An expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. eg. to make ends meet

An expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up. eg. to make ends meet

• A. Idiom
• B. Parataxis
• C. Content Validity
• D. Construct Validity

Answer: (A)

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning can’t be inferred from the literal meanings of its individual words. This is why phrases like “to make ends meet” feel off if you take them literally—the expression means to have enough money to cover expenses, not to physically join the ends of something. Idioms rely on conventional, figurative interpretation that speakers understand from usage, not from word-for-word meaning. Parataxis is about how clauses are arranged in a sentence, typically linked side by side without explicit conjunctions, which is a syntactic concept rather than a meaning-interpretation issue. Content validity and construct validity relate to evaluating measurement tools: whether items cover the intended content area, and whether a test actually measures the theoretical construct it’s meant to, respectively. Neither describes a fixed expression with meaning that isn’t literal from its parts in the way an idiom does.

An idiom is a phrase whose meaning can’t be inferred from the literal meanings of its individual words. This is why phrases like “to make ends meet” feel off if you take them literally—the expression means to have enough money to cover expenses, not to physically join the ends of something. Idioms rely on conventional, figurative interpretation that speakers understand from usage, not from word-for-word meaning.

Parataxis is about how clauses are arranged in a sentence, typically linked side by side without explicit conjunctions, which is a syntactic concept rather than a meaning-interpretation issue. Content validity and construct validity relate to evaluating measurement tools: whether items cover the intended content area, and whether a test actually measures the theoretical construct it’s meant to, respectively. Neither describes a fixed expression with meaning that isn’t literal from its parts in the way an idiom does.