Abstract:

English is well-known for its idiomaticity that enables native speakers to express their ideas in a less direct and often more polite way. Figurative language deviates from the conventional meaning in order to convey meaning that is not tended to be stated directly in contrast with literal language that uses the words referring to statements of fact.

In fiction writing, figurative language is used to engage readers and attract them by using a creative tone that provokes readers’ imagination and thinking. Our focus is not put on analysing a wide range of literary (rhetoric) devices and techniques such as simile, onomatopoeia, metaphor, etc., but exclusively idioms. Despite a different approaches to defining idioms as it usually covers a broader concept, in our study idioms will be viewed as phrases comprising a number of words that are not interpreted literally and meaning of which cannot be deprived from individual words. This figurative sense is usually unpredictable and means something different from what the words the phrase consists of would imply. However, our collection of samples will not contain one-word idioms or phrasal words as our emphasis is put on the multi-word units that are comprised of syntagmatic, non-syntagmatic or clause structures, having one comprehensive meaning and lexical-semantic and grammatical stability. In most cases, these idiomatic expressions have their meaning totally or partially different from the one related to single units the phrase consists of.

Our study is based on an analysis of samples excerpted from contemporary literary prose, published in British English in 2019. The number of excerpted pages accounts for 100. Taken different approaches to the classification of idioms into account, our collection of samples will be sorted into different groups, using the criteria of similar or different features, either formal or semantic. A variety of aspects regarding representative idioms of a particular group will be discussed and commented on, using a number of relevant sources such as dictionary entries, the British National Corpus, etc.

The use of idiomatic expressions belongs to the most difficult part of learning a target language and its mastery is viewed as the highest level of proficiency. The idea behind our study was to prove that reading contemporary literary prose enables language learners to be exposed to idiomatic expressions and become familiar with them in a natural way.

Keywords:

Idioms, figurative meaning, contemporary literary prose.