Jan. 14-20 is Idiom Week, and today we thought we’d have a heart-to-heart about some strange phrases we use. Idioms, metaphors and similes are all types of figurative language. According to ...

From William Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney, figurative language such as idiom, metaphor, symbolism and allegory all function to make a poem sound more colourful and appealing to the reader. But are we ...

Being a linguist—and someone who has tried to learn several languages (including English) in addition to my mother tongue (Flemish Dutch)—I have an annoying habit: instead of paying attention to what ...

Idioms are quirky, playful, and sometimes downright strange and that is exactly what makes them so fascinating. Expressions like “spill the beans” or “estar en las nubes” (“to be in the clouds”) don’t ...

Frank Boers receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Western University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR. Western University provides ...