Q: Are idioms deliberately figurative? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Is idiom meant to express and its literal meaning? ¶
A: Yes, and thus an idiom like kick the bucket cannot occur as kick the pot.
Q: Is idiom translated directly word-for-word into another language? ¶
A: Yes, and either its meaning is changed or it is meaningless.
Q: Are idioms represented as a catena which cannot be interrupted by non-idiomatic content? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are idioms emphasized in most accounts of idioms? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are idioms usually presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are idioms defined as a sub-type of phraseme? ¶
A: Yes, and the meaning of which is not the regular sum of the meanings of its component parts.
Q: Are idioms used only in a routine form? ¶
A: Yes, and others can undergo syntactic modifications such as passivization, raising constructions, and clefting, demonstrating separable constituencies within the idiom.
Q: Are idioms a word having several meanings? ¶
A: Yes, and sometimes simultaneously, sometimes discerned from the context of its usage.
Q: Are idioms transparent? ¶
A: Yes.
Q: Are idioms lexical items? ¶
A: Yes, and which means they are stored as catenae in the lexicon.
Q: Are idioms stored as catenae in the lexicon? ¶
A: Yes, and as such, they are concrete units of syntax.