Drew1988

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Drew1988
BibType ARTICLE
Key Drew1988
Author(s) Paul Drew, Elizabeth Holt
Title Complainable matters: the use of idiomatic expressions in making complaints
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Idioms, Complaints
Publisher
Year 1988
Language English
City
Month
Journal Social Problems
Volume 35
Number 4
Pages 398–417
URL Link
DOI 10.2307/800594
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Idiomatic, proverbial, and other figurative expressions are quite frequently employed by speakers in ordinary talk. Our analysis of idioms in naturally occurring conversations reveals that they are used, not randomly, but most notably when one speaker is complaining to another. In this sequential environment the particularly egregious character of the matter being complained about is portrayed through an idiom. In view of the role complaints play in casting private troubles or anxieties into the public domain, it is significant that typically a complaint is formulated idiomatically at a point where there is some conflict or lack of alignment between complainant and recipient. Thus, idioms are introduced in “inauspicious environments,” where, up until then, recipients have withheld sympathizing or affiliating with a complainant. Idioms have a special robustness which lends them the function of summarizing the complaint in such a way as to enhance its legitimacy, and simultaneously to bring the complaint to a close.

Notes

Also in: Réseaux, 1990, Hors Série 8 n°1. pp. 109-143.