Idiomatic

Expression
By Ecsha Mahendra
 What is Idiomatic Expression?
Idiomatic expression is a type of informal language that
have a meaning different from the meaning of the words
in the expression. Victoria (2011) stated that language
contains many phrases whose meanings are not
predictable on its individual words. That phrases are
called idioms, or idiomatic phrases.
1. Makna idiomatikal adalah makna sebuah satuan bahasa (kata, frasa, atau
kalimat) yang “menyimpang” dari makna leksikal atau makna gramatikal
unsur-unsur pembentuknya (Chaer,1994:75).
2. Makna idiomatikal adalah makna leksikal yang dibangun dari beberapa kata,
yang tidak dapat dijelaskan lagi lewat makna-makna pembentuknya
(Kentjono, 1990:79).
3. Makna idiomatikal juga dapat diartikan sebagai kata-kata yang disusun
dengan kombinasi kata lain, menghasilkan makna yang berlainan dengan
katakata yang menjadi konstituennya (Kentjono, 1990:79).
4. Menurut Abdul Chaer dalam Zainuddin (1992)makna idiomatik atau
idiomatikal ialah maknanya tidak dapat diramalkan dari makna unsur unsurnya
baik secara leksikal maupun secara gramatikal.
 There are three types
idioms
1. The idiom derived from verbs because the verb clauses
appended. (Ex:While doing his homework, he dropped
off.)
2. The idiom from adjectives (or Participle) because the
adjectives (or Participle) are preposition appended. (Ex:
Are you going out again tonight? You are such a party
animal.)
3. The idiom come from noun because it is a preposition at
the end. (Ex: We spent all afternoon looking for the dog,
The explanation about each type of idioms as
follows
• Substitute  This type of idiom consists of personal pronouns and numerals
such as the personal person (he, she, it, and they), the demonstratives (this,
these, that, ad those), and the verb “do”.
• Proper name  It usually refers to name of people, places, animals, spirits, and
vehicles that create new idioms.
• Abbreviation  The use of part for a whole for example a phone which is a part
of a word telephone, UNESCO which stands for United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.
• Phrasal Compound  Compound itself means a noun, an adjective or a verb that
has been created from two or more simple words and it is linked with a hyphen
(-) for example: well-dressed, well-known, boy-friend.
• Slang  Slang can be defined as the use of informal words.
 Various Dimensions of Idioms
❧ (In)flexibility. The form of idioms may show special syntax, and they appear in a limited number of syntactic
structures as compared to regular expressions.
❧ Figuration. The meaning of idioms involves metaphors, hyperboles, and other kinds of cognitive figures, and these
figurative meanings appear to show particular processing properties in comparison to the literal uses of these
same expressions (Gibbs, 1980, 2007; Cacciari & Tabosi, 1988, 1993).
❧ Conventionality expressions can be defined as conventional when their meaning or use can’t be predicted, or at
least entirely predicted, on the basis of a knowledge of the independent conventions that determine the use of their
constituents when they appear in isolation from one another.
❧ Compositionality Compositionality refers to the degree to which the phrasal meaning, once known, can be
analyzed in terms of how it is distributed among the individual parts of the expression.
❧ Transparency idiomatic expression can be claimed to be conceptually transparent when there is a metaphorical
motivation for the meaning it involves. For example, consider the following examples that have to do with anger
(Gibbs, 1995, 2007): blow your stack, flip your lid, hit the ceiling, get hot under the collar, and get steamed up,
among others. Following Gibbs, these related idiomatic expressions can be said to be conceptually transparent
because they can be claimed to be motivated by the conceptual metaphor ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN A
COINTAINER.

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 Translating Idiomatic Expression
Idiom is one of the challenges in literary translation
since it is very culturerelated. Not to mention that
idiom is a very unique, colorful expression which is
usually specific to a particular language. This
condition makes translating idioms can be quite
taxing. Baker (1992) stated that “the first difficulty
that a translator faces while translating idioms is the
ability to recognize and differentiate idiomatic and
non-idiomatic expression”.
 The Difficulties of Translating Idioms
1. The phrase or expression still may not have equality in the target language.
One language can express the meaning given by one word, the other can
express it with a transparent fixed expression, and the third can express it
using idioms, and so on.
2. An idiom can be used in source text in a literal and idiomatic sense at the same
time. Unless the target language idiom corresponds to the source language
idiom both in form and in the sense, the idiom cannot be successfully
reproduced in the target text.
3. The very convention of using idioms in written discourse, the contexts in
which they can be used, and their frequency of use may be different in the
source and target language.
 Examples (Idn-Eng)
Rumahku istanaku – literary translated as my home, my
castle. This expression has the similar meaning as home
sweet home.
Orang sabar disayang Tuhan – literary translated as
God loves patient person. This means good thing will
comes to those who wait
 Examples (Eng-Idn):
Beat around the bush  Menghindari poin dalam
pembicaraan.
Make love  Berhubungan badan/bersetubuh.
Good for nothing  Ga guna.
Thank You!
 References:
• https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/linguistics/abstract/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.
001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-51
• https://masteringbahasa.com/indonesian-idioms-and-expression
• https://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/idiomatic-expressions.html#:~:text=Idiom
atic%20expressions%20are%20a%20type,Hold%20your%20tongue.&text=So%2C%20wh
ile%20their%20tongue%20is,and%20don't%20say%20anything
.
• http://repository.unpas.ac.id/40108/4/13.%20Chapter%20II.pdf
• https://lib.unnes.ac.id/35326/1/2601413007_Optimized.pdf
• https://repository.usd.ac.id/3104/2/111214117_full.pdf

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