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4. Idiom
This part discusses several theories related to idiom. It includes the definitions, types, categories and the translation strategies of idioms. The
discussions are as follows.
a. Definition of idiom
According to Saussure 1989, an idiom is a reflection of the individual characteristics of a community. It means that idiom is also related to the culture of
the community. It is because every language has different characteristic of idioms, since it is bounded to each culture.
Moon 1998 states that idiom is an ambiguous term. It is because idiom has two main meaning. First, idiom is a particular manner of expressing
something in language, and second, it is a particular lexical collocation or phrasal lexeme. Cooper 1999 also states that idiom is an expression which cannot be
translated from the usual meaning of its constituent elements. McCarthy and O’Dell 2010 also share the similar definition of it. They state that idioms are
fixed combination of words whose meaning is often difficult to guess from its individual words. Take a look at the idioms “raining cats and dogs” if it is
analyzed from its individual words, raining means ‘water falls from the sky in small drops’ and cats and dogs are kinds of an animal. Therefore, when it is
translated literally, it becomes ‘animals which falls from the sky’. However, the meaning which wants to be conveyed is that ‘it is heavy rain’. Therefore, it can be
concluded that idioms are words or phrases which have different meaning from its literal meaning. However, some of the types and categories of idiom have both
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literal and figurative meaning. Those types and categories will be discussed in the following section.
b. Type of Idiom
Based on Hockett 1958 as cited in Strassler 1982, idiom consists of six classifications or types. They are substitute, proper name, abbreviationclipping,
English phrasal compound, figure of speech and slang. Those types are presented as follows.
1 Substitute
Hockett 1958, states that a substitute includes personal pronouns and numbers. In this type, the word “I”, “you”, and “heshe” can happen to be the
same idiom if they denote the same person. For example, if a speaker says he is almost there without any context, other speakers will not know what the word he
refers to. The word he is commonly known as a specific male human or perhaps pet. Hence, the other speakers will not know it until the further notice.
It also happens for the numeral. According to Hockett 1958, numbers, which are probably classed as substitute, show a similar variation of specific
reference. For example, the answer four can be given to variety of questions, i.e. How old are you?, What time is it?, What page is that on?, or How many children
do you have?. At last, the substitute would have to be modified as to its domain- tie or its type, or both in order to create the grammatical pattern of the language
which is altered.
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2 Proper Name
A proper name is a symbol which designs an entity of which there is only one Hockett, 1958. The use of proper name in one language can be different
from others because it does not have a similar connotation to the proper name meaning in another language. In all human communities, there are certain
recurrent idiom-creating events called naming. Naming is not only for human, but also places, animals, spirits or vehicle. This phenomenon sometimes can lead to
misunderstanding. For example, I have Sally to accompany me. The word Sally is usually used as a name of a female person. However, it can probably be used as a
name of a doll or an animal. The grammatical properties of proper name might also deviate from those
of the most similar ‘ordinary’ words. For a language which has noun as one of the part of speeches, then names are almost invariably nouns. However, it does not
apply to the name of place. It is because sometimes the name of place appears to be locative particle. In English, the name of cities, rivers, and lakes are never
preceded by an article, such as New York, or Lake Michigan. However, some might have article the preceding the name permanently, such as in The
Mississippi, which is the name of a river.
3 AbbreviationClipping
Third is abbreviation or clipping. Abbreviation or clipping is the use of a part for a whole. It can also be in a form of letters which stand for a name. Thus, it
only mentions a part of a word for the whole word. Hockett mentions that in English, abbreviation is usually used to replace a long word or phrasal compound
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by its first or stressed, syllable, whether or not that syllable has previously been a morpheme. The example of this type is ‘plane’ for ‘airplane’ or ‘aeroplane’, ‘cam’
for ‘camera’ or ‘gents’ for ‘gentleman’or ‘gentlemen’. Another abbreviation can also be formed from the initial of the full name.
This kind of abbreviation is usually used for organizational name. It happens because the organization has long name. For example, ‘UNESCO’ stands for
‘United Nation Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’, or in Indonesia there is DPRD, which stands for ‘Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah’.
4 English Phrasal Compound
According to Dobrovolsky and O’Grady 1997, English phrasal compound is a way to form new words by combining two existing words.
Katamba 1993 states that based on its components, English phrasal compound consists of compound noun, compound adjective, and compound verb.
First is compound noun. Compound noun is a phrase which contains a combination of lexical categories which make a noun as the head of the phrase.
Katamba, 1993 states that it may contain a noun followed by another noun as in ‘daylight’, an adjective followed by a noun as in ‘hothead’ or a preposition
followed by a noun as in ‘afterword’. Besides, Dobrovolsky and O’Grady 1997 add another compound noun which consists of a verb followed by a noun as in
‘crybaby’. Second is compound adjective. This compound makes an adjective as its
head. A compound adjective consists of an adjective followed by another adjective can be a past participle of a verb as in ‘redheaded’, a noun followed by
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an adjective as in ‘daylong’, or a preposition followed by an adjective as in ‘overripe’.
