawler 0 curb-crawling 0 be a license to print money 0 practice what you preach 3 Differences at the level of vocabulary - substitution BrE be all over the shop 1 cant tell your arse from your elbow 0 not know your arse from your elbow 0 get your arse in gear 0 get off your arse 1 Kiss my arse! 0 Move/shift your arse! 0 My arse! 0 Shove/Stick sth up your arse! 1 sit on your arse 2 talk out of/through your arse 0 AmE be all over the lot 0 cant tell your ass from your elbow 0 not know your ass from your

elbow 0 get your ass in gear 0 get off your ass 0 Kiss my ass! 1 Move/shift your ass! 0 My ass! 0 Shove/Stick sth up your ass! 0 sit on your ass 0 talk out of/through your ass 0 a Bible-basher 2 bore the arse off sb 0 a blue-eyed boy 4 a mummys/mothers boy 16 have the brass (neck) 2 chew the fat 2 be coining it 4 a cross (sb has) to bear 5 march to a different drummer 1 wash your dirty laundry/linen in public 3 be easy meat 9 the boot is on the other foot 5 have green fingers 2 green-fingered 6 send sb on a guilt trip 0 half-arsed 1 ham-fisted 17 be as happy as larry/a sandboy 0 26 a Bible-thumper 0 bore the ass off sb 0 a fair-haired boy 0 a mamas boy 1 have the brass (balls) 0 chew the rag 1 be coining money 1 a cross (sb has) to carry 0 march to a different tune 0 air your dirty laundry/linen in public 0 be an easy mark 1 the shoe is on the other foot 0 have green thumbs 0 green-thumbed 0 lay/put a guilt trip on sb 0 half-assed 0 ham-handed 1 be as happy as a clam 0

Differences at the level of vocabulary - substitution (ctnd) BrE hum and haw 3 Joe Bloggs 5 a kick up the arse/backside 10 king of the castle 2 the lie of the land 5 be left holding the baby 2 to cut a long story short 7 be minting it 1 off the peg 6 one of the lads 15 blow your own trumpet 9 be a pain in the arse/backside 5 sleeping partner 5 sbs pet hate 4 the pink pound 0 I wouldnt touch sb/sth with a barge pole. 3 Pride comes before a fall. 2 AmE hem and haw 0 Joe Blow 0 a kick in the butt/pants 4 king of the hill 3 the lay of the land 0 be left holding the bag 0 to make a long story short 0 be minting money 0 off the hook 0 one of the boys 8 blow/toot your own horn 2 be a pain in the ass/butt 0 silent partner 2 sbs pet peeve 0 the pink dollar 0 I wouldnt touch sb/sth with a ten-foot pole. 0 Pride goes before a fall. 1 a pen pusher 1 blow a raspberry 2 rat-arsed 1 do a roaring trade 19 do the rounds 19 run out of steam 45 take sth with a pinch of salt 20 be in the driving seat 18

shut up shop 13 a skeleton in the/your cupboard 13 a smart-arse 3 kick up a stink 1 as straight as a die 0 get into your stride 29 swear blind 7 a tight-arse 0 be tight-arsed 0 work your arse/backside off 0 27 a pencil pusher 0 give a raspberry 0 rat-assed 0 do a roaring business 1 make the rounds 2 run out of gas 1 take sth with a grain of salt 0 be in the drivers seat 2 close up shop 0 a skeleton in the/your closet 5 a smart-ass 0 make/raise a stink 0 as straight as a pin 0 hit your stride 8 swear up and down 0 a tight-ass 0 be tight-assed 0 work your ass/butt off 5 Differences at the level of vocabulary - substitution (ctnd) BrE AmE put/throw a spanner in the works 5 from/since the year dot 4 More power to your elbow! 0 like the cat that got the cream 1 bums on seats 22 like gold dust 8 put/throw a (monkey) wrench in the works 0 from the year one 0 More power to you! 0 like the cat that ate the canary 0 fannies in the seats 0 like gold 1 be well in 1 Differences at the

