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startum
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:32 pm
Post subject: Difference between Phrases and Expressions |
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I've been writing down novel word usages, and have classified some as
"Phrases," and others as "Expressions." Sometimes I get confused as to which
category to put something in, or if I am using the correct categories.
Looking over some f what I've got, it seems "phrases" are something like
proverbs or common expressions (?) with a personal twist; and "expressions"
seem shorter. For examples:
Phrases
beating a very familiar Cold War drum
sickened the golden goose
slid down again into his bottle
the pack of greasy cads was slipping through his fingers
Expressions
data dump
hoover-up data
one-off
trawling the stands
Do these category headings seem more-or-less ok?
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:56 pm
Post subject: Re: Difference between Phrases and Expressions |
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"startum" <startum@anonymizer.com> wrote in message
news:Ptr%c.6112$NC6.1861@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net...
| Quote: | . . . it seems "phrases" are something like
proverbs or common expressions (?) with a personal twist; and
"expressions"
seem shorter.
|
Your impression may be wrong. Most people use
meanings: (a) phrase = any connected string of words that does
not constitute a sentence or a clause, (b) expression =
choice of word or words (often idiosyncratic) These are
not two classes of the same family of things. They are
different methods of classification.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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don groves
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:30 am
Post subject: Re: Difference between Phrases and Expressions |
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In article <Ptr%c.6112$NC6.1861
@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net>, startum@anonymizer.com
wrote...
| Quote: | I've been writing down novel word usages, and have classified some as
"Phrases," and others as "Expressions." Sometimes I get confused as to which
category to put something in, or if I am using the correct categories.
Looking over some f what I've got, it seems "phrases" are something like
proverbs or common expressions (?) with a personal twist; and "expressions"
seem shorter. For examples:
Phrases
beating a very familiar Cold War drum
sickened the golden goose
slid down again into his bottle
the pack of greasy cads was slipping through his fingers
|
Are we back on "greasers" again? Or just in Boston?
--
dg
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