Functional classification of phraseological units

The functional classification of phraseological units, suggested by prof. I.V. Arnold, is based on their ability to perform the same syntactical function as words. According to this approach the following principal groups of phraseological units are distinguishable:

a) substantive phraseological units or noun equivalents, e.g. a thorn in the flesh ‘a source of irritation’, butterflies in your stomach ‘tremors in the stomach region due to nervousness’, a nest-egg ‘savings’, the movers and shakers ‘the people with power and influence’, bullet train ‘superhigh-speed train in Japan’, a latchkey child ‘a child who has to let himself in at home on returning from school, as his parents are out at work’;

b) verbal phraseological units or verb equivalents, e.g. to catch red-handed ‘in the act of committing a crime or doing something wrong or shameful’, to sink through the floor ‘feel ashamed’, to knock one’s head against a brick wall ‘to be persistent in doing smth.’, to be on the beam ‘be correct, relevant, or appropriate’, to make headlines ‘to become prominent in the news’;

c) adjectival phraseological units or adjective equivalents, e.g. penny wise and pound foolish ‘petty in small affairs and wasteful in big business’, wise after the event ‘having good ideas after the mishap’, too close to the knuckle ‘realist’, of the same kidney ‘of the same class, type, or disposition’;

d) adverbial phraseological units or adverb equivalents, e.g. by fair means or foul ‘tooth-and-nail’, up to the elbows in ‘busily occupied with; deeply immersed in’, hand over fist ‘steadily and quickly; with rapid progress’, with a bump ‘immediately, abruptly’, in the soup ‘in trouble or difficulties’, like a dream ‘without an effort’, like a dog with two tails ‘very pleased and enthusiastic’;

e) interjectional phraseological units or interjection equivalents, e.g. Well, I never! ‘an exclamation of surprise’; Hear! Hear! ‘an exclamation used to show approval of something said’; Come, come! ‘an exclamation used to express order, approval or disapproval’; Oh, my eyes! ‘an exclamation used to show surprise, annoyance, admiration’; Catch me! ‘No way!’;

f) conjunctional phraseological units or conjunction equivalents, e.g. as long as, on the other hand;

g) prepositional phraseological units or prepositions equivalents, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke of .

In I.V. Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents: proverbs, sayings and quotations, e.g. The sky is the limit, What makes him tick, I am easy.

Contextual classification of phraseological units

Prof. N.N. Amosova bases her classification on the contextual criterion. It is argued that free word-groups make up variable contexts whereas the essential feature of phraseological units is a non-variable or fixed context. Fixed context is characterized by specific invariability of the lexical components and the specialized meaning of one of the lexical components, i.e. such a meaning of the word that exists only in the given phrase, not in any other phrase, e.g. the word ‘break’ in the phrase to break the news means ‘to tell some bad news carefully so that not to hurt’. Prof. N.N. Amosova gives two categories of fixed context depending on whether just one component of a phraseological unit or both are used in a phraseologically bound meaning, phrasemes and idioms.

Phrasemes are, as a rule, two-member fixed contexts in which one of the members has a bound specialized meaning dependent on the second component as, e.g. in small hours the second component (hours) serves as the only clue to this particular meaning of the first component (hours). Phrasemes are always binary, e.g. in Dutch courage ‘courage given by drink’, to bring to book ‘to bring to justice’, small beer ‘people or things of no importance’, beef tea ‘a drink made by boiling pieces of lean beef’, black frost ‘a frost without snow or rime’, one of the components has a phraseologically bound meaning, the other serves as the distinguishing context.

Idioms are distinguished from phrasemes by the idiomaticity of the whole word-group and the impossibility of attaching meaning to the members of the group taken in isolation. They are semantically and grammatically inseparable units, e.g. to toe the line ‘to do exactly as one is told’, to play with fire ‘to be involved in something risky’, a free lance ‘a person who acts independently’.

N.N. Amosova leaves proverbs and sayings beyond the classification of phraseological units.