Historically and Culturally Specific Idioms in American English

Yurevych N. Historically and Culturally Specific Idioms in American English : bachelor’s thesis : 035 Philology / supervised by O. Popivniak. Kyiv, 2025. 84 p.

This Bachelor’s thesis examines the structural and semantic features of culturally and historically specific American idioms, with the aim of determining their role in conveying elements of American cultural identity in discourse. The research emphasises the value of idioms as important linguistic units that reflect collective morals, traditions, national identity, and beliefs. It also explores the intricate interplay between language, geography, history, and culture, offering a perspective on the American worldview through the metaphorical nature of idiomatic expressions. The material for the study includes 155 idioms which were selected from dictionaries and subsequently categorised into thematic groups and subgroups, such as Religion, Entertainment, Body parts and personality traits, and Foods idioms, based on their structural characteristics and connotative meanings. The research methodology includes component and semantic analysis, method of observation, and the use of descriptive, comparative, and quantitative methods. Based on the analysis of academic literature, films, political speeches, interviews, TED Talks, and online articles, the investigation reveals that American idioms are highly flexible in usage, cover a wide range of topics, and can mark stereotypical ideas. Moreover, approximately 40–50% of the idioms exhibit verbal structures, reflecting the action-oriented nature of American English. Additionally, 14% of the idioms were identified as ethnically marked, often containing cultural or national stereotypes. The findings confirm that idioms are used in both formal and informal speech, and their meanings may shift depending on the context. The conclusions reaffirm the deep interconnection between language and culture, contributing to the fields of semantics, phraseology, translation studies, and intercultural communication.