How New Idioms are Coined in Modern Hebrew

Authors

  • Michal Ornan-Ephratt
  • Rachel Paltieli

Keywords:

Phraseology, Modern Hebrew, lexicon, derivation, shifts

Abstract

An idiom is a coherent multi-base lexeme, originating in a fossilized/frozen phrase, and whose meaning differs from the sum of the meanings of its semantic components. 

While Modern Hebrew inherited many lexemes, and particularly many idioms, from its ancient stratum (Biblical and post biblical), the modern reality of current Hebrew speakers forming their conceptualisation constantly requires the enrichment of the lexicon. The paper focuses on coinage of new idioms. We ask how are new Hebrew idioms generated? Do these means differ from linguistic means serving non-idiomatic lexical enrichment? And how does the transition from syntax to lexicon operate?

This study consists of an inventory of 125 new Hebrew lexemic idioms, that is, new idioms integrated into the current Hebrew lexicon. To categorise, explain and illustrate the linguistic (morphologic and semantic) means for the creation of these new idioms we adopted Mugden’s (1994) model reducing the morphological operations to the five operations doable with matter.

While the paper and its examples focuse on Hebrew, it is our hope that it will nonetheless have a pioneering contribution to the study of the creation of new idioms in general.

Published

2024-08-12