Idiomaticity

What springs to mind when you see these images?  Click here when you have thought of 6 expressions.

There are two important characteristics of the expressions in black.  What are they?
Click here when you have an answer.

Definitions

An early definition of an idiom comes from the linguist and teacher Henry Sweet (a major influence in the Reform Movement's reaction to grammar-translation approaches, incidentally).  He stated:

The meaning of each idiom is an isolated fact which cannot be inferred from the meaning of the words of which the idiom is made up.
(Sweet, 1889:139)

Since Sweet's time, the area has been continually revisited by researchers interested in finding out what constitutes idiomaticity in languages and how the various types of idiom can be classified and analysed.  What we have ended up with is a confusing muddle of terms, definitions and classifications which is, to say the least, unhelpful.  You may, for example, come across any or all of the following terms if you research this area:

figurative idioms or non-compositional metaphors	to refer to fact that we can often find a connection between figurative, idiomatic and literal meaning.  It is for example, just possible to figure out what bite the bullet might mean with some knowledge of pre-anaesthetic surgery.  Ditto, perhaps, with have an ace up one's sleeve
binomials	to refer to expressions such as time and again, Ladies and Gentlemen which occur as pairs of words, often with a fixed ordering
fixed expressions	to refer to idioms which are truly fixed such as an open and shut case
semi-fixed expressions	to refer to idioms where some flexibility is allowed.  For example, you can throw in the towel but also throw in the sponge, both meaning surrender, and both derived from boxing
lexicalised expressions	to indicate that the expression functions as a single lexeme.  For example, kick the bucket actually just functions as the verb die
opaque expressions	emphasising the fact that is often not possible to work out metaphoric meaning from literal meaning as it is with figurative metaphors.  For example, chew the fat
frozen collocations	emphasising the fixedness characteristic of some idioms such as a can of worms
restricted collocations	referring to those which allow some flexibility but only within a limited range.  For example, you can be a big/large/huge fish in a small/little/tiny pond
semi-idioms	to refer to anything which seems like an idiom, insofar as it acts like a single word, but is not completely opaque and fixed.  One part of the expression has a figurative meaning not found elsewhere but the other part is 'normal' as in expressions such as pay attention or foot the bill

It is not the suggestion here that such refinements are useless or deliberately confusing but we are interested in classifications which will be useful to us as English-language teachers rather than research linguists so this guide will focus on two the central characteristics of idiomatic language: fixedness and opacity (or non-compositionality, if you prefer).
This will be at the expense of some precision so if you are looking for more, there are references at the end to on-line, more scholarly articles that you may want to read.
In some analyses, the definition of an idiom includes both fixedness (the inability to change any of the components) and opacity (non-compositionality) but both these phenomena exist on a scale from fully fixed and opaque through semi-fixed and opaque to variable and easily understood.  The definition soon breaks down.

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Origins

Although this distinction is not necessary for teaching purposes, it is sometimes helpful in terms of memorisation to know the origin of the idiom one encounters.  There are two possible sources (which often overlap):

1. Fixed metaphor
   Frequently, very influential texts in English, such as the bible, Shakespeare's works and others, contain metaphors which have come into everyday use and become fixed idioms.  Some metaphorical uses are obscure in origin.  Examples include:
       heart of gold
       laughing stock
       wild goose chase
       wear your heart on your sleeve
   (all from Shakespeare)
       at the eleventh hour
       by the skin of your teeth
       a millstone around your neck
       the writing on the wall
   (all biblical)
       it gives me the creeps
       go on the rampage
   (both from Charles Dickens)
       spill the beans
       straight from the horse's mouth
       let the cat out of the bag
       count your chickens before they are hatched
       out to lunch
       just my cup of tea
   (all obscure in origin but some may conveniently but speculatively be derived from some occupations)
2. Historical and specific register origins
   Other idioms derive from certain registers: sport, the military, trade, sailing and so on and are often opaque without a certain amount of knowledge of the history of the domains.  They are usually not completely opaque, however.
   Examples include:
       a sticky wicket (from cricket)
       cover all the bases (baseball)
       run with the ball (rugby or American football)
       game, set and match (tennis)
       a level playing field (many sports)
       plant a seed (horticulture)
       plough through (farming)
       cut a deal (obscure but possibly from card games)
       hit a snag (angling or river navigation)
       a loose cannon (from naval warfare)
       flash in the pan (musketry)
       close ranks (army parade term)
       half-baked (cookery)
       cut and dried (herbalism)
       sail close to the wind (sailing)

