ON THE HARMONIZATION OF IDIOMATIC LANGUAGE WITH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ON THE HARMONIZATION OF IDIOMATIC LANGUAGE WITH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: Is there such thing as harmony between science, technology and language? This could be an interestingquestion if it were not naïve. Languages evolve almost simultaneously with science and technologybecause, with new technology, new words are needed. Languages constantly adapt to the new realities,whether scientific, social or cultural. New words replace old ones when the surrounding realities ask forit, when it is necessary to name realities which have never been seen before. The same holds valid in thecase of idioms. The newer generations have already forgotten many of the idioms which are still familiarto the older generation. In English, for example, to rain cats and dogs or to paint the town red areconsidered old and are even laughed at by very young people. In Romanian, «a fi într-o bujie» or «a-i filao lampă» (he/she works with only one spark plug and one of his/her lamp flickers, both of them meaningto be a little crazy) no longer have a meaning to people in their early twenties or younger. New realitiesmodify old idioms, make them disappear, or give birth to brand new ones, such as the engine is running,but there is nobody behind the wheel or he/she drives uphill with the clutch slipping. The present paperaims at showing how this happens and at giving an answer to the real question: is there a certain type ofidioms which does not keep pace with science and technology?

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