1

FRENCH AND ENGLISH IDIOMATICITY

Erica Suggs
ELANG 326
Professor Janis Nuckolls
12 December 2016
 2

Introduction

Idiomatic expressions, “preformatted utterances, a special kind

of fixed expression” (Bonin, 2013), can be one of the hardest

things for a language learner to get a firm grasp of. The

figurative and metaphoric meanings of words used in the

expressions are often so far from the literal meanings that it

is impossible to tell the meaning of the idiom on first

exposure. As a French learner, the idiomatic expressions of the

French language have caught my eye and intrigued me. I feel

that, more than with English idioms, French idioms “vary . . .

[in] the way in which the literal meanings of their word

constituents contribute (or do not contribute) to the overall

idiomatic interpretation of the phrase” (Titone, 1994). French

expressions appear to be more random and it is more difficult to

guess at the meaning or to see a relation between it and a

similar English expression. They seem to rely much less on the

literal meanings of the words, and much more heavily on one’s

knowledge of the expression itself. I will argue that French

expressions will employ more idiomatic and metaphoric meanings

in their composition than English expressions, despite the

languages’ relatedness.
 3

Short Literature Review

Much research has been done on the comprehension times and

composition of idiomatic expressions. Titone (1994) studies the

familiarity, compositionality, predictability, and literality of

idioms. She compares how each of these aspects of idioms relate

to each other and aid the overall comprehension: “Semantically

nondecomposable idioms derive their idiomatic meaning from the

phrase as a unit rather than the individual word meanings that

comprise the string.” This is just what I want to look for in

French idioms—whether or not the figurative meaning is related

to the literal meaning, and if those are related to the English

meanings. Another study was done on French idioms, but dealing

specifically with comprehension times rather than meaning. While

I would be very interested in studying the comprehension as

well, I am mainly dealing with meaning and so these studies are

less useful to me.

Methodology

I picked a few French idiomatic expressions that caught my

attention, either because they seemed very unusual or because I

felt I could see somewhat of an explanation for the origin, or a

relation with the equivalent English expression. With these

expressions I created a Qualtrics survey asking the following

questions:
 4

• Do you recognize the expression? Is it very common?

• Do you know the origin and/or meaning of this expression?

• Do you know of any relation between this expression and a

similar or equivalent expression in English?

• Do you think the idiomatic meaning has anything to do with

the literal meaning?

I also asked how long the participants had been speaking French

and if they had ever lived in a francophone country, and for how

long, because I felt this would most definitely have an effect

on their knowledge of the idioms. I then distributed the survey

to my classmates from my French class through Learning Suite,

and through Facebook to other friends I have who speak French. I

had eleven respondents.

I also read the literal English translations of the

expressions to ten non-French speakers to see if they could

guess the idiomatic meanings.

Analysis

The expressions I chose were kind of random. Some of them I

chose because they seemed very unusual and some I chose because

I felt it was easier to find a connection between them and an

English expression. Some of the expressions were fairly well-

known, while some were not known at all. Following are the
 5

expressions I chose, followed by their literal translations, and

then the idiomatic meanings. I will discuss the recognition of

each, as well as how the non-French speakers responded to them.

1. Avoir les dents longues

To have the teeth long

To have lofty/ambitious goals

Only one respondent knew this expression. They had lived in

France and Haiti. I was surprised with the number of non-French

speakers who gave an answer relating to lying or being

talkative. They explained to me that they came to that

conclusion by the inclusion of the word “long” in the phrase.

They made a connection through Pinocchio with his long nose.

2. Avoir un poil dans la main

To have a hair in the hand

To be lazy

None of my survey respondents recognized this expression,

but it was also the most baffling to the non-French speakers. I

think this is the perfect example of when the idiomatic meaning

employed in the French is so utterly different from what we

would use in English that unless you know the expression, it is

impossible to know what it means.

 6

3. Couper la poire en deux

To cut the pear in two

To meet halfway

I expected this expression to be a bit better known, but

only one of the survey respondents knew it. Nevertheless, nearly

all of the non-French speakers could tell it had something to do

with splitting in two, or having two equal things. None of them

guessed exactly right, but they were all very good guesses, with

their even splitting.