level of grammar - prepositions, etc. BrE go with a bang 2 as best you can 56 be cooking on gas 0 like death (warmed up) 1 at the double 2 be fresh from swh 12 a home from home 5 give sb a new lease of life 7 at a pinch 11 try sth for size 2 Differences at the level of vocabulary - addition BrE know sth backwards 3 wont say boo to a goose 0 die a death 9 no ifs and buts 2 a know-all 16 left, right and centre 0 be all fingers and thumbs 1 leave well alone 30 AmE know sth backwards and forwards 0 wont say boo 0 die a natural death 0 no ifs, ands or buts 0 a know-it-all 3 left and right / right and left 2 be all thumbs 0 leave well enough alone 2 AmE go over with a bang 0 as best as you can 2 be cooking with gas 0 like death (warmed over) 0 on the double 0 be fresh out of swh 11 a home away from home 0 give sb a new lease on life 0 in a pinch 2 try sth on for size 2 Differences at the level of grammar - plural BrE even stevens 1 on second thoughts 6 kids stuff 3 be at a loose end 6

Differences at the level of grammar - Word order BrE pastures new 17 be in well 0 AmE new pastures 6 28 AmE even steven 0 on second thought 0 kid stuff 0 be at loose ends 0 Differences at the level of grammar - articles BrE in the light of 410 AmE in light of 38 Other differences BrE arty-farty 2 like a headless chicken 8 a dark horse 17 a down and out 4 highly-strung 5 You live and learn. 0 Prevention is better than cure. 3 a rough diamond 9 AmE artsy-fartsy 1 like a chicken with its head cut off 1 dark-horse 3 a down-and-outer 0 high-strung 2 Live and learn. 0 An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 0 a diamond in the rough 0 3.33 COMMENTS AND CHARTS A generalisation of the importance of the number of hits would be not necessarily valid provided that no mention was made about in what way the number was definitely established. In conducting a search in a corpus, a concordancer retrieves plenty of sentences and the crucial decision on which of them will be included

and which not is to be reached by the researcher. Here, such examples of idioms used in sentences were counted that remained exactly the same as the entries in the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms or were slightly altered as far as the number (plural or singular), person, tense and negative are concerned. Among the sentences found in the corpus, there were some which contained a foreign element in their structure. If the insertion was a word which modified the verb be, eg really be spoilt for choice, the example was counted. If the insertion was connected with other verbs or even word classes, it was not counted. Neither were the sentences in which the substitution of the active voice for the passive voice or vice versa occurred. The frequency of some of the pairs of idioms is comparatively low. This is because of the restrictions mentioned above and also because of the fact that idioms such as be cast in the same mould produced no hits, whereas, if reduced to in the same

mould, the number of hits saw an apparent increase. 29 Moving from the form to the meaning, a heavy emphasis was placed upon sticking to the definition of a particular idiom, as offered by the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, e.g off the peg or off the hook are used to speak about clothes, so example sentences which contained the idiom off the peg or off the hook in different contexts were not included. With the category of meaning another difficulty arises. It is often highly problematic to distinguish between the literal use and idiomatic use of such phrases as a favourite or favorite son. As for technical problems, the concordancer Bonito spells hyphenated words with spaces before and after the hyphen. This was found out when the search had already been in progress and some significant adjustments had to be made. Once the number of hits was explained, the attention can now be refocused onto the actual generalisation of the findings. The only two groups of

differences in which none of the American variants of idioms were found are Systemic differences at the level of spelling and Differences at the level of grammar – plural. Systemic differences at the level of spelling can be therefore described as exclusive, because “they can only be spelt one way in the UK or US” (McARTHUR 2002: 248). The clear contrast in frequency between British idioms and American idioms can be seen in the charts on the following page. In the chart Differences at the level of vocabulary the two groups substitution and addition were counted together as were all the groups within Differences at the level of grammar. Each chart shows the percentage of hits for American idioms, the total number of all hits for both British and American idioms being one hundred per cent. The percentages were rounded to whole numbers. 30 Systemic Differences at the Level of Spelling Non-systemic differences at the level of spelling 6% 0% AmE BrE AmE BrE 94% Differences

