08 May 2010, 3:12 pm
I wonder if NTs can guess what does for example a green thumb mean or do they have to learn about it from somebody? Is it something natural to know the meaning of idioms or we all learn it? Does anybody take idioms literally? Do you know that something is an idiom and do you understand it naturally?
If it's an idiom, such as green thumb, I figure it out from context.
Oddly enough, "green thumb" is one of the very few things in this thread that is an example of something that shouldn't be taken literally. Most of the examples given are of things that should be taken literally but you have to correctly guess the referrent based on what is most likely. Out of a choice of many possible referrents, people just guessed the wrong one. For example, somebody gave the example of a "no standing" road sign. They do mean that literally. No standing is allowed at that spot. But they don't tell you what exactly is not permitted to stand there. You must guess. The correct guess of referrent is " vehicle". The incorrect guess of referrent is "person". But in any case they mean that the vehicle shouldn't stand there. Standing doesn't require legs.
I don't remember exactly when I learned the idiom green thumb, or any other English idioms (I'm a native speaker, so it was long ago). Something I enjoy is hearing translated idioms from other languages and seeing if I can figure them out from context. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can't. Sometimes the context is so culture-specific that a native speaker not only has to explain it to me but also explain the context that gave rise to the idiom because it's not part of my (American) culture. I work with a lot of people from around the world who speak a variety of languages. One of the things we do for fun when things get slow at work is trade idioms, to see whose idioms would be the weirdest if taken literally.
Thanks for the explanation!
It always confuses me when I think of taking things literally.
08 May 2010, 9:41 pm
nick007
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Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,125
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA
08 May 2010, 9:49 pm
I take things literally a lot. My mom is really annoyed with it. I feel a lot of people think I'm stupid & talk down to me because I get things confused. Also lots of people tell me that I am being difficult & they think I'm pretending to get things confused to be lazy or something. When I was in elementary school; a lot of people thought I was mentally ret*d 
13 May 2010, 12:07 pm
When I was in my 20's this girl told me she liked me because I was different. She said she was use to being around different people because she has a brother with downsyndrome. I felt like she was comparing me to someone was mentally ret*d or was saying I was ret*d. So I got back at her by telling people that the miscarage she had was really a lie she was telling, trying to hide the fact she had an abortion. Turned out it was the truth and she never talked to me again and demanded I tell her who told me. My friends said they were always afraid to talk crap to me because of my ability to make stuff up and get people to believe it . 
I still regreat telling people that about her.
13 May 2010, 1:06 pm
13 May 2010, 2:00 pm
13 May 2010, 2:18 pm
13 May 2010, 2:27 pm
13 May 2010, 6:05 pm
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