Are Idioms Empty Associations?

Williams bashes traditionalists for making empty associations such as the color of the sky to the emotion, but aren’t all of us making similar associations when we use idioms in our daily conversations? Do we lack originality and have to borrow cliché phrases?

Consider this sentence: Marley kicked the bucket.

So he kicked the bucket. Was it full? Was it empty? Did he make a mess? Oh, he died… what?

I cannot begin to fathom where this idiom comes from, but it makes no sense to me. Yet, I still find it acceptable and have probably used it once or twice. How is the action of kicking the bucket dying? How can an overturned bucket mean exactly the same as dead as a doornail?

Now, consider the following sentences:

It’s a dog-eat-dog world. (I have not even attended a dogfight; I can’t imagine what a dog eating another dog would look like).

No use crying over spilt milk. (As a child, I did not like milk. I would be overjoyed to NOT drink milk, so why would I cry?)

So what? Get over it. (Climb out of “depression”? Ha, that’s clever).

You’re in over your head. (That’s unpleasant. Am I talking to a drowning person? If so, that person technically can’t hear me, since sound waves travel through air, and s/he seems to be in some kind of liquid).

Keep an eye on him. (I wish I can perceive two visual fields instead of one).

Break a leg. (Sure, but I don’t want to be charged for assault).

When in Rome, do as Romans do. (Sorry, can’t speak Italian. Wish I can, though).

All right, let’s do this. It’s sink or swim time. (I would rather float than do either of those. I suppose I’m dead weight on a team.)

What? That was completely out of the blue. (Out of the blue sky? Out of the blue ocean? Out of the Bluetooth Wi-Fi range? Hum).

So I plagiarize. I lack imagination—good thing I’m not a poet.