4. Tomber dans les pommes

To fall in the apples

To faint/pass out

Two people recognized this expression, one having lived in

France and the other in Quebec. I got quite the variety of

guesses from the non-French speakers, but surprisingly about

half of them had to do with making a mistake. This may have to

do with our tendency to associate the verb “to fall” with

tripping or messing up in some other way.

5. Avoir le cafard

To have the cockroach

To be depressed/gloomy
 7

While I expected this to be one of the lesser known

expressions, it was actually the second best known. Five of the

elven respondents knew it, two of whom had lived in Quebec, two

in France, and one in Africa. The guesses of the non-French

speakers were very close as well, most of them being along the

lines of “to be sick”. It was not the technically correct

answer, but so close that in a general sense I would say they

got it right. While I do not know of a similar expression in

English, this is an example of when French uses similar

idiomaticity to English. Both French and English speakers

interpret a cockroach as something unwanted—it carries a

negative semantic prosody.

6. Avoir un chat dans la gorge

To have a cat in the throat

To have a frog in your throat

This was the most recognized expression. Seven survey

respondents knew it, one of whom hadn’t ever lived in a

francophone country. However, it is very similar to an English

expression, to have a frog in the throat. I believe it was

because of this that it is the one the non-French speakers had

the easiest time with as well. Nearly all of them guessed that

it meant to have a scratchy throat. Here is a case where the

 8

French expression made use of words in a similar way to that of

English.

7. S’occuper de ses oignons

To take care of your onions

To mind your own business

Two respondents knew this expression, both of whom had

lived in France. I found this interesting because I first heard

this phrase in a French film, so I wonder now if it is a purely

French expression. The non-French speakers, though none of them

guessed it exactly, were all fairly consistent in their guesses.

Most had to do with paying attention to detail or dealing with

something unpleasant or bothersome.

Discussion

None of the origins of the expressions were known. I think it

would have been a good idea, or very interesting to see at

least, if knowing the origins would help at all in determining

the meanings, for both the French and non-French speakers.

Perhaps on the survey I could have had a multiple choice

question to see what people thought the most likely origin was,

and then if they didn’t know the expression, see if that

influenced their choice in what the meaning was. For my non-

 9

French speaking respondents, it may have been easier for them to

be more accurate to know the origin.

Similarly, not many equivalent or similar English

expressions were known. Primarily only avoir un chat dans la

gorge was said to have an equivalent, because the equivalent is

extremely similar. Several respondents, both French and non-

French speaking, guessed at avoir un poil dans la main meaning

one in the hand is worth two in the bush, or some variation

thereof. Some people thought the idiomatic meanings had related

to the literal meanings, and some did not, but for the most part

they were unsure and it seemed to be a kind of guessing game.

That question probably could have been left off, though it would

be extremely interesting to study on its own.

Conclusion

Based off of my results from both experiments, I would say that

the idiomatic meanings in French expressions are very different

from those in English, and that they interpret the meanings of

their words in very different ways to understand the idiomatic

expressions.

In the survey, it was the expressions most similar to ones

we have in English that were best known. For the non-French

speakers, it was those same expressions that were most easily

guessed. They were either similarly worded, as with Expression

 10

6, or employed words or ideas that were interpreted considerably

similarly in both French and English, as with Expressions 3 and

5. Thus, I would say that French idiomatic expressions do indeed

employ more figurative and metaphoric meanings in their

components than do English expressions.

 11

References

Titone, D. A., & Connine, C. M. (1994) Descriptive Norms for 171

Idiomatic Expressions: Familiarity, Compositionality,

Predictability, and Literality. Metaphor and Symbolic

Activity, 9(4), 247-270. Retrieved from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/

Bonin, P., Méot, A., & Bugaiska, A. (2013) Norms and

Comprehension Times for 305 French Idiomatic Expressions.

Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1259-1271. doi:

10.3758/s13428-013-03314