UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Idiomatic Expression

Idiomatic expressions are short, set phrases with meanings that are greater or more complex than the literal meanings of each constituent element. For example:

Nets’aɂı̨̀a sǫ̀ǫ̀.

Goodbye.

Literally, nets’aɂı̨̀a sǫ̀ǫ̀ means something like “It is possible that I will see you”; however, in practice, it is a phrase conventionally used to say ‘goodbye’ to someone, regardless of whether one has any intention (or even possibility) of seeing the other person again. In this way, the meaning of nets’aɂı̨̀a sǫ̀ǫ̀ as a set unit is greater than the sum of the meanings of its individual words; thus, it is listed in the dictionary as an idiomatic expression.