1 RAINBOW 4 (1) (2015) Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/rainbow AN ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS AND THEIR PROBLEMS FOUND IN THE NOVEL THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER BY MARK TWAIN Khofiana Mabruroh Jurusan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni,Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia Info Artikel ________________ Sejarah Artikel: Diterima Juni 2015 Disetujui Juli 2015 Dipublikasikan Agustus 2015 ________________ Keywords: idiom, problem, understanding, meaning. ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ Idiom is one of part language used in spoken language, written text and mass media. The purpose of this research is to find out idioms, their types, dominant type, and problems in understanding idioms. The object of the study was the English idiom in the novel The Adventure of Tom Sawyer. The data were the phrases or words or collocations found in the novel. The data were taken by reading, identifying, and inventorizing. Then, the data were analyzed by using the theories offered by Makkai related to the topic and find out the problems in that analysis. The result of this study, there were 796 idioms found in the novel and classified into 6 types of idiom offered by Makkai used. The dominant type of idiom used in the novel is phrasal verb idiom with 446 idioms (56.03%). In understanding the meaning of idiom, there are 4 problems existed, that are distinction between phrasal verbs that is idiom or not idiom; translation of idiom; understanding the closest meaning of idiom; and no grammatical rule of forming idiom. Therefore, readers should comprehend the idiomatic expressions used in novel to understand the meaning of idioms and the whole context of novel. © 2015 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Alamat korespondensi: Gedung B3 Lantai 1 FBS Unnes Kampus Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229 E-mail: ofieana99@gmail.com ISSN 2252-6463 Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 2 INTRODUCTION English has many ways to express an idea. One of them is by using idiomatic expressions. The use of idioms can be intended to make a mock and give advice to someone. Consequently, there are many idiomatic expressions found in spoken language (daily conversation) and written texts (novels, short stories, letters, poetry etc.). They make the language richer and more colorful. The use of idiom is unique. Idiom is one of the characteristics of English, but not all non-native speakers are aware of it. Idiom is combination of one word and other word which conveys a certain meaning. The problem is that, do all people understand the meaning of idiom? The answer is that not all people understand the meaning of idioms. There are three reasons why understanding idioms are difficult. First, idiomatic expression cannot be translated word by word from its literal context. For example in, ‘take someone for a ride’, we cannot translate it into ‘remove some one for her journey on a horse or bicycle or in a vehicle’, but the meaning is ‘deceive or cheat someone in some way’. Second, it usually has double or more than two meanings, for example ‘look at’, in the sentence ‘Management is looking at ways of cutting costs’. ’It means ‘to think about a subject carefully so that you can make a decision about it’, and in ‘If I'd had children I might have looked at things differently.’ The meaning is ‘to consider something in a particular way’, and also ‘Can you look at my essay sometime?” It is ‘to read something in order to check it or form an opinion about it’. Third, there is no grammatical rule in forming idioms. It means if the structure is changed, it will have different meanings or it will be meaningless. For example take a word ‘look’; if we add another word like ‘in, after, up’, it will have different senses. The combination ‘look in’ means ‘get a chance to take part or succeed in’. ‘Look after’ means ‘take care of or be in charge of someone or something’. And ‘look up’ is ‘try to find a piece of information by looking in a book or computer’. If we add ‘off’, it does not make senses. The research problems of this study are 1) is there any idiom found in the novel; 2) what is the type of idiom found in the novel; 3) what is the dominant type of idiom found in the novel; 4) what are the problems in understanding idiomatic meanings found in novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain? McCarthy and O’Dell in their book ‘English Idioms in Use’ (2002: 6) stated that ‘Idioms are expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words’. It means that the meaning of idioms is not literal meanings, but they have