4. Phraseology and its stylistic use

An idiom is a fixed phrase which is only meaningful as a whole. All languages contain idiomatic phrases. Native speakers learn them and re­member them as a complete item, rather than a collection of separate words: a red herring = a false trail, raining cats and dogs = raining very hard, a fly in the ointment = spoiling the effect.

Idioms often break semantic conventions and grammatical logic - as in I'll eat my head (I'll be amazed if...). The object of the verb "to eat" is conventionally something edible, but as part of this idiom it is something def­initely inedible. Non-native speakers find the idiomatic side of any language difficult to grasp. Native speakers of a language acquire idioms from a very early stage in their linguistic development.

The translator should bear in mind the fact that idioms are generally impossible to translate between languages, although some families of lan­guages use idioms based on identical ideas. In French, for example, the idi­omatic phrase "топ vieux" is parallel in its meaning with the English "old chap", and in Russian the phraseologism "львиная доля" is parallel with the English "the lion's share".

Idioms very often contain metaphors, but not always. For example, How do you do is an idiomatic greeting but it is not a metaphor. Idioms are not always used or recognized by the whole of the language community. Sub­groups of speakers employ idioms peculiar to themselves. Teenagers, occu­pational groups, leisure groups, and gender groups all employ idioms or spe­cial phrases. These will mean something within the context of the group and its communication: He was caught leg-before-wicket (sport). She was at her sister's hen-party (gender).