Sara D. Beck & Andrea Weber (2016)
The DIN database is a useful tool for L1 and L2 idiom research. This database, available in the form of an Excel file below, contains 300 English idioms and descriptive idiom norms for English and German. Each idiom contains descriptive data determined by these authors such as a paraphrase of the meaning, syntactic structure, length (in words and letters), a German equivalent idiom, if available, a literal English translation of the matching German idiom, and a categorization of the level of translatability. Additionally, this database includes ratings on other idiomatic norms from both L1 and L2 users.
Norm data was collected from existing databases in combination with ratings from L1 and L2 English speakers (native German speakers) using OnExp software. Information collected from L1 speakers includes the idiomatic key placement, predictability of the final word, familiarity (both how meaningful and how often users encounter an idiom), literality, and decomposability. Data collected from L2 speakers includes familiarity (both how meaningful and how often users encounter an idiom) and literality. Both explanations of the variables and references can also be found in the database.
Links to a download of the English-German Database of Idiom Norms (DIN).
This document is updated on a regular basis.
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