non literal meanings. The best way to understand idioms are by looking at the contents. For example, ‘drive somebody’ is an idiom meaning ‘make somebody angry or frustrated’. In addition, Walker in the New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language (2003: 627) explained that, ‘An idiom is an expression peculiar to a language, not readily analyzable from its grammatical construction or from the meaning of component parts, as to put up with’. The point of that statement is that there is no grammatical rule in idiom. It is such a kind of habit of native speakers. Therefore, it is understandable that foreign learners have problems to understand the meaning of idiom. Makkai in the book ‘Idiom in Structure in English’ (1972: 25) divides idioms into two categories: 1. Idioms of Encoding (identifiable) Idioms of encoding are those idiosyncratic lexical combinations that have transparent meaning involving collocational preferences and restrictions, exemplified by at in ‘he drove at 70 m.p.h’. 2. Idioms of Decoding (non-identifiable) Idioms of decoding refer to those nonidentifiable and misleading lexical expressions whose interpretations could not be comprehended on the basis of only learned linguistic conventions. In other words, the meaning of decoding idioms is not predicable. Expressions such as ‘beat Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 3 about the bush’ and ‘fly off the handle’ are examples of this type of idioms. Makkai also classifies idiom of decoding into two types. Those are lexemic and sememic idioms (1972: 135-179). The explanation is: 1) Lexemic Idioms The lexemic idioms are idioms which collate with the familiar part of speech (verbs, nouns, adjective and preposition) and they are composed of more than one minimal free form and each lexon of which can occur in other environments as the realization of a monolexonic lexeme. The lexemic idioms are devided into six types. There are: a. Phrasal Verb Idioms A phrasal verb is a verb that contains of two kind of words. The first word is a verb, and the second word is a particle. The particle can be an article (a, an, the), preposition/adverb (up, in, out), and or affix (un-, in-, -ness, -ly); for example ‘take off’ means leave the ground. b. Tournure Idioms Tournures idioms are the largest lexemic idioms, usually containing at least three words and are mostly verbs. A tournures idiom mostly falls into sentences. Based on its structure, tournures idioms are devided into: 1) The form contains the compulsory definite article, for example ‘to do a guy’ means to disappear secretly. 2) The form contains the compulsory indefinite article. 3) The form contains an irreversible binomial introduced by preposition, for example ‘to be at seven and eight’ means to be in condition of confusion, at odds. 4) A direct object and further possible modifiers follow the primary verb, for example ‘to build castles in the air’ means to make impossible plans. 5) The leading verb is not followed by the direct object but by the preposition plus a noun or nothing, for example ‘to dance on the air’ means to get hanged. 6) The leading verb is BE, for example ‘to be above board’ means to be out in the open, honest. 7) The form contains the compulsory it. c. Irreversible Binomial idioms Irreversible binomial idioms consist of two words, which are separated by the conjunction. The word orders in this structure are fixed, for example ‘high and dry’ (without resources), and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (institutionalized symbols of ideal love or symbol of true love). d. Phrasal Compound Idioms Phrasal compound idiom contains primarily nominal made up of adjective plus noun, noun plus noun, or adverb plus preposition. For example ‘black mail’ means any payment forced by intimidation and ‘bookworm’ means a person committed to reading or studying. e. Incorporating Verb Idioms Incorporating verb idioms have four forms. Those are noun-verb, adjective-noun, noun-noun, and adjective-noun. Incorporating verb idioms are separated by (-). 1) Noun-verb, ‘sight-see’ means ‘visit the famous places in a city, country, etc’. 2) Adjective-noun, ‘blackmail’ means ‘the crime of demanding money from a person by treating to tell somebody else a secret about them’. 3) Noun-noun, ‘bootleg’ means ‘made and sold illegally’. 4) Adjective – verb, ‘whitewash’ means ‘an attempt to hide unpleasant facts about somebody/something’. f. Pseudo-Idioms Pseudo-idioms can mislead or misinform an unwary listener. For example cranberry, cranberry according to oxford dictionary is bright red acid berry produced by any plant of genus oxycoccus. In the phrase ‘make a cranberry face’ means ‘the face become red’. 