英语词汇学考查试卷

河北工程大学2014-2015学年第一学期期末英语词汇学考查试卷

I. Research project:

Choose one the following topics as your research task, or someone else if you prefer, and present

your research processand result here. The volume of your paper should be in about 1,500 Chinese characters or 1,000 English words. Please print on both sides when needed.

1. Comparison of inflection and derivation.

2. Commonization of proper names.

3. Summary of

sense relations. 4. Research on functions of context. 5. Metaphor in cognition.

The difference between idioms and phrases

Introduction: Each language has its own idioms and proverbs in the world. Idiom and proverb is a form of language to express emotions and feelings in their daily lives. As a short exact sentence or phrase from creating of social practice, they are gradually the most concise and vivid part of language.

An idiom is either a style of speaking and writing (and it can be applied to the arts, as well) that is particular, distinctive, or notable, or it is a phrase (often called an idiomatic phrase, too) that cannot be understood from its individual words. These phrases only make sense when the words are put together a certain way, or they are used in certain situations. Examples: "kick the bucket" means to die; "raining cats and dogs"means raining heavily

A proverb is usually a statement that conveys some piece of wisdom or widely accepted truth. It is a memorable or famous sentence that people use to remember the piece of information. It is defined as a short pithy saying in common use and recognized; a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held to express some truth ascertained by experience or observation and familiar to all. Example: Never too old to learn, never too late to turn.

Different features:

(1)Proverbs are mainly oral, while idioms are mainly written.

(2) The structure of proverbs are harder to become set than those of idioms.

(3) The majority of proverbs is independent sentences or become independent of sentences,

while idioms are used as words in practical speech. Aproverb is a saying (a sentenceor small number of sentences) which express some common truth. They often employ some sort of image to make the point. "Don't cry over spilled milk", it means that it is no use complaining or feeling bad about something that has already happenedand that we can't do anything about. An idiom is a phrase (not necessarily a sentence)

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whose meaning cannot be determined from the individual words. It does not necessarily express some truth

or complete thought. “i s H t r e u e blue”, i m t eans dependable and honest. It has nothing to do with the person being the color blue.

(4) Proverbs mainly give judgments and inference, which idioms usually express general ideas

The idiom is a kind of special speech form that is particular in meaning, grammatical structure and usage. Idiomatic expressions are even difficult for native English speakers because their meanings cannot be determined through an analysis of their individual words. For instance, “to fall out ”m

neither “fall ”nor “out ”has a sense of quarrel. The meaning of this idiom is a metaphorical one. rose ”is also very difficult to understand from the literal meanings of its component words. Its true meaning is “secretlyUnl”ike.literal language, it is impossible to explain the idiom from the literal meaning of the individual words. Thus, English idioms are difficult to understand and acquire, because they are a combination of two or more words, which function as a unit of meaning.

Bacon once said, “The genius, wit and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.”As we all know, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture. Language is the carrier of culture which in turn is the content of language. We can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture. proverb as a special form of language exist in both of them and carry a large amount of cultural information such as history, geography, religion, custom, nationality psychology, thought pattern and etc, and therefore are closely related to culture. The usage of proverb is as follows :( 1) illiterate societies: more readily employed in cultures of predominant illiteracy. (2) Norms of usage: governed by social norms; logical application; appropriate social use.

A Proverb is an old saying which usually gives advice - you can understand the meaning of the phrase and decide what advice it gives. An Idiom is a phrase that seems to make sense when you first read it, but which has a totally different meaning that you cannot guess just from looking at the words. An idiom is a sentence, e xpression or a grammatical rule that is typically found in one language. A proverb is a verse, generally a metaphor that expresses an idea. This idea can be found in other languages. A proverb can be an idiom.

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