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1、IntroductionEnglish idioms are considered as the most active part of English language, and they are widely used in peoples daily life, newspaper, magazine, broadcasting and TV media. It is quite difficult to give a clear definition to the word “idiom”, for it possesses several meanings, which might
2、cause confusion. It may mean the language of a people or a country, or a dialect, or a linguistic usage that defies grammatical analysis. But the most suitable definition for this paper is as follows. “Idiom is an expression established in the long usage of a language that is peculiar to itself eith
3、er in grammatical construction or in having a meaning that cannot be derived as a whole from the conjoined meanings of its elements.” English idioms, in a broad sense, include idiomatic phrase, proverbs, colloquialisms and slangs. In comparison, the Chinese equivalent for “idiom” is “习语”. It means a
4、 kind of set phrase or sentence, which, like a stock expression, is often quoted by the common people. Chinese idioms can be roughly divided into “set phrases”(成语),“common sayings”(俗语),“proverbs” (谚语),“a two-part allegorical saying”(歇后语),and “vulgar expression”（粗俗语)From the above definitions and cla
5、ssifications we can extract three basic characteristics of idioms. (1) An idiom is a special form of language. An idiom must be well established and accepted through common practice. It stands as a whole. So no element in an idiom can be changed. In many cases, idioms hold implied meanings, and cann
6、ot be interpreted just according to their literal meanings. (2) An idiom is the crystallization of language. Language gives birth to idioms. It also polishes idioms. Refined by long usage idioms have been described as the core of language. (3) An idiom is the representative of a language. Though bot
7、h British and Chinese people use idioms and give the almost same definition of idioms, we cannot equal the two idioms, for their ranges are different.As an important means of spreading, retaining language and culture, idioms contain rich cultural factors themselves. From this point of view, it is to
8、tally wrong to study language by isolating idioms from the whole cultural background of one language. We can save many difficulties by mastering English idioms and learn them well.Chapter 1 The Relationship Between Idioms and CultureIdiomatic expressions are even difficult for native English speaker
9、s because their meanings cannot be determined through an analysis of their individual words. For instance, “to fall out” means “to quarrel”, but neither “fall” nor “out” has a sense of quarrel. For we Chinese students, English idioms are a stumbling block. It is very possible that they often not onl
10、y feel at a loss in understanding conversations because of a key idiom but also misused idioms. In this paper, I am going to make a brief study of the relationship between idioms and culture and throw some light on the learning of English idioms.As we all know, language is closely related to culture
11、 and can be said as a part of culture. From a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other. Language is the carrier of culture, which in turn is the content of language. We can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture.1.1
12、. Idioms, Language and the Language LearnerEnglish idiom is an important part of English language that is characterized by its profound meaning and special background. As it possesses a unique way of expression, those who learn English as a foreign language find it difficult to get a good understand
13、ing. Therefore, even to those learners who spend a lot of time in remembering English vocabularies and learning grammar, understanding the conversations or articles from native English users still appears to be a very difficult job. For example, in some situations, it appears that when these phrases
14、 are separated, each single word is understandable. However, when these words are combined into a sentence in certain orders, it turns out to have some special meanings which cause confusions to those English learners. Idioms are typical samples of this general phenomenon. Language use is not only a
15、 matter of applying generative rules. Many of the things we say are formulaic fixed or semi-fixed expressions which are conventionally associated with recurrent situations and meanings, and which may be more or less idiomatic. And idioms and idiomlike constructions are an important part of language
16、use. In fact, they make up a large part of our knowledge of language and are a persistent feature of language. As far as a foreign language learner is concerned, idioms are in many ways crucial if he or she wants to improve his or her English fluently like a native speaker. According to Gibbs(1995), one cannot be regarded as competent speaker of a foreign language until he or she masters the various idio