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Fixedness

This is not an on-off characteristic.  Some idioms are more fixed than others, some are very flexible.  Here's a cline for you to see what's meant.  Where would you put the idioms on right in the cline on the left (if idioms they actually are)?  Click on the image for some comments when you have an answer.

through thick and thin hammer and sickle aid and abet have a blast hit the sack off one's rocker call it a day assets and liabilities left, right and centre

life or death back to the drawing board cut corners put all your eggs in one basket torrential rain wouldn't be caught dead miss the boat make the grade make the beds raining cats and dogs

Opacity or non-compositionality

Again, there's a cline because there are levels of opacity and transparency.  The image below separates them into those whose meaning is obvious (literal), those where it can be deduced (figurative uses) and those which are wholly opaque.
As you did above, locate these expressions on the right somewhere on the cline on the left and then click the image for a commentary.

barking up the wrong tree a bitter pill to swallow by the skin of one's teeth bread and circuses kiss and tell heads or tails spick and span holding all the aces at a snail’s pace

a dime a dozen bite off more than one can chew cut the mustard bob and weave under the weather hot and bothered research and development come rain or shine Tom, Dick and Harry

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The relationship between fixedness and opacity

There is a tendency for these two characteristics to rise and fall together.  In other words, the more fixed and inflexible the expression, the more likely it is to be opaque in meaning and vice versa.

We can find low fixedness with some expressions but they are likely to be quite literal in meaning.  For example, as old as ... can be followed by a number of expressions (God, the hills, Noah etc.) but opacity is also low.
Similarly, strong collocations such as a pronounced accent are not firmly fixed (we can have strong, broad etc. as the adjective with roughly the same meaning) but they are usually easy to understand (if not to learn).

On the other hand, an expression such as off one's rocker has quite high fixedness (there's only one conventional alternative to rocker, trolley) and it is also quite high in opacity.  Extreme cases of fixedness are also, often, extreme cases of opacity.  Expressions such as let the cat out of the bag are both opaque and fixed as are binomials such as helter-skelter.

There are, nevertheless, instances, especially with binomials, of low opacity and high fixedness.  In other words, they always occur together and in the same order but are straightforward to understand.  Examples are:
    here and there
    hand in hand
    dead and buried
etc.

The moral?
Whenever we find a highly opaque expression, the way to bet is that it is also firmly fixed.  The reverse is not always true.
Here's a graphical representation of that.  Before teaching idioms, it is worth 5 minutes of the planning time to consider where in the matrix the target language items fall.

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Binomials and trinomials

Because these are so common in English, they merit a short section to themselves.  Many of these items are worth teaching as single lexemes because they are handy language chunks, they are extremely common and they are not easily paraphrased.
There are some general characteristics of binomial expressions:

1. They consist of two lexical items belonging to the same word class so they are, noun + noun, verb + verb, adjective + adjective, adverb + adverb.  Examples of the four main sorts are:
       He has lived here man and boy
       You can take it or leave it
       And that's the truth, pure and simple
       I will do it sooner or later
   (Rarely, the two items are not of the same word class but follow similar structural forms so, for example:
       We were home and dry
   in which home is an adverb and dry an adjective but both are joined to the subject by the copular verb.  That is probably not something with which to trouble your learners.)
2. Some are literal (apples and oranges etc.), some are figurative (the chicken or the egg etc.) and some are wholly opaque (milk and honey etc.).
3. Some, such as helter-skelter, super-duper etc., contain words found nowhere else.
4. When two nouns are joined, the resulting expression is often singular, e.g.:
       Fire and brimstone is all he shouts about
       Thunder and lightning is on its way
   but, if the nouns are already plural, that is not the case:
       His eyes and ears are everywhere
       The stars and stripes are flying over The White House
5. The order of the items is usually fixed although with some, reversal has no effect.  We can have:
       She worked day and night
   and
       She worked night and day
   We allow
       I'll do it sooner or later
   but not
       *I'll do it later or sooner
6. The tenses and numbers of items are normally retained in both items so we get, for example:
       It's done and dusted
       It comes with many bells and whistles
       I'll name and shame him
       There will be some naming and shaming
       They were named and shamed
   etc. and:
       *for all intent and purpose
       *It's time to cut and be running
   are not encountered.
7. The items are frequently joined with the coordinator and but there are other possibilities including: but, or, either ... or, neither ... nor, to, after, by, in.
8. Often the items rhyme or are, more often, alliterative as in, e.g.:
       make or break
       high and dry
       house and home
       do or die
   etc.
   In some, a phenomenon called assonance is discernible so for example, a stressed vowel will be the same in both items or a consonant duplicated with different vowels as in harum scarum or tittle-tattle.
9. Because binomials operate as single lexemes, they are subject to the collocational forces as all other lexemes so, for example:
       high and dry collocates strongly with the verb leave
       high and low collocates with verbs such as look (for), search, hunt and seek
       dead and buried collocates with nouns such as ideas, proposals, suggestions, schemes and plans
   and so on.
10. Binomials often intensify, especially reduplicative ones, so, e.g.:
        She went from strength to strength
    Ones in which the two items are synonyms have the same effect:
        He's at my beck and call
    and, perversely, antonym pairs also intensify:
        We searched high and low, in and out, in each and every part of the house

