The Prominent Features of Human Body Idioms
Human body idioms mainly express the relation between one’s body and the exteriour world by making connections between the functions of a particular body part and the general understanding of that specific function in relation to phenomena occuring in the world we live. (Jinming 54) For example, an idiom such as „know smth like the back/palm of one’s hand“ expresses the degree of familiarity with a certain fact or object, similar to the way in which people know what happens to their hands even when not looking at them. In Romanian, a similar idiom used for this idea of good understanding would be „a cunoaste ceva ca in palma“ .
The majority of idioms related to human organs which are situated …show more content…
The following thematic groups are mentioned by Stoyanova:
Human emotions and feelings.
Idioms can express positive emotions such as delight, happiness (to rub one’s hands- a freca mainile de bucurie), love or passion (to offer sb one’s hand – a cere in casatorie).
However, some body idioms can display a strong feeling of desolation and hopelessness (My foot – du-te dracului) or feeling of exhaustion and tiredness (to be dead on one’s feet- a fi mort de oboseala)
Traits of human character. Laziness is one of the concepts which can be expressed by folding one’s hands –a sta cu mainile in brau, and an insencere and deceitful person can be described as being two-faced-cu doua fete.
Also, body idioms are a effective way of describing appearance: skin and bone-piele si oase, which means very thin, Features of different phenomena.
This group of English body idioms covers deals with various aspects of life as well as a cognitive approach to personal and impersonal relationships and situations. For example, unity may be expressed by hand in hand – mana in mana, on the contrary, violence can be represented by to fight hand in hand - a lupta cot la cot, while the notion of death can be expressed by: to have (got) one foot in the grave - a fi cu un picior în mormînt.
Human body idioms mainly express the relation between one’s body and the exteriour world by making connections between the functions of a particular body part and the general understanding of that specific function in relation to phenomena occuring in the world we live. (Jinming 54) For example, an idiom such as „know smth like the back/palm of one’s hand“ expresses the degree of familiarity with a certain fact or object, similar to the way in which people know what happens to their hands even when not looking at them. In Romanian, a similar idiom used for this idea of good understanding would be „a cunoaste ceva ca in palma“ .
The majority of idioms related to human organs which are situated …show more content…
The following thematic groups are mentioned by Stoyanova:
Human emotions and feelings.
Idioms can express positive emotions such as delight, happiness (to rub one’s hands- a freca mainile de bucurie), love or passion (to offer sb one’s hand – a cere in casatorie).
However, some body idioms can display a strong feeling of desolation and hopelessness (My foot – du-te dracului) or feeling of exhaustion and tiredness (to be dead on one’s feet- a fi mort de oboseala)
Traits of human character. Laziness is one of the concepts which can be expressed by folding one’s hands –a sta cu mainile in brau, and an insencere and deceitful person can be described as being two-faced-cu doua fete.
Also, body idioms are a effective way of describing appearance: skin and bone-piele si oase, which means very thin, Features of different phenomena.
This group of English body idioms covers deals with various aspects of life as well as a cognitive approach to personal and impersonal relationships and situations. For example, unity may be expressed by hand in hand – mana in mana, on the contrary, violence can be represented by to fight hand in hand - a lupta cot la cot, while the notion of death can be expressed by: to have (got) one foot in the grave - a fi cu un picior în mormînt.