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(a) None of those are literary devices; they're all common vocabulary items that you'd expect an illiterate person to be familiar with. (b) If you are a nonnat

(a) None of those are literary devices; they're all common vocabulary items that you'd expect an illiterate person to be familiar with. (b) If you are a nonnative speaker, what's the difference between looking up an unfamiliar idiom and an unfamiliar word? (c) Your pulled quote contains only two idioms. My best guess is that you're calling face value an idiom, but it is a transparent construction that means exactly what you'd expect if you knew the words face¹ and value.² ¹ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/face noun 5(a)(1) ² https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/value https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/value noun 1; 8

nickff 1y ago
“Face value” is a reference to currency, postage stamps, bank-notes, and stock certificates, which have a value printed on their face, but which are not always actually worth that amount. I am a native speaker, but excessive use of idioms makes it hard to understand what someone is actually trying to say. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  ...what is your comment supposed to be relevant to? You didn't refute any point. (a) These are all common vocabulary items; (b) If you are a native speaker who needs to look up a lot of words, what makes these different? ; (c) face value is not an idiom. It is compositional. What would you say if you saw a reference to someone as a "Svengali"? That is a literary allusion. It can't be an idiom because it's only one word long. Do you think it's an idiom anyway? In what sense? It's possible to understand face value as metaphorically referring to the face value of a coin, or as directly referring to the value that any given object or event appears or purports to have on its face, but in either case it won't be an idiom. > but excessive use of idioms makes it hard to understand what someone is actually trying to say This is just false. From a communications or a vocabulary perspective, there is no difference between "idioms" and "words".
mulmen 1y ago
Is “confidently wrong” an idiom?

nickff 1y ago

“Face value” is a reference to currency, postage stamps, bank-notes, and stock certificates, which have a value printed on their face, but which are not always actually worth that amount. I am a native speaker, but excessive use of idioms makes it hard to understand what someone is actually trying to say. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_value

thaumasiotes 1y ago
...what is your comment supposed to be relevant to? You didn't refute any point. (a) These are all common vocabulary items; (b) If you are a native speaker who needs to look up a lot of words, what makes these different? ; (c) face value is not an idiom. It is compositional. What would you say if you saw a reference to someone as a "Svengali"? That is a literary allusion. It can't be an idiom because it's only one word long. Do you think it's an idiom anyway? In what sense? It's possible to understand face value as metaphorically referring to the face value of a coin, or as directly referring to the value that any given object or event appears or purports to have on its face, but in either case it won't be an idiom. > but excessive use of idioms makes it hard to understand what someone is actually trying to say This is just false. From a communications or a vocabulary perspective, there is no difference between "idioms" and "words".

mulmen 1y ago

Is “confidently wrong” an idiom?