The Play of Familiarity and Predictability in English Business Idioms

Abstract

This study looks at the use of idioms by Romanian business students learning English as asecond language. An experiment has been conducted, in which 119 students of economic scienceswere given the task to match 20 idioms to contexts in which they may be used (short sentences fromwhich the idiom had been removed). The students were explained beforehand that each idiommatches one sentence, that all sentences are taken from business contexts and that none of theidioms is used literally. They were also asked to rate the degree of their familiarity with the idiom(1 – Familiar, 2 – Less familiar, 3 – Unfamiliar). The purpose of the study was to restrict thestudents from reverting to the literal meaning of the idioms and from decomposing them, in orderto determine the play of familiarity and predictability in identifying the meaning of idioms.

Keywords

• idiom
• predictability
• familiarity
• business
• ESL