Here's a selection.
Fuller lists with some doubtful inclusions are available via a web search.

joined with coordinators (and or or/neither ... nor etc.)

above and beyond airs and graces alive and kicking all or nothing an arm and a leg apples and oranges assault and battery back and forth ball and chain beck and call beer and skittles bells and whistles for better or worse bits and bobs bow and arrow by and large cat and mouse the chicken or the egg cut and dried cut and run day or night dead and buried dead or alive divide and conquer do or die down and out each and every eyes and ears far and wide fast and loose fingers and thumbs fire and brimstone first and foremost forever and a day free and clear fight or flight (neither) fish nor fowl fun and games (come) hell or high water (neither) here nor there hit or miss hale and hearty hard and fast hearts and minds here and now high and dry high and low home and dry hope and pray

horse and carriage intents and purposes kill or cure kill or be killed knife and fork law and order love nor money lo and behold loud and clear make or break man and boy milk and honey more or less nip and tuck nook and cranny nuts and bolts odds and ends pure and simple pepper and salt (colouring) rags to riches rain or shine research and development room and board sink or swim sooner or later take it or leave it salt and pepper (seasoning) seek and destroy short and / but sweet sick and tired slash and burn smash and grab snakes and ladders stand and deliver supply and demand sweetness and light tables and chairs tar and feather tea and crumpets thunder and lightning time after time to and fro tooth and nail touch and go trial and error up and about vim and vigour wait and see wine and roses

with reduplication
The term reduplicate is a slight misnomer because the words are duplicated, not reduplicated.

again and again all in all around and around arm in arm back to back bit by bit bumper to bumper by and by cheek to cheek closer and closer coast to coast day to/ by day elbow to elbow end to end dog eat dog from ear to ear an eye for an eye eye to eye face to face hand in hand head to head heart to heart higher and higher horror of horrors less and less

little by little lower and lower man to man more and more mouth to mouth neck and neck never say never nose to nose on and on out and out over and over round and round shoulder to shoulder side to side step by step strength to strength through and through time after time (from) time to time two by two toe to toe up and up wall to wall for weeks and weeks woman to woman

with rhymes or similar sounds
These are often considered a subset of reduplicate phrases but exactly where the border is between a reduplicative and these examples lies is not always easy to determine.  Parts of the words are clear duplicated and the words often rhyme, a phenomenon encapsulated in the alternative name, ricochet words.
The use or not of a hyphen is often idiosyncratic to the writer as is whether some are written as one word.

belt and braces box and cox chalk and talk chit-chat dilly-dally ding-dong double trouble even Stevens fender-bender flim-flam flip-flop hanky-panky harum-scarum helter-skelter higgelty-piggelty high and dry hire and fire hither and thither hobnob hocus-pocus hodge-podge hoity-toity horses for courses hubble-bubble huff and puff hurly-burly

hustle and bustle meet and greet mish-mash namby-pamby name and shame near and dear nitty-gritty odds and sods out and about pell-mell ping-pong pitter-patter razzle-dazzle riff-raff roly-poly shillyshally time and tide tip-top tittle-tattle town and gown use it or lose it wear and tear willy-nilly wine and dine wishy-washy yea or nay

Some quite common words in English are derived by reducing rhyming or similar-sounding binomials so, e.g.:
    patter is a reduction of pat-pat (to hit gently).
    blabber is a reduction of blab-blab
    paddle is a reduction of pad-pad
and so on.
The technical term for this phenomenon is that the word is a frequentative.