2) Sememic idioms Makkai said, ‘Sememic idioms usually convey pragmatic meanings related to a particular culture’ (1972: 128). They include: Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 4 a. Proverbs: e.g., ‘a bird in hand is worth two in the bush’. b. Familiar quotations: e.g., ‘not a mouse stirring’. c. First base idioms: associated with a national game like baseball, e.g., ‘have two strikes against one’, ‘never to get to first base’. d. Idioms of institutionalized politeness: such as ‘may I ……..?’ e. Idioms of institutionalized greeting: e.g., ‘How do you do?, So long’. f. Idioms of institutionalized understatement: e.g., ‘I wasn't too crazy about him’. g. Idioms of institutionalized hyperbole: e.g., ‘He won't even lift a finger’. Sememic idioms include proverb and similar stucture of sentence length, and therefore of less interest in our context. The lexemic idioms are composed of more than one minimal free form. They must also be able to give the wrong impression about an innoncent listener. In this research, the reasecher is going to use the lexemic idioms instead of sememic idioms. RESEARCH METHODS The object of the study was the English idiom in the novel ‘The Adventure of Tom Sawyer’ by Mark Twain retold by Marie Coghill entitled ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’. This novel consists of 168 pages within 15 chapters and was reprinted by permission of Macmillan Education Ltd. © 1971. The data were the phrases or words or collocations found in the novel. The techniques used for collecting data, first, reading novel was intended to understand the whole content especially idioms. Second, identifying the suspected data, in the process of identifying the data, the researcher used three steps. Those were underlining, bracketing and numbering. The identified data were classified in order and put into a given inventorizing table. The data were selected based on frequencey accurrence (fifth highest occurring words). After the data were selected, the data would be analyzed. The techniques used for analyzing data, first the data were identified to prove whether or not there were idioms. Second, the data were classified based on the types of idiom by Makkai’s theories (1972:135-179) about lexemic idioms. Those lexemic idioms were classified in 6 types. Those were phrasal verbs idioms, tournures idioms, irreversible binomial idioms, phrasal compound idioms, incorporating verbs idioms, and pseudio-idiom.. Third, the data were counted to get the precentage of dominant type of idioms, with formula Χ= in which; Χ= the precentage of dominant type of idioms; n = the number of idioms for each group; and N= the total numbers of idioms. Then, the data were explained to analyze the problems in understanding the meaning of idioms. RESULTS AND EXPLANATION A. Data Analysis 1. Idioms Found in the Novel The Adventure of Tom Sawyer In the novel The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, there are 796 idioms. The example of the idioms are shown on the following table. Table 1 Example of Idioms Found in Novel No. Idiom Frequency Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 5 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. . . . go on whitewash look at be over be the matter . . . . . 18 14 13 11 11 . . . Total 796 Based on Table 1, the total idioms found in this novel are 796 idioms. For proving that there are some idioms found in the novel, five idioms are taken based on the fifth highest occurring words. There are go on, whitewash, look at, be over, and be the matter. According to English Idiom Dictionary, go on means ‘to continue or move to the next thing’ or ’to start operating’; whitewash means ‘disapproving an attempt to stop people finding out the true facts about a situation’ or ‘a complete defeat in a game or competition’; look at means ‘to think about a subject’ or ‘to consider something in a particular way’; be over means ‘finish’; and be the matter means ‘what’s wrong?’ or ‘what happened?’. From that explanation, it can be concluded that in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyercontains idioms. In order to show that there are idioms or not, the idioms are going to be classified in the next research problem. 2. The Types of Idiom Found in the Novel In this sub-chapter, I would like to answer the second research problem. Here, I classified the idioms based on Makkai’s lexemic idiom types, since, in this research, that theory becomes the basis to determine the type of idioms. There are 6 types in this analysis. They are phrasal verb idiom, tournure idiom, irreversible binomial idiom, phrasal compound idiom, incorporating verb idiom, and pseudo- idiom. The classification the types of idiom can be seen in the Table below. Table 2 Classification the Types of the Data No. Types of Idioms The Number of Data Total Data 1. Phrasal Verb Idiom 1, 2, 4, 6,... 