International Journal of Language & Linguistics

The Placement of Idioms in Traditional and Non-Traditional Approaches
Monira I. Almohizea

Abstract
Idioms present numerous obstacles to linguistic theory and natural language processing. This paper highlights key issues surrounding the notion of idioms and its definitions, placing them within the context of the broader category of formulaic sequences. The treatment of idioms in traditional and non-traditional approaches is essentially different. Mainstream linguistic theories tend to consider idioms as peripheral language chunks whose meaning cannot be analysed or decomposed. A major criticism of this approach is that it ignores language use and human experience which form the building blocks of the assumptions held in non-traditional approaches, particularly in cognitive approaches. This paper acknowledges and engages with the difficulties surrounding the work on idioms, comparing how they are treated in traditional vs. non-traditional approaches. This paper also goes some way towards arguing for placing them within a specific – yet plausible – coherent cognitive-inspired framework.

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