What is the Starting Point? In Search of a Working Definition of Chinese Idioms

Author: Ji, Meng1

Source: African and Asian Studies, Volume 6, Numbers 1-2, 2007 , pp. 1-11(11)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

In comparison with recent studies on English idioms, the field of Chinese idioms or Cheng Yu as we say in Chinese has not been sufficiently explored. Many works focused on the subject do not go much beyond a general description of the etymological origins of Chinese idiomatic expressions or the significant aesthetic or rhetoric value that such idioms may have in Chinese prose. In this paper, I am hoping to be able to throw some light on the nature and functionality of Chinese idioms, which is indeed an immense yet somehow understudied research area. In so doing, the current work may well be of some help preparing the ground for any future research on Chinese phraseology towards a deeper and better understanding of the subject.

Keywords: CHINESE IDIOMS; CONVENTIONALITY; IDIOMATIC VARIANTS; STRUCTURAL VERSATILITY

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/156921007X180569

Affiliations: 1: Imperial College London

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