语篇中的英语习语

English Idioms in Text

传统的英语习语研究主要关注习语的类型、句法特征和语义等问题 ,而对习语在语篇中的功能探讨不多。本文通过分析口语和书面语语料中英语习语的具体使用情况 ,研究英语习语在语篇中的组织和指示功能 ,认为英语习语的使用与语篇结构有一定的联系。文章同时探讨英语习语与语篇衔接的问题。

Studies of English idioms in the past have largely focused on the syntactic and semantic properties as well as the mental processing and comprehension of such expressions, to the neglect of their discoursal functions. Based on authentic data of both written and spoken English, this paper attempts to study the use of English idioms in text. It is found that idioms seem to have important organizational and signaling functions. Seen from the perspective of functional discourse analysis, English idioms, used in hyper-themes and macro-themes, serve to organize texts and/or signal forthcoming information. The paper also probes into the issue of cohesion in relation to the use of English idioms.