Bayterek Journal of International Academic Research

Abstract

Phrases, indispensable components of everyday language use, are widely used in Turkish, as in all languages, and have been the subject of hundreds of scientific studies. In this regard, the fact that there have been 325 postgraduate theses with the term "idiom" in their title since 1983 (YÖK, 2023), along with 442 articles scanned only on Google Scholar (Google Scholar, 2023), and 119 books listed in the National Library Catalog (National Library, 2023) indicates that the concept has caught the attention of Turkish researchers. They have explored idioms from various perspectives. Despite all these studies, there is still no consensus in the literature on what idioms are and what criteria or characteristics a phrase must have to be considered an idiom, which directly affects the results of these studies. Sinan (2008: 93), who discussed the same issue, mentioned that there is no consensus on the concept of idioms in Turkey, and there are many idiom dictionaries, large and small, as well as grammar and linguistics terminology dictionaries and grammar books that do not agree on a definition. This research proposes that some "new" idioms not found in idiom dictionaries should be identified from frequently used authentic texts in everyday life and added to idiom dictionaries. Additionally, it aims to identify idioms found in newspaper texts commonly used in daily life and accepted within the framework of authentic texts but not included in the Turkish Language Association's (TDK) online Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary. As it is known, newspapers are one of the primary sources that many people turn to, especially to gather news, and they are written to be understandable to individuals with various levels of education, unlike literary, scientific, and technical texts. Therefore, idioms found in newspapers are expected to be of the type used in daily life and understood by the majority of society. The reason for choosing this dictionary above as a sample is that it can be continuously updated due to its online feature, and it has been used as a sample in many studies (Oktay, 2015; Dinar, 2016; Çelik, 2017; Gürel and Özşenler, 2020; Toloraia, 2020; Erarslan, 2022, etc.). Therefore, this research aims to demonstrate that idioms identified by examining only one daily newspaper edition are not included in the relevant dictionary. In addition to this research, other research that can be conducted to determine idioms may contribute to more accurate results in research in this direction if the idioms determined as a result of this research are included in the dictionary. The document analysis method was used in the research, defined as "obtaining, reviewing, querying, and analyzing various documents considered as primary or secondary sources that constitute the research dataset" (Özkan, 2021: 2). In this context, the edition of Hürriyet Newspaper dated 29.03.2023, along with all its supplements (Ankara, Kelebek), one of Turkey's most widely read daily newspapers, was scanned, and the idioms it contained were identified. It was checked whether the identified idioms were included in the TDK Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary online, and the idioms not included were determined and presented along with their usage in sentences. To prevent possible debates about whether the identified phrases are considered idioms, the definitions and characteristics of idioms frequently used by scholars in the field were first presented in a table to determine which expressions with these characteristics can be considered idioms. Accordingly, to be considered an idiom, an expression must have the following characteristics: accepted by society, composed of at least two words, words having meanings different from their literal meanings or all of the meanings of words being different from their meanings, having an attractive expression that vividly conveys emotions and thoughts, and being fixed expressions. In this direction, the idioms identified in the examined newspaper were considered idioms based on the feedback received from four professors (experts in philology, linguistics, and Turkish language education) working at four universities in Turkey. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that even in the examination of only one edition of a newspaper, many idioms (56) are not included in the relevant dictionary. This situation directly affects the results of the research conducted. In the studies conducted in the literature, no information was found about what considerations the Turkish Language Association considers when determining idioms. In addition, it is suggested that stating the characteristics of idioms included in the Proverbs and Idioms Dictionary published online by the Turkish Language Association will encourage other researchers to identify new idioms, thereby enriching the dictionary. This, in turn, will contribute to more accurate research results that use the dictionary as a sample.