Abstract

The most fascinating aspect when learning a foreign language is exploring the idiomatic expressions that everyday language comprises. Translating such expressions is not an easy task especially because they carry so much cultural information. Finding the best equivalents becomes imperative as the original meaning needs to be preserved. Knowing the meaning behind an idiom may come naturally to a native speaker, who will know when to use an idiomatic expression contextually. By trying to interpret unfamiliar expressions, non-native speakers of English decode lexical patterns metaphorically, in an attempt to reveal the most appropriate meaning to the context.

This paper compares and contrasts idiomatic expressions in English and Romanian, emphasizing the significant role that mental processes play in interpreting and understanding language. Cognitive semanticists treat meaning construction as a process that is fundamentally conceptual in nature. From this perspective, meaning is not a simple matter of interpretation relative to the external world but a dynamic process of meaning construction, which we call conceptualization.