An example of an encoding idiom is wide awake. While idioms of this kind may be understood on first hearing: the adjective wide functions as a degree modifier, and while it is possible to work out that this expression means ‘completely awake’, the speaker would not be able to predict the conventionality of the expression. In other words, there is nothing in the ‘rules’ of English that enables a speaker to predict that this is the conventional way in which the meaning associated with wide awake is encoded, as opposed to, say, broad awake, big awake, large awake and so on. Encoding idioms contrast with decoding idioms .