at the Level of Vocabulary Differences at the Level of Grammar 10% 11% AmE BrE AmE BrE 89% 90% Other differences (apart from those mentioned above) 13% AmE BrE 87% It can be seen that apart from differences at the level of spelling, the percentage of American idioms exceeds ten per cent. The percentage is relatively high, so this seems to confirm the validity of my hypothesis in that idioms which are labelled as American English might appear in British context. As for the second part of my hypothesis that in several pairs of idioms the proportion of British to American idioms could be one to one as far as the frequency in British context is concerned, this was not proved. Although the American idioms 31 king of the hill and be burned to a crisp are of a higher frequency than their British equivalents, it would not be accurate to build on this. It should be once again stressed that all the findings are based on the selected sample of idioms and the selected corpus. The

last section in this chapter presents the most frequent idioms in the Sunday Times corpus. There are fifteen of them; the frequency was based on British idioms 3.34 TABLES OF MOST FREQUENT IDIOMS idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples in the light of in light of 448 38 if something is done or happens in the light of facts, it is done or happens because of those facts The pound fell about a pfennig and a But in light of recent turmoil, the cent yesterday morning, largely announcement may be seen as a contrived because of nervousness about the stability of the Government in the light attempt to paper over the cracks in a of the dispute with the Ulster troubled empire. Unionists. The decision has been made in the light of the internationally agreed criteria for military exports. as best you can as best as you can 58 2 if you do something that is difficult as best you can, you do it as well as you

are able to do it We held things together as best we Meanwhile, Britain continue to do their thing could, but the past year or so was as best as they can. pretty much a write-off. If the casualty is conscious treat any obvious injuries as best you can and then dial 999. be/take centre stage be/take center stage 54 0 to be the most important thing or person at an event or in a situation, or to be the thing or person that people notice most Yet despite such hair-raising adventures the people and the places she observes with such enjoyment take centre stage. But, on Saturday, all thoughts of Murdoch and mergers will be set aside as the Challenge Cup final, the biggest showcase on the calendar, takes centre stage. Not for the first time, it was left to an Irishman to take centre stage in a Ryder Cup triumph. 32 idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples a grey area a gray area 46 0 a subject or

problem that people do not know how to deal with because there are no clear rules I do not know why anybody should think this last item at all shocking at a time when even for some Anglican bishops the divine aspects of Christianity seem to be a grey area. We are victims of a grey area in the law which fails to recognise that artificial feeding is as much a lifesupport system as a ventilator. Medico-legal experts will welcome the ruling as clarifying a grey area of the law. run out of steam run out of gas 46 1 to suddenly lose the energy or interest to continue doing what you are doing The couple runs out of steam soon I was going well but then ran out of gas. after a sunset kiss atop the Ferris wheel that overlooks the Danube. They have run out of steam, run out of ideas and must now be run out of office, nationally as well as locally. break the mould break the mold 45 0 to do something differently, after it has been done in the same way for a long time There are a number of women who

have already broken the mould. Flexible annuities break the mould, and solve all these problems, by letting pensioners simply withdraw an income from their existing fund without cashing it in. Yet the most complex task, for he has now to break the mould of Spanish politics, is that which faces Jose Maria Aznar. 33 idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples idiom number of hits definition examples get into your stride hit your stride 37 8 to start to do something well and confidently because you have been doing it for enough time to become familiar with it And that was nothing compared to He made his first appearance in Heat And what I wrote when I got into my stride Dust, disguised as Nickolas Grace, but really with 1,500 words at my beck. hit his stride in A Room With A View, where We were never allowed to get into our he played the eccentric Rev Beebe and we got to see his bum. stride and

