the meaning of the idiom kick the bucket is'to die '.
the meaning of the idiom kick the bucket is'to die '.
the meaning of the idiom kick the bucket?
' to die '
an idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; "i.e." the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. by another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements. for example, an english speaker would understand the phrase ""kick the bucket"" to mean ""to die"" and also to actually kick a bucket. furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context.
english-language idioms
bullet::::- the dual idiom representation model suggests that idiomatic expressions are simultaneously “long words” and compositional phrases. thus, idiom comprehension involves both direct memory retrieval and normal language processing. idioms behave noncompositionally to the degree they are familiar. when highly familiar idioms encountered, their idiomatic meanings can be directly activated. in addition, idioms can behave compositionally if they are decomposable. decomposability of an idiom refers to the extent to which the literal meaning of the individual words in the word string participate in the overall figurative meaning of the idiom. as suggested earlier, the idiom "play with fire" is decomposable while "kick the bucket" is nondecomposable. comprehension is facilitated in a decomposable idiom since there are commonality between the results of its literal analysis and its idiomatic meaning. research shows that familiarity had the larger effect on the speed of idiom comprehension than decomposability. decomposability nonetheless facilitates processing the meaningfulness of the idiomatic expression.
comprehension of idioms