Creative use of idioms in satirical magazines

Abstract: The article presents modified idioms found in two satirical magazines: The Private Eye and The Week. Modifications are not institutionalized and are thus rarely found in phraseological dictionaries. Creative modifications of idioms are made by an individual speaker or writer who intends to achieve a particular effect. The production and reception of modified idioms makes great demands on the producer of modifications as well as on their receiver. This study shows that idioms are mostly expanded by adding one or more elements to the base form. In some cases of modification the base form remains intact; in others it is changed to a great extent. Modified idioms add to the stylistic effect of a text, which manifests itself in the intensification of the message.