idiomatizität

Idiomatizität refers to the degree to which a linguistic expression is idiomatic. An idiomatic expression is one whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal meanings of its constituent parts. For example, "kick the bucket" is an idiomatic expression meaning "to die," and its meaning is not derived from the individual words "kick," "the," and "bucket." The more non-literal and fixed an expression is, the higher its idiomatizität. This concept is important in linguistics, particularly in semantics and lexicography, as it helps explain how language can convey meanings beyond the sum of its parts.

The level of idiomatizität can vary. Some expressions are fully idiomatic, meaning their meaning is entirely non-literal. Others might be partially idiomatic, where part of the meaning can be understood literally, but there's also a figurative or conventional interpretation. For instance, in "spill the beans," while "spill" and "beans" are literal words, the combined phrase means "to reveal a secret," which is not a direct consequence of the literal actions. Understanding idiomatizität is crucial for language acquisition, as learners must memorize and internalize these non-compositional meanings. It also poses challenges for machine translation, as direct word-for-word translation often fails to capture the intended idiomatic meaning.