Publication Details
Abstract
General Background: one of the main aspects of phraseology, idioms provide language with figurative forms and cultural connotations. Specific Background: In English and German, the use of idioms in order to create more expressiveness and poetic meaning is popular, especially when applied in the form of antonymic pairs. Knowledge Gap: The research on idiomatic synonymy and stylistic use has become profuse, but there is also little research on the comparative analysis of antonymic idioms. Objective: The paper analyses structural and semantics aspects of antonym idioms in both English and German languages, as a way of explaining how fixed expressions in the two languages show the opposite meaning. Results: By using the examples like, hit the jackpot vs. hit rock bottom and see eye to eye vs. be at odds with the study finds out that English idioms are fixed in structure whereas German idioms have syntactic flexibility on account of, the verb placement constraints. Novelty: This study will bring a unique aspect in terms of comparative dimension in the phraseological study by focusing on antonymy as a specific type. Implications: The results have concrete implication to the language teaching, translation, and intercultural appreciation, and it increases the capacity of the learners in dealing with semantic opposites in different languages.