they caused us a lot of problems. be spoilt for choice be spoilled for choice 35 4 to have so many good possible choices that it is difficult to make a decision Those with a lump sum to invest are If punters prefer to bet on top-class horses, spoilt for choice. they are spoiled for choice. Bernhardt is spoilt for choice when it comes to decorating her house for Christmas. come through/pass with flying colours come through/pass with flying colors 30 0 to pass an examination with a very high score or to complete a difficult activity very successfully You passed the test with flying colours and the warmth of your welcome made me want to book up a whole week there. He had passed all his exams with flying colours. Tom Foley, his trainer, gave the horse his first serious gallop yesterday, and he came through with flying colours. a favourite son a favorite son 28 0 a famous person, especially a politician, who is supported and praised by people in the area they come from President Bill

Clinton and VicePresident Al Gore were among the fortunate 46,272 to stand and roar their approval as Baltimores favourite son broke one of baseballs most cherished records. The organisers will trust that Germanys favourite son will be in contention again next year. Mr Portillo is still the favourite son of many right-wing MPs. 34 idiom number of hits definition examples one of the lads one of the boys 23 8 someone who is accepted as part of a group of male friends who all have similar ideas and interests The desire to be "one of the lads" The trouble with Ito is not only that he wants has to be countered with unflinching to be one of the boys, he is one of the boys. authority if it is to have any effect. Most of my friends think hes great he is one of the lads after all. idiom number of hits pastures new new pastures 23 6 if someone goes to pastures new, they leave their job or home in order to go to a new definition one He left the soap for pastures new, and then

seemed to spend most of his Ivan Golac, too, is ready to seek new time involved in one nightclub debacle pastures in the summer, leaving behind a Scottish Cup and a bemused Dundee public. after another; people, he claimed, examples picked on him. By June, however, he says he will "be looking for pastures new, hopefully within BAe." idiom be fresh from swh be fresh out of swh number of hits 23 11 to have just finished education or training in a particular school or college and not definition have much experience The two novels collected here feature ingenue narrators who, fresh from Few painters fresh out of college can storm college and the Armed Services, are the barricades of the contemporary art world, plunged into a netherworld of murder notorious for its distrust of incomers. and organised crime. examples He went out to the trenches fresh from school, a patriotic young subaltern of 17 declaring "France is the only place for a gentleman now." idiom number of

hits definition examples a labour of love a labor of love 22 0 an activity that is hard work but that you do because you enjoy it The biography of Wilson was a labour of love, and she has unearthed some odd tales. Of course, it is a labour of love for Rowse to hate puritans and republicans. All our lads have day jobs and wrestling is a labour of love. 35 idiom number of hits definition examples bums on seats fannies in the seats 22 0 if a public performance or a sports event puts bums on seats, many people pay to go and see it It was clear that, in this town, controversy didnt put bums on seats. But then again, what did put bums on seats? For much of the theatre, bums on seats, especially young bums, is what Christmas is all about. 36 CONCLUSION The thesis dealt with pairs of British and American idioms with equivalent meanings but different forms. The forms were scrutinized and it was found out that British and American idioms in question shared certain features

according to which it was possible to divide them into distinct groups. Although the general levels of differences between British and American English, namely differences at the level of spelling, the level of vocabulary, the level of grammar and other differences, were used as a starting point for classification of the selected pairs of idioms, it emerged that only at the level of spelling are general differences reflected in the differences between the pairs of idioms under study. The findings in the corpus partly proved the hypothesis proposed in the Introduction in that the labels in the dictionary were, to a certain degree, obsolete but as far as the individual pairs of idioms are concerned, only in two cases did the idioms labelled as American show higher frequency than those labelled British, which is by no means conclusive. For further research, it would seem advisable to examine the frequency of the same pairs of idioms in an American corpus or to study idioms which are,

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