whitetiger wrote:
My last psych assessment came back, "She does not understand idioms," but by the same token, I love to write creatively with metaphors. My problems is that my metaphors match the situation and idioms do not. That's just how I look at it.
I think "does not know" makes more sense than "does not understand".
Take my made up phrase "don't wait for your last mokey to fly out the chimney". That's what my first reaction to some idioms is like. I mean, I know it's not supposed to be anything literal but how do I figure out what something like that means?
Most idioms aren't easy to interpret with logic alone because the literal meaning from which the saying is derived is usually something painfully archaic, and then you often have corruption of usage issues on top of that.
Most people just "know" idioms from hearing them in a certain context. The phrase itself doesn't have to make any logical sense in the NT mind as long as the person understands the setting in which it's used. This is where we differ from the norm. It's hard for us to remember phrases when don't know the "why". The meanings of idioms are much easier to remember once I take the time to look up the history and etymology.