Names of garments in English and Lithuanian idioms: contrastive study

Abstract

428 idioms with clothes and parts of them (further clothes idioms) in English and Lithuanian have been exposed to the analysis. Lithuanian idioms constitute a large proportion in comparison to the English ones. English clothes idioms make 11% (46 idioms), meanwhile Lithuanian idioms comprise 89% (382 idioms). The analysis has revealed that 30 different names of clothes are found in both languages. 16 names of clothes are used in English idioms; meanwhile Lithuanian idioms contain 23 clothes names. 30% (9) clothes names coincide in both languages. They are the following: the lining, the flap, the collar, the shirt, the apron, the sleeve, the skirt, the pocket and the pants. The following 16 semantic groups of idioms according to their meaning were found: patience, defeat, fear, fuss, dependence on another person, poorness, secrecy, loss of money, changing point of view, littleness/worthlessness, death, violence, leaving the pastorate, wealth, theft, and vigour/rapidity. The analysis has also revealed that pants, as the most popular garment used in English idioms, are found in 3 semantic groups denoting patience, defeat and fear. A pocket as the most popular garment in Lithuanian idioms with clothes is used in 5 semantic groups, which express poorness, dependence on another person, littleness/worthlessness, wealth and theft. A shirt as the third most popular garment in both languages conveys only poorness, while in Lithuanian idioms a shirt also expresses the change in the point of view. The analysis shows that in most cases English and Lithuanian idioms even containing the same clothes differ in their meaning. Although one garment can be employed to express more than one semantic group, the coincidences of the semantic groups comprising idioms with the same concept of the name of garments in both languages are limited.