BODY-RELATED IDIOMS IN STANDARD ENGLISH AND KURDISH: A Comparative Study

Kareem, Najat (2008) BODY-RELATED IDIOMS IN STANDARD ENGLISH AND KURDISH: A Comparative Study. Masters thesis, Koya University.

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Abstract

Every language has its own idioms and idiomatic expressions. Learning and using the idioms of a language appropriately is a sign of mastery of that language. Idioms are of different categories. One of these categories is idioms involving the body and its parts, which is a very widespread phenomenon in all languages, particularly in English and Kurdish. However, learning idioms may pose problems for second language learners since idioms have unitary meanings i.e., their meaning as a whole cannot be deduced from the meanings of their individual parts; and in many cases, the concepts conveyed by idioms are particular to one culture and one language. Therefore, despite the genetic relationship between English and Kurdish, and despite the fact that bodily experiences are supposed to be similar in different languages, English and Kurdish often differ in their use and interpretation of body idioms. Being so, it is hypothesized that English and Kurdish body-related idioms1 differ in their specific characteristics. For example, English and Kurdish body idioms can differ in the degree to which they tolerate syntactic operations; or in their use of the body parts to express similar concepts e.g., to be in two minds about something (to be undecided about something) has the Kurdish equivalent du:diĺ (to be in two hearts about something); or the same idiom can have a different meaning in each language e.g., in English to have one's hand full means (to be very busy), while in Kurdish it means (to be very rich). Such differences affect the degree of equivalence between English-Kurdish body-related idioms. Thus, some English-Kurdish body idioms are totally equivalent; some are partially equivalent; while some English body idioms have multiple equivalents in Kurdish. There are also body idioms that are specific only to English and others specific only to Kurdish. However, no studies have so far been conducted to investigate this problem. This study aims to describe and analyse body-related idioms in English and Kurdish in terms of form and meaning and to identify the main points of similarity and difference between them. It also aims to explore the degree of equivalence between English-Kurdish body-related idioms. The study consists of six chapters: Chapter one is the introduction. It identifies the problem, the purpose, the hypotheses, the scope, the procedures followed to achieve the purpose, and the value of the study. Chapter two presents a theoretical background on idiomaticity and the nature of idioms, including terminology and definitions of idioms, their properties and their classifications. It also throws some light on the importance of idioms in communication. 1 In this study, body- related idioms and body idioms are used alternatively since sometimes it is more practical to use the latter. Chapters three and four present a systematic description and analysis of body-related idioms in English and Kurdish respectively. Chapter five conducts a comparative analysis of body-related idioms in English and Kurdish, highlighting the main points of similarity and difference between them. It also makes an analysis of the degree of equivalence between body-related idioms in the two languages. Chapter six presents the summary and conclusions, and some suggestions for further studies. One of the main findings of the study is that English and Kurdish body-related idioms have a lot in common in their general lexical syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics. However, they vary in details, particularly in wording, and in their use of body parts i.e. in many cases, the body part used in English to express a certain concept is different from the one used in Kurdish and this is culturally determined. The back matter of the study contains the following: 1. The bibliography 2. The appendices: the study contains three appendices. Appendices one and two are the lists of the 250 selected English and Kurdish body idioms respectively. They are arranged alphabetically by body part; while appendix three contains the lists of the selected body idioms of English and Kurdish categorized in terms of equivalence and nonequivalence. These lists are also arranged alphabetically by body part. 3. The abstract in Kurdish and Arabic

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
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Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Department of English Language > M.Sc. Thesis
Depositing User:	Mr. Rebwar Mohammed Jarjis
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2023 07:19
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2023 07:19
URI:	http://eprints.koyauniversity.org/id/eprint/400

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