trinomials

There are fewer of these and they almost always employ and as the coordinator.  Examples include:

beg, borrow or steal blood, sweat and tears cool, calm and collected eat, drink, and be merry ear, nose and throat gold, silver, and bronze guns, germs, and steel healthy, wealthy, and wise here, there and everywhere hook, line and sinker hop, skip and jump judge, jury and executioner left, right and centre lights, music, action

lock, stock and barrel nasty, brutish and short planes, trains, and automobiles ready, willing and able reading, writing and arithmetic red, white and blue sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll sugar and spice and everything nice tall, dark and handsome Tom, Dick and Harry shake, rattle and roll this, that, and the other way, shape, or form win, lose, or draw

hyphenation

Many binomials, especially those without a connecting conjunction, are conventionally hyphenated so we get helter-skelter, willy-nilly, harum-scarum and so on.
Others are only hyphenated when they are used adjectivally so we get, for example:
    It's a question of law and order
    The price is subject to the influence of supply and demand
etc., because these are being used as nouns, but we have:
    This is a law-and-order issue
    It's a supply-and-demand influence
etc., because these are adjectival uses.
Trinomials exhibit the same phenomenon.

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Fixed similes

Similes explicitly compare two items, usually, in English, with the as ... as formulation.
A number of these constitute a kind of idiom although in almost all cases they are a) fixed and b) often (but not always) quite literal and transparent in meaning.  They include items such as:
    as blind as a bat
    as cool as a cucumber
    as fit as a fiddle
    as fresh as a daisy
    as good as gold
    as keen as mustard
    as light as a feather
    as old as the hills
    as regular as clockwork
    as right as rain
    as safe as houses
    as strong as an ox
    as stubborn as a mule
    as thin as a rake
etc.
Such expressions, too, are often formed from rhyming (or near rhyming) items and are often alliterative.
The main elements are also, again, usually given equal stress.

A secondary form for these fixed expressions employs the like preposition.  These are not adjectival so often it is a noun being compared to another or a verb being used figuratively as in
    eyes like a hawk
    a face like a brick wall
    a hand like a bunch of bananas
    drink like a fish
    smoke like a chimney
    fight like cat and dog
    eat like a horse
    eat like a bird
    run like clockwork
    cry like a baby
    spin like a top
    work like a Trojan
be / behave:
    like a child in a sweet shop
    like a bull in a china shop
    like a dog with two tails
    like a headless chicken
    like watching paint dry
They are almost totally confined to informal speech and writing.  Such clichés are often disparaged in more formal texts.

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Style and register

Most idiomatic language is stylistically informal and inappropriate in a number of situations.  Idioms are used extensively in informal speech and writing (especially in newspapers), however, so a knowledge of common ones is very helpful for learners of English.  Unfortunately, there are, by some estimates, 25,000 of them in English.
In more formal contexts, idioms will often be avoided so we are unlikely to find, for example:
    Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen is under the weather
    The government negotiators are reluctant to open a can of worms, said the White House spokesman.
etc.
Learners of the language can be tempted to overuse idiomatic language in situations where it is not appropriate or they can get the meaning just slightly wrong and produce, e.g.:
    *I'll do it willy-nilly
    *The government isn't cutting the mustard for it
In common with many idiomatic expressions, bi- and trinomials are often informal and common in spoken language.
A few, however, such as first and foremost, more and more, intents and purposes and others are encountered in formal writing and some are confined to specific registers such as economics (supply and demand), the law (aid and abet), education (reading, writing and arithmetic) or engineering, politics and commerce (research and development, wear and tear, trial and error, ways and means).
They are, to some extent, clichés and accordingly much used in journalese.

The same considerations of grammar and form apply here as they do in the teaching of any lexis.
It is important to make sure, then, that idiom presentation is set in an appropriately context (both style and register) and that word class is considered along with aspects of transitivity and so on.

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Pronunciation

• Most binomials are evenly stressed with the coordinating item being weakened.  We get, therefore:
      name and shame /ˈneɪm.n̩.ˈʃeɪm/
      fun and games /ˈfʌn.n̩.ˈɡeɪmz/
      tittle tattle /ˈtɪt.l̩.ˈtæt.l̩/
      shoulder to shoulder /ˈʃəʊl.də.tə.ˈʃəʊl.də/
  A few may operate like compound nouns and take the stress on the first element, e.g.:
      near and dear (/ˈnɪər.n̩.dɪə/)
  but stressing both components equally is more common.
  