796 446 2. Tournure Idiom 3, 5, 8, 10, ... 793 185 3. Irreversible Binomial Idiom 16, 25, 60, ... 787 69 4. Phrasal Compound Idiom 26, 31, 32, ... 781 73 5. Incorporating Verb Idiom 18, 21, 22, ...455 15 6. Pseudo-Idiom 28, 64, 81, ... 372 8 Total Data 796 Based on Table 2, the idioms found in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer can be classified based on Makkai’s lexemic idiom types. There are six categories of the types of idioms. The explanation of the type of idioms is presented as follows. a. Phrasal Verb Idiom This type is the biggest number of idioms found in the novel. There are 446 idioms of this type. Some examples are found in the following table. Table 3 Example of Phrasal Verb Idiom No. Verb Particle 6 look At Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 6 63 go On 268 go back The characteristic of this type of idiom is a verb that contains two kinds of words. Those are verb and particle. From the table, there are three data, number 6, 63, and 268, which are formed based on their structural forms. Those data consist of verbs which are followed by particle especially preposition. Therefore, (10) look at means ‘to think about a subject’ or ‘to consider something in a particular way’; (63) ‘go on’ means ‘to continue or move to the next thing’ or ’to start operating’; and (268) go back means ‘to return’ or ‘to have existed since a time in the past’ are included into phrasal verb idioms. b. Tournure Idiom This type of idiom is supported by 185 data. The examples of the data can be seen in Table 4. Table 4 Tournure Idiom No. Idiom Type 5 an angle calculated for distance (5) the leading verb is followed by a preposition plus a noun or nothing 10 to do my duty (4) a direct object and further possible modifiers follow the primary verb 113 got it out (7) the form contains the compulsory it 149 be the matter (6) the leading verb is be 260 settled the score the form contains the definite. 272 every tree or bush in their path like a man and enemy (3) the form contains an irreversible binomial introduced by preposition 279 to breathe a word (2) the form contains the indefinite article The tournure idiom is devided into 7. First, the structure contains the compulsory definite. Second, the structure contains the compulsory indefinite article. Third, tthe form contains an irreversible binomial introduced by preposition. Fourth, a direct object and further possible modifiers follow the primary verb. Fifth, the leading verb is not followed by a direct object but by a preposition plus a noun or nothing. Sixth, the leading verb is be. Seventh, the form contains the compulsory it. From the table above, there are some examples that represent the data. They are (5) an angle calculated for distance is included into tournure idiom by the leading verb is followed by a preposition plus a noun or nothing. The idiom (10) to do my duty is the example of the kind of tournure idiom of a direct object and further possible modifiers follow the primary verb. The idiom (113) got it out is one of the kind of tournure idiom by containing the compulsory non-representative it. The idiom (149) ‘be the matter’ are examples of tournure idiom by the leading verb is be. The idiom (260) settled the score isone of the type the tournure idiom of the form contains the definite. The idiom (272) every tree or bush in their path like a man and enemy is the tournure idiom of the form contains an irreversible binomial introduced by preposition. And the idiom (279) to breathe a word is the tournure idiom of the form contains the indefinite article. Therefore, it can be concluded that those idioms are tournure idiom. c. Irreversible Binomial Idiom This type of idiom consists of two words, which are separated by a conjunction. There are 69 idioms found in the novel. The examples of these are shown in Table 5. Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 7 Table 5 Irreversible Binomial Idioms No. Word1 Conjunction Word2 154 by and by 178 long as,as 543 day or the night Irreversible binomial idiom consists of two words, which are separated by a conjunction. The table above shows that idioms (154) by and by is separated by a conjunction ‘and’. The idiom (178) as long as is separated by conjuntion ‘as...as’. And the idiom (543) day or night is separated by conjunction ‘or’. Therefore, those idioms are included in the irreversible binomial idiom. d. Phrasal Compound Idiom There are 73 phrasal compound idioms. The examples of the idioms are shown in Table 6. Table 6 Phrasal Compound Idiom No. Idiom Form 94 right away