Idioms

HOW DO I MAKE MY LANGUAGE MORE REALISTIC?
HOW DO I MAKE MY LANGUAGE MORE UNIQUE?

WHAT IS IRREGULARITY?

Philosophically, irregularity is the end product of the belief that everything dosn't have to work the same way. In practice, this results in small diferences in the ways certain gramatical forms are implemented. For example:

• To be -> am, (art,) is, are, were, been
  when a normal English verb is:
• To verb -> verb, (verbst,) verbs, verbed

WHEN CAN I MAKE THINGS IRREGULAR?

Whenever you want. Any time there is a normal pattern that is followed by the language, you can make an irregularity by doing something else for a few special cases.

WHAT ARE UNPREDICTABLE LEXICAL ITEMS?

Unpredictable lexical items comprise idoms, stock phrases, phrasals, and fossil constructions.

WHAT ARE IDIOMS?

Idioms are short phrases which are completely unpredictable in meaning from the words and constructions used in them. Idioms are often fossilized metaphors. For Example:

• In English a situation is "Down the tubes" while
• in Russian, the same situation is "Up the chimney"

HOW DO I FORM IDOMS?

There are lots of ways; you can:

• Make a calque of your favorite song lyric.
• Assign a random meaning to a perfectly ordinaty sentance: (ie. "fish are wet" for "it's raining.")
• Import them from faraway lands.

Almost any of these will work for making the language more realistic. Importing runs the risk of relexification, but if you import from a wide variety of languages the risk is minimal.

WHAT ARE STOCK PHRASES?

Stock phrases are a special type of idiom used as a common response to a certain question. These usually have no possible translation, and show the charicter of the language For example:

• In French:
  • Merci.
  • -Il n'y a pas de quoi.
    WHERE DO STOCK PHRASES OCCUR?
    Stock phrases are most commonly everyday bits of politeness. Some stock phrases are used as literary tools, others migrate back and forth between idiom and cliche. The most common is the possible response to "Thank you"
    HOW DO I MAKE THEM?
    Form or steal an idiom as above, but create a social context in which it can be used.
    WHAT ARE PHRASALS?
    Phrasals are compound words which can't be broken down in any sensible way. For example:

    • "Get up" and "Get down" aren't antonyms in English, even though they should be.

    Irregular words inside phrasals often become regular in their phrasal sense.

    • Eg. Fly -> flew; fly out -> flied out
    HOW DO I MAKE PHRASALS?
    Choose two classes of lexical items which taste good togather in your language, (like nouns+adjectives, verbs+adpositions, etc.) and combine them in a whimsical way to make new lexical items.
    WHAT ARE FOSSIL CONSTRUCTIONS?
    Fossil constructions are constructions used in certain idioms and stock phrases which the language once had but (presumably) no longer contains. Other rife sources for fossil constructions are traditional prayrs and nursery rimes.

Copyright © 1997, Jack Durst,
Last updated: 7 May, 1997