Type of Idiomatic Expression

Education English | Type of Idiomatic Expression | According to Baker (1992:63), there are various types of idioms in which some are more easily recognizable than others.
a. Idioms which violate truth conditions.
The examples of these are:
• It’s raining cats and dogs (to rain very heavily)
• Storm in a tea cup (unnecessarily excited reaction to an unimportant
b. Idioms which seem ill-formed because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the language. The examples are:
• Trip the light fantastic (to dance)
c. Idioms which start with like (simile- like structure). This includes such idioms as:
• Like a bat out of hell
• Like water off a duck’s back.
d. Based on the forms, idiomatic expression consists of two categories they are:
1. Fixed Idioms indicate that they resist variations in their forms.
2. Non-fixed idioms indicate allow variations in their forms.
e. Based on the meaning, idiomatic expression consists of two categories they are:
1. Transparent idiom means that its meaning can be traced by its constituent words.
2. Non transparent idiom is when it cannot be traced by the literal meaning of the words that make it up.
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