Comment

Fifteen commandments of a phraseologist

FRANTISEK
CERM
AK

Phraseology or, alternatively, idiomatics, is a young discipline still full of misunderstandings due to theories developed for other purposes or, on the surface of
it, due to seemingly obvious and clear illustrations of metaphors. There is a long
history of generativists fighting the phenomenon of idioms under various labels
and with negligible success, some of them wondering why not even the latest
Chomskyan or post-Chomskyan theory helps. Cognitivists, on the other hand,
being obsessed with metaphor and labouring to identify it everywhere have not
made this phenomenon any clearer. On the other hand, being long recognized as
a specific domain, idioms are used, often in an oversimplified way, in a number
of textbooks for beginners (though with a mixed success) and elsewhere.
Trying to present, in the following, some of the major features and, at the
same time, stumbling-blocks in the analysis of idioms, a way is adopted pointing
to the gist of problems and fallacies that is almost atheoretical, using plain language, though based on only few examples (however, all of the points mentioned

below are discussed in Cerm

ak 2007). Hopefully, a brief comment or dictum,
based on the authors lifetime involvement with idioms, both lexicographical
and theoretical, which is offered here may provoke some critical thought. Every
point given below calls for discussion and lengthy comment, which is hardly
possible here (but see the references below).
1. In idioms, nothing is what it seems to be: words are not words, they do
not have the familiar meaning one knows from dictionaries, while, perhaps,
the worst anomaly of theirs is to be found in their specific and unpredictable
function, especially a pragmatic one. You shall be prepared to deal with these
fairly and on their own merits, cf. kick the bucket where kick does not denote
the familiar movement of a foot nor can the bucket hold liquid.
2. In your analysis, you shall not try to decompose the idiom into its constituents,
as this is tempting as well as badly misleading, not being based on any principle

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ak

and suggests an unwarranted way of analysis. No component is what it seems

to be. Should you be tempted to do this, you might end up, having successfully
determined rain of the idiom rain cats and dogs as pour, fall in drops, etc,
facing the remaining cats and dogs. Not even the most foolhardy analyst would
be able to defend this part of the idiom as meaning very hard.
3. Becoming aware of the kind of special combination underlying the idiom, you
shall not try to generalize this particular feature, or make it a rule, or, which
is worse, an algorithm supposed to produce new idioms. There are no rules,
no models to be found here, let alone formalizations enabling their boundless
generation. Thus, even the seemingly simple idiom take a seat will not allow for
a follow-up, such as take a sofa, take a bench, etc. signifying a similar habitual
movement and often used pragmatically as an invitation.
4.You shall not try to apply standard methods and criteria while studying idioms.
None of them holds, least of all projections of syntactic theories. Not even
the staunchest syntactician, Chomsky, is able to do this. Idioms are always
combinations of a kind that have their specific form, meaning and function,
cf. the absurd passivization *the bucket was kicked.
5. You shall not view the idiom as a nuisance because it does not fit your nice
theory. If the theory cannot accommodate it, its the theory that is at fault and
a nuisance for linguistics. Accordingly, do not try to invent ever-new theories
explaining the idioms substance; there have been too many of them in the past,
having all failed. Dwelling on a single counter-example, that generativists are
so fond of, may turn out to be a mixture of individual and mutually incompatible
interpretations, while, in general, it offers no solution to a large-scale description
and interpretation that dictionaries might need.
6. Idioms defy all sorts of standard language rules we know from regular use
of words. One of the most conspicuous features idioms have, not found elsewhere (next to some scientific terms), is the phenomenon of monocollocable
words (word forms, with extremely restricted collocability) that do not exist
outside phraseology and, accordingly, do not have an independent existence of
their own, cf. look askance, let bygones be bygones, kith and kin, etc. They
represent a constant headache for grammarians as defying any classification and
description.
7. In studying idiom, you shall not limit your scope to the collocation type of
idioms only. Doing so, you shall overlook other types, both smaller and larger.

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There are idioms to be found within limits of a single word, but there are also
idioms that amount to a sentence or their combination, cf. breakfast (= break +
fast), nightcap (= night + cap, i.e. in the sense of a drink), Every cloud has a
silver lining, etc.
8.You shall not look for nice metaphors and images only while trying to find idioms in text. Instead, look for irregularities and (paradigmatic and syntagmatic)
anomalies in idioms as these are omnipresent in the field while idioms based
on metaphors are in minority. Next to metaphors, there are other ways idioms
have been formed and these, such as syntagmatic anomalies including many
grammar idioms, should not be neglected and left out of description, cf. as for
(there are no analogous combinations, such as as in, as from, as on, etc.), the
ins and outs, etc.
9. You shall not handle the idiom as a mere embellishment of ones speech.
Rather, remind yourself of the real reason why the idiom exists, Historically, it
is a product of an individual chance formation (not being based on any analogy at
all) coming into use because of its useful brevity and vagueness; functionally, it is
restricted to a special use, often with an evaluative feature, cf. mostly descriptive
take it in ones head to not used to give advice (or as an imperative), while get
it into your head is used in this manner (accompanied by some insistence or
impatience).
10. You shall refrain from being chauvinistic in your interpretation of idioms
viewing them as something that is specific to a language (specifically your
language) or society only. It is not. Though some cases may seem to be like this,
they are always partial and numerically insignificant in the totality of idioms, cf.
specific Spanish hit the bulls eye, reminiscent of bull-fight, or Chinese yan(3)
er(3) dao(4) ling(2) cover ones ears to steal a bell, i.e. to cheat oneself (based
on an old story).
11.Trying to find and study the most important and current idioms in a language,
you shall go for those areas and topics that are highly frequent, spoken and laden
with evaluative function. Quite a few idioms are primarily spoken, while spoken
corpora offering data of this kind are still rather scarce.
12. While comparing idioms in more languages you shall not enthuse over
superficial similarities. Identical counterparts hardly ever obtain and it is a
safe bet that two identical idioms are not identical at all. The field is full of
false friends, cf. English out of hand (not under control; without thinking),

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ak

French de la main de (master, author) and Czech z ruky (without preparation,

improvised), etc.
13. You shall keep reminding yourself that idioms are not predictable, let alone
formed on a model found in a neighbouring language. This does not mean,
however, that languages do not borrow idioms from each other, though there is
no reliable criterion telling you when and what sort of borrowings happen.
14. If in doubt how to suggest something vaguely while not overcommitting
yourself, use an idiom since idioms are ready-made means for just that, i.e.
for avoiding an express and precise formulation, offering, at the same time, an
ample scope for conveying pragmatic (evaluative) attitudes.
15.You shall be careful while using idioms, unless you are a native speaker. There
are always anomalies in their use, too, that have to be observed, cf. a single form
(out of more) that is hardly acceptable *he will not be born yesterday, etc.
Charles University Prague

Note

Correspondence address: frantisek.cermak@lf3.cuni.cz

References

Cerm
ak, Frantisek. 2007. Frazeologie a idiomatika c eska a obecna. [Czech and general
phraseology.] Prague: Karolinum.

Cerm
ak, Frantisek. Jir Hronek & Jaroslav Machac (eds.). 2009. Slovnk c eske frazeologie
a idiomatiky. Prirovnan., Vyrazy neslovesne., Vyrazy slovesne [Dictionary of Czech
phraseology and idiomatics, similes, non-verb expressions, verb expressions, sentence
expressions]. Prague: Leda.

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