16. Phraseological units

The brunch of linguistics dealing with phraseological units is called phraseology. This field of study in E linguistics is recent, terminology is not yet fixed, opinions differ. Idioms or phr units – one of the most important and diffic constituent part of the E lang. The units are interesting, because they are colourful and lively, they are linguistic curiosities. Have important role in spoken lang and in writing, can appear in slang and in formal lang. Dictionaries: E-R phraseological dictionary by Cunin; Cowie – The OD of current idiomatic E (2 vol.) Phr units – lang universals, every lang has idiomatic sent and phrases. They are not created in speech but are reproduced as fixed set expressions. Their meaning cannot be deduced from the literal meaning of the constituent part. (to have a bee in hat, to carry coals to Newcastle). Features: they are ready-made units; they are characterised by stability of grammatical structure and lexical components; they are idiomatic, transferred; they are colourful, expressive, stylistically marked. Phraseological units are comparatively stable and semantically inseparable. The essential features of phraseological units are stability of the lexical components and lack of motivation. they function as 1 member of the sentence.

The debatable problems:the problem of the adequate term and its definition. The definition is felt to be inadequate as the concept ready- made units seems to be rather vague. the problem of the lang. material which is reflected to phraseology ( narrow and wide approaches in phraseology: some scholars used term word equivalents instead of phrasal units. This narrow understanding. Now many scholars expand a wide approach to phraseology and they include in the phraseologycal sentence idioms, proverbs, saying, clause idioms). .the problem of the classification of the lang. material (classification of Vinogradova: Phraseological fusions(сращения) are completely non-motivated word-groups, such as red tape — ‘bureaucratic methods’; heavy father — ’serious or solemn part in a theatrical play’; kick the bucket — ‘die’; and the like. The meaning of the components has no connections whatsoever, at least synchronically, with the meaning of the whole group. Phraseological unities are partially non-motivated as their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit. For EG: to skate of thin ice – рисковать; to sit on the fence – выжидать; a big bug – важная шишка. Phraseological collocations are motivated but they are made up of words possessing specific lexical valency which accounts for a certain degree of stability in such word-groups. In phraseological collocations variability of member-words is strictly limited. We can say take a liking (fancy) but not take hatred (disgust).) Idiom – unique, refers to speech typical of people or place (dialect). Expression – stable word-group with a partially transferred meaning; unique to a lang, esp if sence is not predictable from the meaning of elements (??the bed had not been slept in???). Collocation – habitual association between particular words. They are not transferred. (heavy traffic, white coffee, brown bread, weaping willow плакучая ива). The failure to use a collocation correctly is the majour indicator of foreigners. Mutually predictable. Cliché - stereotyped expression, common-plase phrase (the fair sex, a blessing in disguise). Proverb- short traditional saying of a didactic nature (a stick in time saves nine), sentence idiom. Sayings - concise observation that expresses fock, wisdom.(time flies, honesty is…) Lexical phrases- institutional expressions (how do u do, as I was saying); Cristal devides them into polywords (by the way, so) and institutionalized expressions (how do you do). Cunin’s class: 1) one-summit unit (at large, by the way); 2) phr units with the struct of coordinate or subordinate word groups (safe&sound, with high&main; to pull smb’s leg, burn one’s finger, a free hand); 3) structures with imbedded clause – a lexem and a clause idioms (ships that passed in the night); 4) clause-idioms (when pigs fly); 5) nominative-communicative (to break the ice, to pass the Rubicon); 6) communicative type (sentence idioms), proverbs and sayings (if u run after 2 hairs u will catch none); 7) interjectional phrases (by George, oh God!)