adjective+noun 250 sawbones noun+noun 230 a far-off dog adverb+preposition A phrasal compound idiom contains primarily nominal made up of adjective plus noun, noun plus noun, or adverb plus preposition. From the table above, it can be seen that idioms (94) right away is formed by adjective plus noun; (250) sawbones is formed by noun plus noun; and (230) a far-off dog is formed by adverb plus preposition. Therefore, from that explanation, those idioms are phrasal compound idiom. e. Incorporating Verb Idiom There are 15 incorporating verb idioms. The examples are shown in the Table 7. Table 7 Incorporating Verb Idiom No. Idiom Form 18 whitewash adjective +verb 455 pretty thin adjective+ verb Incorporating verb idiom has four forms. Those are noun-verb, adjective-noun, noun- noun, and adjective-noun. Table 7 shows that there is the idiom (18) whitewash is formed by adjecyive plus verb; means ‘an attempt to hide unpleasant facts about somebody/ something’. The idiom (455) pretty thin is formed by adjective plus verb; means ‘not enough’. Therefore, those two idioms are incorporating idiom. f. Pseudo-Idiom Pseudo-idiom is the type of idiom that can mislead or misinform an unwary listener. There are 8 pseudo-idioms. The examples are shown in the Table 8. Table 8 Pseudo-Idiom No. Idiom's Number Idiom 1 28 a bucket of water under one hour (water) Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 8 2 64 the core of my apple (apple) 3 81 a choice apple (apple) This type of idiom is supported by data 28, 64 and 81. The idioms ‘a bucket of water under one hour’ (28) means ’for nothing’; (water means ‘a clear liquid, without colour or taste, which falls from the sky as rain and is necessary for animal and plant life’); ‘the core of my apple’ (64) means ‘the important of secret’; (apple means ‘a round fruit with firm white flesh and a green, red or yellow skin’); and ‘a choice apple’ (81) means ‘a good choice’. From that explanation, it can be concluded that the above three idioms are pseudo-idiom. 3. The Dominant Type of Idiom Found in the Novel From classifying the idioms, I also counted the percentage of the type of idioms found in the novel to answer the third research problem. The percentage of the data can be seen in the Table 9. Table 9 Percentage of the Data No. Types of Idioms Total Data Percentage ofData 1. Phrasal verb Idiom 446 56.03% 2. Tournure Idiom 185 23.24% 3. Irreversible Binomial Idiom 69 8.67% 4. Phrasal Compound Idiom 73 9.17% 5. Incorporating verb idiom 15 1.88% 6. Pseudo-Idiom 8 1.01% Total 796 From Table 9, the total data of the idioms are 796. The score was derived from dividing the total data each type of idioms by the total data of idioms found in the novel. For the percentage of each type of idioms, I multiplied the score by 100%. The formula is as follows: Χ= in which; Χ= the precentage of dominant type of idioms, n = the number of idioms for each group, and N= the total numbers of idioms. By looking at Table 9, we can see the statistical percentage of the type of idioms. The explanation of that is discussed as the following: 1. Phrasal Verb Idioms Based on Table 9, the total data of phrasal verb idioms are 446. Therefore, the percentage of phrasal verb idioms is 56.03%. 2. Tournure Idioms We can see in Table 9 that the total data of tournure idioms are 185. Therefore, the percentage of tournure idioms is 23.24%. 3. Irreversible Binomial Idioms Based on Table 9, the total data of irreversible binomial idioms are 69. Therefore, the percentage of irreversible binomial idioms is 8.64%. 4. Phrasal Compound Idioms Based on Table 9, the total data of phrasal compound idioms are 73. Therefore, the percentage of phrasal compound idioms is 9.17%. 5. Incorporating Verb Idioms Based on Table 9, the total data of incorporating verb idioms are 15. Therefore, the percentage of incorporating verb idioms is 1.88%. 6. Pseudo-Idioms Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 9 Based on Table 9, the total data of pseudo-idioms are 8. Therefore, the percentage of pseudo-idioms is 1.01%. From the statically data, the dominant type of idiom used in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is phrasal verb idiom amounts 56.03%. This means that idioms are the idioms mostly found amounts to 446 out of 796 inventoried idioms. This shows that verbs with preposition and adverbial particles are mostly used in daily conversation of the novel. The second is tournure idiom. There are 185 idioms and the percentage is 23.24%. The third is phrasal compound idiom. There are 73 idioms of this kind or 9.17%. The fourth is irreversible binomial idiom. There are 69 and the percentage is 8.64%. The fifth is the incorporating verb idiom. There are 15 idioms of this type or around 1.88%. The last is pseudo-idiom. There are 8 idioms or 1.01%. 