• Trinomials are lists but, because they are processed as single units, the normal list intonation, with rises after each item and a fall at the end, is compromised.  We may get, therefore, for example:
      game, set and match
  pronounced as
  /ˈɡeɪmset.n̩.ˈmætʃ/
  rather than
  /ˈɡeɪm.ˈset.ənd.ˈmætʃ/
  with the normal pause after the first item and equal stress on all the items.
  More commonly, the stress on each item is retained but the intonation does not rise as it would in a list of less connected items:
          beg, borrow and steal /ˈbeɡ.ˈbɒ.rəʊ.n̩.ˈstiːl/
• Many idioms operate as single lexemes and only one tone unit is discernible so we have, e.g.:
      I wouldn't be caught dead
  /ˈaɪ.wʊdnt.bi.kɔːt.ˈded/
  with only two stressed syllables.
  Compare:
      I wouldn't do that if I were you:
  /ˈaɪ.wʊd.də.ˈðət.ɪf.ˈaɪ.wə.ˈju/
  with four stresses.
• Because of their single lexeme nature, idioms are spoken rapidly as one chunk so syllable reduction and weak forms are common.  E.g.:
      She's bitten off more than she can chew
  is often pronounced as
      /ʃiz.ˈbɪt.n̩.ə.mɔː.ðən.ʃi.kn̩.tʃuː/
  with two syllabic consonants and weak forms (/ə/, /i/).  See, too, the pronunciation of and in the binomial examples which is often reduced to a single syllabic consonant (/n̩/).

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Teaching idiomatic language

Too often, in coursebooks and study guides, idioms and idiomatic language are relegated to peripheral 'Useful phrases' boxes and then ignored.  That's a great pity as it is almost impossible to become fluent in English without acquiring a fair number of idiomatic expressions.  In fact:

Most students are very interested in learning idiomatic language.  They recognize it as an area in which they have difficulties, and appreciate systematic instruction.
(Irujo, 1986: 242)

There's nothing mysterious about this.  We have to make the same judgements that we make when teaching lexis of any sort.  In other words, we must consider appropriacy and style, range, learnability, frequency and so on.  For more, see the guide to teaching lexis, linked below.

However, idioms and idiomatic language have some characteristics that make certain approaches more worthwhile and productive.

• Context
  Idioms occur more naturally in informal story-telling language so that's a good place to situate them.  Context will also help learners appreciate issues of style and co-text will often disambiguate meaning successfully.
• Illustrations
  Because idioms are so picturesque, it makes it comparatively easy to link them to illustrations (see the introduction to this guide for examples).
• Figurative meaning
  Group and pair-work to decipher figurative meaning is helpful because people see different things in language and have different mental metaphors so they can help each other significantly.  Obviously, the more transparent the meaning is, the less hard the expression will be to understand and learn.
• Retelling stories
  Retelling exercises can be a powerful way of consolidating idiomatic language as can dialogue writing and creative story writing.
• Translation
  Idioms rarely translate exactly between languages but it is surprising how similar concepts are encoded in idiomatic language.  For example, the expression it cost an arm and a leg is rendered in Spanish with something like it cost an eye of your face and in German, a hook in the matter means there's a fly in the ointment.  All languages exhibit a rich and picturesque range of metaphorical meaning.  It can be educational, interesting and fun to compare how meanings are encoded in various languages and that, too, can help retention.
  Here are some examples for fun.  Can you match the English idioms on the left to their equivalents in other languages on the right?  Click on the image when you have an answer.

  
  You can, of course, get your learners to make up quizzes like this and challenge others to find the English equivalent or figure out the meaning.

More teaching ideas can be found in Irujo (1986)

In the section for learners on this site, there are some exercises to do with idioms and binomials.  Check the exercise index under vocabulary for more.

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There is a very short test on some terms to help you recall all this.

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Related guides
synonymy	for more on how this and related areas work with more on similes and metaphors (fixed and otherwise)
semantics	for a theoretical guide to meaning
teaching lexis	for some practical ideas
collocation	for more on this form lexical relationship

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References:
Barkema, H, 1996, Idiomaticity and terminology: a multi-dimensional descriptive model, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Studia Linguistica, Volume 50, Issue 2, pp. 125-160
Benor, SB & Levy, R, no date, The Chicken or the Egg? A Probabilistic Analysis of English Binomials, available from http://www.pdfmanuale.com/file/9GW/the-chicken-or-the-egg-a-probabilistic-analysis-of-english.html [accessed January 2015]
lrujo, S, 1986, A piece of cake: learning and teaching idioms, English Language Teaching Journal, 40 (3) pp. 236-242, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Moreno, REV, no date, Idioms, Transparency and Pragmatic Inference, available from http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/publications/WPL/05papers/vega_moreno.pdf [accessed January 2015]
Sweet, H, 1889, The practical study of languages, London: Oxford University Press (Reprinted in 1964)

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