Re: SURVEY: Idiomatic Expressions In Your ConLang Or ConCulture

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@I...> wrote:

>(There we go with one of those weird English idioms again, I
>mean "it's not clear to me" :-)
I'm beginning to think that any definition of "idiom" is in the mind
of the beholder.  Why is the above cited example an idiom?

David Crystal in "a Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics" defines
as idiom as "...a sequence of words which is semantically and often
syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit."

AHD gives as its fourth (of thirteen) definition of "clear": "plain
or evident to the mind."  AHD defines idiom as "A speech form that
is peculiar to itself within the usage of a given language."

AHD's first definition of "clear" is: "free from anything that dims,
obscures or darkens; unclouded."  Are we saying that any connotative
use of a word makes it idiomatic?

Each word in the sequence is, IMO, semantically and syntactically
independent and substitutions can be made.  As Mr. Crystal says, one
can't say, "it's raining a cat and a dog."

I don't find "it's not clear to me" any more idiomatic/peculiar
than "it's not plain to me" or "it's not evident to me."

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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