4. Problems in Understanding Idiomatic Meanings Found in Novel In analysis idioms found in the novel The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, I found 4 problems. The data of this problem can be seen in the Table 10 below. Table 10 Problems in Understanding Idioms No. The Problems Idiom 1. Distinguishing between phrasal verbs that is idiom or not idiom go away 2. Translation of idioms whitewash 3. Understanding the Closest Meaning of idioms give up 4. No grammatical rule of idiom go on For Indonesian, English is foreign language. Therefore, Indonesian learners found some problems in analyzing idioms. Based on Table 10, there are four problems in understanding idioms. First, they were confused by the distinction between phrasal verbs that is idiom and not idiom or just phrasal verbs. In phrasal verbs, they have two meanings. The first is idioms’ meanings, and the second is literal meanings. To differentiate them, we can see from the context of the sentence. From this analysis, we can see that not all phrasal verbs are included the type of idioms, but all phrasal verb idioms are phrasal verbs. For example ‘go away’ does not have idiom’s meaning as it is only phrasal verbs. The second problem is translation of idioms. Idioms cannot be translated in literal translation. Therefore, in translating idiom the translator cannot translate it word by word. The foreign learners had to open the English idiom dictionary. For example ‘whitewash; we cannot translate this way ‘white’ means ‘a colour like that of snow, milk or bone’; and ‘wash’ means ‘to clean something using water‘; so ‘whitewash’ means ‘to clean something using water of a colour like that of snow, milk or bone’. That is unacceptable translation. ‘whitewash’ means ‘disapproving an attempt to stop people finding out the true facts about a situation’. The next problem is the problem in understanding the closest meaning of idioms. Idioms have two meanings or more than one meaning. Therefore, the foreign learners have to see the context of the sentence to get the closest meaning of the idiom. For example ‘give up’ in the sentence, Mr. Jones said, ’Tom wasn’t at home so I gave him up, but I found him and Huck right by my door’ (page 148, par. 3, line 1- 2). In that sentence ‘gave up’ means ‘did not know about Tom’. In the sentence, He gave up the idea of trying to buy the boss’ (page 13, par. 3, and line 11). In this sentence, ‘gave up’ means ‘surrender’. The last, there is no grammatical rule in forming idioms. It means if the structure is changed, it will have different meanings or it will be meaningless. For example the word ‘go’ in ‘go on’ means ’continue’; ‘go up’ means ‘rise’; ‘go in’ means ‘enter’; ’go over’ means ‘look into or Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 10 investigate’; and in ‘go away’ means ‘go’ so word ‘away’ does not change the meaning. B. Discussion English is one of the most idiomatic languages in the world, containing more than thousands of idiomatic expressions that are used in daily speech, media and literature. This makes the language rich that is why foreign learners should be aware of their types and use. Idiom cause problems to foreign learners since most of them do not have simple equivalent in another language. Especially, in understanding idiom in English novel, four problems in understanding idiom that was explained in the sub-chapter before, always exist. Here, I will discuss the reasons why those problems exist in understanding idiom. There are three ways to find the answer from that question, such as from aspects of etymology, collocation and translation. The explanation is elaborated as follows: 1. Aspect of Etymology Idioms tend to be frozen in their forms and meanings and do not allow changes in the structure and meaning. However, a variation is one important aspect of idiom. The word of some idioms can be replaced with other words. Some words of an idiom can function as a normal sequence of grammatical construction that can be replaced with other words but the meaning is changed. In general, variants of idiom are formed by replacing some of the original words. Several variations of the idiom have been widely recognized and become conventionalized. They are known as variations of an acceptable idiom. For example in the phrase 'What happened?' there are many variants of this constructions, such as ‘What's up?’; ‘What's the matter?’; and ‘What's going on?’. All of those variants are acceptable and valid for use. However, not all variants of English idioms are accepted as valid idioms, for example in the phrase ‘What’s the matter?’ The phrase ‘What’s the matter?’ is only used in colloquial usage. 2. Aspect of Collocation Some idioms are formed by collocation. Collocation can be formed by adding two or more words to a word. There are two types of collocation, structural and lexical collocations. There are some problems in understanding collocation. First, in structural collocation, many of the English verb+preposition combinations (also called phrasal verbs) have more than one meaning. For example, in an English Idiom Dictionary, the word 'give up' means ‘to abandon someone or something as being lost’ and ‘to give up trying to do something with someone or something’. Second, there is more than one phrasal verb variation that is formed by a verb with different prepositions. In structural collocation, the preposition of the phrasal verb collocation in this particular can be replaced with another preposition. The meaning of that construction does not change. For example, the expression ‘afraid of’, the word 'of ' may be replaced with word 'with' to become ‘afraid with’. They have the same meaning, which is ‘feeling frightened’ (English Idiom Dictionary) and accept in target language, but the phrase ‘afraid with’ is not grammatical in English. However, lexical collocation is different. If the preposition of the phrasal verb is replaced with another preposition, the meaning will be different. For example, I take the word ‘go on; means ’continue’. If the preposition ‘on’ is replaced with ‘up’, the word will become ’go up;’ that means ‘rise’. If the preposition is replaced with ‘in’, the word becomes ‘go in’; that means ‘enter’, etc. If the preposition is replaced by another preposition, the meaning will be different too. 3. Aspect of Translation Idiom exists in all languages in the world. Every language has different ways to express meaning through lexical items. Many foreign learners do not understand idioms because they are influenced by culture. In the translation of idioms, they cannot be translated literally word by word. It would be meaningless or it even conveys incorrect meanings, unless the idioms have the same form of them in the target language text. Therefore, translators have to find Khofiana Mabruroh / Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies 4 (1) (2015) 11 the closest natural equivalence in target language. From the explanation above, the conclusion is that the aspects of etymology, collocation and translation are related. The aspect of etymology influences the aspect collocation in forming different collocations. The aspects of etymology and collocation influence the aspect of translation for a translator to choose the closest meaning of an idiom. CONCLUSION By referring to the result of the research, I present the following conclusions. First, there are many idioms found in the novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that are 796 idioms. Based on the analysis of the sentence in the novel, from 796 were classified into 6 types of idiom offered by Makkai used. Those are phrasal verb idiom, tournure idiom, irreversible binomial idiom, compound idiom, incorporating idiom and pseudo idiom. The phrasal verb idiom is the dominant type of idiom found in the novel. It covers 446 out of 796 represent idioms. In understanding the meaning of idiom, there are 4 problems existed. The first problem is the foreign learnes are confused by the distinction between phrasal verbs that is idiom or not idiom. The second problem is translation of idiom. The third problem is the problem in understanding the closest meaning of idiom. The last problems is there is no grammatical rule of forming idiom. Based on the conclusions above, I would like to give suggestions to the readers, especially those who are interested in reading English novel. The readers should comprehend the idiomatic expressions used in novel, so that they understand the meaning of idioms. After that, they can understand the whole context of novel well. BIBILIOGRAPHY Ball, W. J. 1968. A Practical Guide to Colloquial Idiom. London: Longman Group Ltd. Hornby, A. S. 2006. Oxford advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7 th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Makkai, A. 1972. Idiom Structure in English. The Hague: Mouton. Mc Carthy, M. & O’Dell, F. 2003. English Idioms in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moon, R. 1996. Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A Corpus Based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Redman, Stuart. 1997. English Vocabulary in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Walker, Read, A. Et. al. 2003. The New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language. Columbia: Trident Press International.