The syntax of English idioms: Can the dog be put on?

An idiom is generally defined as a collection of words rather than a string, since many are discontinuous (eg, pull X's leg). Previous attempts to classify idioms & explain various degrees of flexibility within them are discussed. A study is reported in which an attempt was made to determine why Ss find some syntactic variations of idioms acceptable & others not acceptable. A series of five main experiments (N = 28, 20, 15, 20, & 20 undergraduates, respectively) were run under similar procedures each using four tasks: (1) an idiom definition task, (2) acceptability judgments of syntactically similar idioms, (3) meaning closeness ratings comparing an idiom & the meanings of the individual words when combined literally, & (4) report or guess as to the origin of idiom meanings. In all experiments, numerous syntactic variants were used in combination with standard versions of the idioms chosen. Analysis of the results indicates that the number of syntactic variants of an idiom that Ss find acceptable is related to the number of other Ss who know the definition of the idiom. It is suggested that variability may be more acceptable in more familiar idioms. Approximately 14% of the data contradicted B. Fraser's claim ("Idioms within a Transformational Grammar," Foundations of Language, 1970, 6, 22-42) that syntactic variations form an implicational series with respect to acceptability. 8 Tables, 18 References. B. Annesser Murray