Structural criterion

The structural invariability of phraseological units:

• no (or rather limited) substitutions of components: E.g. to carry coals to Manchester - Cf. The cargo ship is carrying coal to Manchester.

• restrictions on the componential extension of phraseological units: E.g. the big white elephant; he is having his heart in his brown (or black) boots. – Cf. I saw a big white elephant in the zoo.

• grammatical invariability: e.g. from head to feet.

• e.g. She built for herself the most magnificent castle in the air of which she was the mistress.

Syntactical criterion

Phraseological units can be classified as parts of speech. This classification was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following groups: a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g. bullet train, latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets, b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to break the log-jam, to get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to nose out , to make headlines, c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose, dull as lead , d) adverb phraseological units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like a dream , like a dog with two tails, e) preposition phraseological units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke of , f) interjection phraseological units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!» etc.

In I.V.Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents, proverbs, sayings and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes him tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too many cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule non-metaphorical, e.g. «Where there is a will there is a way».

The main source of phraseological units is the Bible.  Bible is the main literal source of phraseological units. Over the centuries Bible was a widely read and quoted book in England.  Number of scriptural constructions and expressions is so high that it is not an easy task to collect and to count them. The following biblical expressions are used in contemporary English: The apple of Sodom- красивий, але гнилий плід; оманливий успіх; Can the leopard change his spots?-(букв.чи може леопард перефарбувати свої плями?); Горбатого могила виправить. The English phraseological units can not be translated into Ukrainian language word-for-word, otherwise it will lose its expressiveness and linguistic curiosity. The Ukrainian language has its own psychological, sociolinguistic peculiarities, that’s why the phraseological units can’t be translated word-for-word. English to lock the stable door after the horse is stolen, to ride the high horse (means to behave a superior, haughty way), to show one’s teeth (to take a treating tone, show an intention to injure), to wash one’s dirty linen in public (discuss of make on public one’s quarrels). To carry coal to Newcastle – займатися безглуздою справою(Ньюкасл –центр вугільної промисловості) it means to do unnecessary thing.    

There have been suggested several classifications of phraseological units. This way, L.P.Smith suggests the classification in accordance with those sources, from which the English language adopted phraseological units. He distinguished idioms derived from the language of sailors, fishers, soldiers, hunters as well as he pointed out idioms, concerning different kinds of domestic and wild animals, birds, nature phenomena; idioms concerning agriculture, kitchen, different kinds of sport, art, parts of human body, etc. According to L.P.Smith  there is no clarification of the semantic structure. To him, the persistent word combinations, determined as “idioms” is of interest mainly because they are “verbal anomalies”, “which break grammatical or logical rules.  At the same time, Smith tried to demonstrate wealth and multiplicity of English phraseology, to determine from which sources it has penetrated into the general language. L.P.Pastushenko suggests naming such multitude of phraseological units combined on the basis of their logical-subjective, communicative commonality which cover the peculiar sphere of knowledge as phraseo-thematic area, she gives the following classification: 1) firearms; 2) fighting or hostilities; 3) military symbolism; 4) shooting or firing; 5) soldier, rank; 6) guard duty; 7) military tactics.

The one important matter lies in the fact, that all non-English literary borrowings are considered to be the word-for-word translation or calking. They are not used in the loan form; we can not talk about the assimilation process of phraseologisms borrowed from belles-lettres of different countries. The expression “to enrich by phraseologisms” is frequently used in this work. That is not a simple appropriateness, as according to Kunin, “Phraseology-is the treasure house of the language” and the phraseologisms in the language are considered as richness and decoration of the speech. The phraseological units reflect the culture and the way of life of this or that language, they help to make the speech more expressive, colorful and emotional.

According to their origin phraseological units can be:

• native

• borrowed

The main sources of phraseological units are:

NATIVE	BORROWED
Terminological and professional lexics, e.g. navigation: cut the painter; military sphere: fall into line; agriculture: to put the plough before the oxen, etc.	The Holy Script, e.g. the kiss of Judas; the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
Native literature, e.g. the green-eyed monster (W. Shakespeare); fall on evil days (J. Milton); a sight for sore eyes (J. Swift), etc.	Ancient legends and myths belonging to different religious or cultural traditions, e.g. to cut the Gordian knot.
Traditions and customs, e.g. baker’s dozen	Facts of the world history, e.g. to meet one’s Waterloo

Key words and expressions from the text:

1. Phraseological units – фразеологічні єдності

2. Scientific basis – наукові засади

3. Outstanding – видатний

4. Fusions – злиття

5. Invariability – незмінність, постійність

6. Collocation – словосполучення

7. Fiddle – скрипка

8. belles-lettres – художня література