Memorization Theories on Vocabulary Learning

17 idioms are derived from the Greek ίδιοѕ which means ―own, proper to, private.‖ It conveys a message of peculiarity or specialty p. 1. While Hockett 1958 states that a speaker may say something that has never heard before and it is later understood. Further, this new utterance is a nonce-form, built from familiar material by familiar patterns. Yet, the occurrence of a nonce-form does not constitute the creation of idioms. He emphasizes the additional ingredients that are required in the creation of idioms like something that is more or less unusual either about the structure of the newly-produced nonce-form, the attendant circumstances, or both, which render the form memorable. b. The definitions of idioms There have been a number of studies about idioms and hence, idioms have several definitions. Yet, each definition of idiom has the same point. Idioms are expressions whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that comprise it American University, 2009, p. 1. While according to 1993 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines idioms as peculiar language and cannot be explicated easily; therefore, people need to learn not only the separated words but also need to fully understand the whole meaning of the phrases because it cannot be derived from the conjoined meaning of their elements Bill, personal communication, June 30, 2005. Palmer 1981, Adisutrisno 2008 and Carter 1998 have the same point about the definition of idioms. In the same point, they give definition of idioms as a group of words that requires collocation to which the meaning cannot be 18 expressed individually or by a single word but as a whole. Further, Carter 1998 explores more about idioms that can also be transformed or allow ―structural changes to its form ‖ as in ― to drop a brick ” = to make a mistake. In other structural changes , it can be ―he dropped a really enormous brick this time‖ or ―a brick has been dropped‖ p. 65. However, he asserts that not all idioms allow insertion and are structurally flexible because some of them are syntactically and morphologically fixed. Carter 1998 ―tentatively defined idioms as 1 non- substitutable or fixed collocations, 2 usually more than single word units, 3 semantically opaque ‖ p. 66. Thus, he concludes idioms as fixed expression. The same idea goes the same with the definition of idiom by Cruse 1986 that idioms are ―semantically peculiar‖ and traditionally, they are defined as ―expressions whose meaning cannot be inferred or deduced from the meaning of their parts or components Vizetelly Bekker, 1926 ‖ or ―an expression whose meaning cannot be accounted for as a compositional function of the meanings its parts have when they are not parts of idioms‖ p. 37. Cruse 1986 tends to define an idiom according to the number of lexical constituent and its semantic constituent. Cruse 1986 gives example as in ―This will cook Arthur’s goose”. In this example, it is shown that it ―constitutes a minimal semantic constituent‖ while ―cook ___’s goose is therefore and idiom‖. p. 37. In addition, Cruse 1986 interpret s ―any expression which is divisible into semantic constituent, even if one or more of these should turn out on further analysis to be idioms‖ p. 37. The last, Fowler defines idiom as ―a phrase where the words together have a very different