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ions of certain constituents in some idioms can be shifted without any change in meaning. For example: Day and night =night and day, Young and old =old and young, Lie near sb’s heart =lie near the heart of sb, Pin back sb’s ears =pin sb’s ears back, Fortune’s wheel = wheel of fortune, Turn the radio up = turn up the radio, Play sb a trick = play a trick on sb, Do sb a favor=do a favor for sb Hammer and tongs=tongs and hammer Vague and wooly=wooly and vague Really and truly=truly and really As and when=when and as Pick and choose=choose and pick E. Shortening This occasionally occurs in proverbs and saying, where only a part of them is used instead of the whole. For example: The last straw = It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Velvet paws=velvet paws hide sharp claws Jack of all trades=Jack of all trades and master of none ‘I don’t think the walls need re-painting; but needs must, I suppose, if I’m to get any peace.’(ODCIE) Needs must is part of Needs must when the devil drives, which means ‘circumstances make it necessary or unavoidable’. “‘I’m a bit of a rolling stone down the avenues of medicine,’ he explained.” ---Doctor in Love (Zhang, 1999) A rolling stone comes form a rolling stone gathers no moss, meaning ‘a person who moves a lot from place to place, form job to job does not accumulate property, real friends, or social ties’ F. Dismembering It is what I mean by breaking up the idioms into pieces, an unusual case of use of idioms particularly in literature or popular press to achieve special effect. For example: “The leopard! But he did change them, Dinny.” “He did not, Aunite: he had no spots to change.”------Galsworthy (Zhang, 1999) In the dialogue, the idioms the leopard never changes his spots is used humorously. However, the original idiom is broken up and is hardly recognizable unless we put pieces together. “Conway would have preferred to talk in Chinese, but so far he had not let it be known that he spoke any Eastern tongue; he felt it might be a useful card up his sleeve.”------J.Hitton (Zhang, 1997) ‘Be a useful card up his sleeve’ is a personal variant of have a card up one’s sleeve. It is well used here to indicate that Conway is a person of wisdom, knowing how to take the advantage of the situation and manipulate people. “Generally speaking, he is a misfit, a round peg in the squarest of holes. --Observer A round peg in the squarest of holes is based on the idiom of a square peg in a round hole, here deliberately transformed by the author to emphasis the point that the person in question is not in the least fit for the job. III. Semantic Change For the semantic features of the idioms; we can study this in the following ways. A. Semantic Unity Being phrases or sentences, idioms each consist of more than one word, but each is a semantic unity. Though the various words which make up the idiom have their respective literal meanings, in the idiom they have lost their individual identity, i.e. their meanings are not often recognizable in the meaning of the whole idiom. Like wise, the part of speech of each element is no longer important. Quite often the idiom functions as one world. For instance, till the cows come home, which comprises a conjunction till, an article the, a noun cow, a verb come and an adverb home, means ‘forever’ and functions as an adverb, thus replaceable by the word ‘forever’. The same can be said of keep in mind (remember), take off (im