Third is compound verb. Compound verbs in English are usually known as phrasal verbs. According to McCarthy and O’Dell 2010, there are four structures
of phrasal verbs. Those structures are shown in a Table 2.2.
Table 2.2 Structures of Phrasal Verb
No Structures
Example 1.
Verb + Preposition Come across
2. Verb + Adverb particle
Give up 3.
Verb + Object + Adverb particle or
Verb + Adverb particle + Object Pick him up
or Pick up it
4. Verb + Adverb particle + Preposition
Run out of time
5 Figure of Speech
According to Bain 1967, figures of speech all conduce to the greater effectiveness of style; they either present a thought more vividly to the intellect, or
operate more powerfully upon feelings. Wren and Martin 1981 state that figure of speech is a departure from the ordinary form of expression in order to produce
a greater effect. That definition also shares the same idea as Perrine 1992, who states that figure of speech is any way of saying something other than the ordinary
way. The language that uses figure of speech is called a figurative language. Little 1985 classifies the figures of speech into three classifications. He divides those
classifications based on comparison, association, and other figures of speech.
a Comparison
Comparison is divided into five types. They are simile, metaphor, personification, analogy, and hyperbole. Simile and metaphor have similar
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definition which is comparison between two things Wren Martin, 1981. They also add, what makes simile different from metaphor is that simile is usually
indicated by the existence of comparative conjunction such as “like” or “as” to compare two things, while metaphor is not. For example, ‘He is like a pig’ is
comparing two things, which is “he”, whose characteristic is like a “pig”. That example is simile because it has a comparative conjunction, which is “like”. It
would be different if the sentence is ‘he is a pig’. That sentence is still comparing two things but does not use any of the comparative conjunction. Thus, that is
called metaphor. The next type is personification. According to Gill 1985, personification
is used to express the abstract idea of inanimate objects, or aspect of nature which is described as it is human. The example of this figure of speech is “the flame of
the candle dance in the dark”. Analogy is a bit different from metaphor which compares two different things. It is a comparison between things which have
similar features, and often used to help explain a principle or idea. Last one is Hyperbole. Based on Bain 1967, hyperbole consists of magnifying objects
beyond the natural bounds. It is created by exaggerating the form of statement, the thing is represented as either greater or smaller, better or worse than it really is.
b Association
Association consists of metonymy and symbolism. Based on Tarigan 1985, Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not called
by its own name, but by the name of something which closely associates with that
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thing or concept. The example is BMW, which is a name of a car. In this case BMW is considered as metonymy because it is associated to the rich people.
Symbolism is usually existed in a literary work. It uses an object which represents or symbolizes ideas or meaning other than its literal meaning. For
example is the word rose. In literary work, if a character gives rose to another character, it may function or symbolize love.
c Other Figures of Speech
Little 1985 mentions some other figures of speech which are not included in the previous classification. Those figures of speech are apostrophe,
irony, paradox, synecdoche, allegory, euphemism, and exclamation. Apostrophe is a figure of speech which is used when a person who did not exist is spoken. The
example of this figure of speech is “Oh God, please bless us”. The next figure of speech is irony. Based on Tarigan 1985, it is used to mention the opposite
meaning of a word. People who are sarcastic are accustomed to use this figure of speech. For example, He is genius, that he cannot recognize his own motorcycle.
Tarigan 1985 defines paradox as a figure of speech which always ends with the opposite word. For example He feels lonely among the crowd. The words
lonely and crowd seem to be the opposite word. Thus, it is one of the paradoxes. Synecdoche is a figure of speech which mentions a part for a whole or a whole for
a part Tarigan, 1985. For example, let’s count how many head there are. The word head is considered as synecdoche because it represents a person not only
ahead.
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Allegory, based on Tarigan 1985, is an improved metaphor. It is usually in a form of story which has value. For example is Cerita si Kancil. Next is
euphemism. Euphemism, according to McCarthy and O’Dell 2010, is a figure of speech that avoids the use of words which may offend or be considered
unpleasant. For example, the phrase pass away is more polite than died to express sympathy to the death of someone who is respected. The last is exclamation. It is
a figure of speech which is used exclamatory form to draw greater attention to a point.
6 Slang
Another type of idioms is slang words. According to Dumas 1978, slang words can be associated with a language, which uses the non-standard vocabulary.
Eble 1996 adds that slang is an ever changing set of colloquial words and phrases that the speakers used to establish and reinforce the social identity or
cohesiveness within a group in the society. Another definition is also given by Kernerman 2006, who states that slangs are words and phrases is often used
temporarily, which are used very informally. Because of its informality, slang words only restricted to a certain group of people. Leech and Svartvik 1981 state
that slang is a language which is very familiar in style, and is usually restricted to the members of a particular social group, such as teenage slang, army slang or
theatre slang. The example of slang is “wanna” which means “want to” or “gonna” which means “going to”.
c. Categories of Idioms
Kategori