Idiomatic English

In response to the When to use on and when to use in post about prepositions, Francesco Mapelli writes: I still dont get the He was not thinking well on that occasion. Why is in wrong here? At the risk of sounding unhelpful, the onl answer to this perple!it is that on that occasion is idio"atic #nglish and in that occasion is not$ %n the other hand, we can sa in that instance, while it would be unidio"atic to sa on that instance$ In his renowned A Dictionary of Modern English Usage &$ W$ Fowler defined an idio"atic e!pression as one that is natural for a nor"al #nglish"an to sa or write$ &e went on to sa that idio"atic #nglish is not necessaril gra""atical or ungra""atical$ 'o"eti"es idio"atic usage agrees with stated rules, and so"eti"es it doesnt$ (he two, gra""ar and idio", are two separate categories$ 'o"eti"es the agree, and so"eti"es the dont$ It is not necessar to understand an idio"$ It is onl necessar to accept it$ M beginning French students often e!clai"ed at French idio"s like Jai 17 ans )literall , I ha*e +, ears-$ (he wanted to translate such constructions literall , and then co"plained that the result sounded ridiculous in #nglish$ I worked *er hard.usuall unsuccessfull .to con*ince the" that French is not so"e funn for" of #nglish$ French is French, and in French, /ai +, ans is correct and /e suis +, ans is nonsense$ Idio"atic e!pressions of e*er kind in #nglsh are rapidl changing$ &ere are so"e e!a"ples fro" " collection of prepositional use in the "edia: 0li*ing under borrowed ti"e$ )li*ing on borrowed time'tonehenge has " stic appeal to the 1ritish people$ )appeal for the #nglish people%n the other hand, we sa that picture appeals to "e$ 0foreigners ha*e been encroaching into 2orean waters$ )encroaching on(he I3' is not concerned with the situations in which these "inors will be returned to$ (his one is ungra""atical as well as unidio"atic$ It should read: (he I3' is not concerned with the situations to which these "inors will be returned$ 'e*eral forces are at work to change #nglish idio"s$ %ne is lack of attention to teaching traditional literature and usage in the public school classroo"$ 'chool ad"inistrators as a group

do not *alue language instruction$ Man of the" laugh off their own gra""atical errors or lack of fa"iliarit with literar classics b i"pl ing that such "atters are the concern of #nglish teachers onl $ Few A"ericans read for entertain"ent$ We are a fil"4oriented culture$ 5opular tele*ision shows like !einfeld spread nonstandard regional usages such as waiting on line for waiting in line )in the sense of waiting in a 6ueue-$ 5opular attitudes about personal libert e6uate linguistic correctness with elitis" or social oppression$ Finall , to so"e e!tent, the gra""atical con*entions of other languages find their wa into #nglish b wa of our di*erse population$ In "an wa s a language shapes the thoughts of the people who speak it, but the speakers also shape the language$ If enough people start sa ing or writing a certain e!pression, it will beco"e idio"atic$ (he 'tonehenge e!a"ple abo*e illustrates how idio"s can change b analog with other idio"s$ 7anguage is going to change fro" generation to generation in an case$ If it changes too rapidl , the traditional literature is lost$ Few read 8haucer for fun an "ore$ 'hakespeares works "ust be studied with a glossar $ &igh school students struggle with "reat E#$ectations, and so"e entering college students ha*e trouble understanding the essa s of 9eorge %rwell$ Writers ha*e a responsibilit to read widel in the literature of the language in which the choose to write$ (he ha*e the pri*ilege of inno*ation, but, in the interest of continuit and co"prehensibilit , the can use the pri*ilege :udiciousl $
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