6. English phraseological units and their functions

In general function is a role which an element plays in activity of that structure, part of which it makes. As to phraseological units they have the definite program of functioning which is predetermined by their essence itself as A.V. Kunin puts it. Some functions are constant, i.e. inherent in all phraseological units in any conditions of their realization, other functions are variable, peculiar only to some classes of phraseological units. Communicative, cognitive and nominative functions refer to the constant functions.

The communicative function of phraseological units is their ability to serve as communicative or message means. Communication presupposes a mutual exchange of statements, and message presupposes the transfer of information without a feedback with the reader or the listener.

The nominative function of phraseological units is their relation to objects of the real world, including situations, and also replacement of these objects in speech activity by their phraseological denominations. The filling of lacunas in the lexical system of the language is characteristic of the nominative function of phraseological units. This function is peculiar to the overwhelming majority of phraseological units, as they do not have lexical synonyms. The sub-kinds of the nominative function are neutrally-nominal and nominal functions.

The neutrally-nominal function is the basic one for phraseological units, for example, brown paper. At realization of such phrases in communication the fact of a designation of the object is important, and not the stylistic use of the phrase. The nominal function is also characteristic for semantically transferred phraseological units (idiomatisms and idiophraseomatisms), but it is not neutral, it is stylistically marked.

The cognitive function is closely connected with nominative function, that is the socially-determined reflexion of objects of the real world mediated by consciousness, promoting their cognition. The social determinacy is shown in the fact that though potential phraseological units are created by separate individuals, these individuals are part of the society, and the realization of the cognitive function by them is possible only on the basis of previous knowledge. The process of cognition also includes such forms of cogitative activity, as foresight, fantasy, imagination, dream, intuition.

Cognitive and nominative functions are realized within the limits of communicative function, forming a dialectic unity, and all other functions are realized within the limits of the given functions.

The semantic functions are voluntative (from Latin voluntas - will), deictic, resultative, etc.

The voluntative function is the function of will expression. E.g.: Wish smb well - to wish good luck, success to smb, to treat smb benevolently.

Deictic function is an indication of spatial or time localization of the action, phenomenon, event which is relative to the reference point, relevant within the limits of one or another speech situation. Also there exists personal deixis. A person, a place or time can be the reference point. According to this fact three types of deixis are singled out: personal, spatial and time ones.

Personal deixis. e.g., at second hand – by hearsay, not by personal. Spatial deixis: Show a clean pair of heels - to leave, to get away, to bolt. Time deixis: Wait to see which way the cat jumps - to wait how the events will develop; to trim the sails to the wind; to wait, whence the wind will blow. At once – simultaneously, immediately.

The pragmatic function is the major function of any unit of language including the phraseological unit i.e. purposeful influence of a language sign on the addressee. Phraseological units strengthen pragmatic orientation of the text or its part – a context. From this point of view the sub-kinds of pragmatic function are stylistic, cumulative, directive, evaluative and summarizing functions.

The stylistic function is a special, in comparison with neutral way of expression, purposefulness of language means for achievement of stylistic effect with preservation of the general intellectual content of the statement. The stylistic function realizes in speech connotative features of a phraseological unit. Comparison of a phraseological unit with its variable prototype also helps to reveal stylistic colouring.

The cumulative function is peculiar, for example, to proverbs. They are generalization of life experience of the people.

Directive function – directly managing, directing, influencing, and in separate prospect bringing up, forming a person: as you brew, so must you drink; cut your coat according to your clot; look before you leap, etc.

The summarizing function of a phraseological unit consists in the fact that it is the short resume of the previous statement, e.g., that´s flat (coll.) - it is definitively solved, resolutely and irrevocably: Well, I will not marry her: that´s flat (G.B. Shaw). Summarizing function in a context is characteristic of many proverbs, for example, all´s well that ends well; in for a penny, in for a pound, etc.

The evaluative function also carries pragmatic character.

The contact-establishing function is a kind of the pragmatic function and consists in creation of easy dialogue between the author and the reader or the listener, and also among the characters themselves: Introducing a luxury car that will not take you for a ride (The New Yorker, Oct. 7, 1985). The given advertising heading concerns the car, and two meanings of the phraseological unit «take smb for a ride» are played up - 1) to kill, finish off smb; 2) to inflate, deceive smb.

The function of confirmation of a thought is characteristic for proverbs. It is also one of the sub-kinds of the pragmatic function: It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest - «only the bad bird defiles the nest»:

The compensatory function is realized in the description of strong sincere emotional experience, affect, when speech of the subject is complicated and an interjectional phraseological unit is the only content of the whole remark: Oh dear, my God.

Developing on the Russian material the phraseological theory in its functional-semantic aspect, S.G. Gavrin singles out some functions of phraseological units. These functions are peculiar also to English phraseological units:

1) the expressively-figurative function (catch at a straw; forbidden fruit, etc.);

2) the emotionally-expressional function (damn your eyes!; go to the devil!);

3) the function of speech concision by omitting some components (do not count your chickens! instead of do not count your chickens before they are hatched).

The function of speech laconisation carried out proverbs, especially short ones, even not of the reduced kind, for example, prevention is better than cure – i.e. action taken to prevent an illness, dangerous event, etc., from taking place is wiser and more useful than any action that is taken to reduce its harmful effect). It is evident, that the definition is almost five times longer than the proverb itself. The semantic compression, characteristic for phraseological units, is one of the displays of language economy.

All these functions, and also the function of hyperbolization and intensity are sub-kinds of the stylistic function.

The text-building (or the context-building) function is characteristic of phraseological units at their realization. For the first time the question concerning text-building functions of phraseological units was raised by I.I. Chernysheva. Under text-building factors of phraseological units we mean realization of linguistic properties of the given language signs allowing them, equally with grammatical and lexical means of language, to create those links in structure of the text which are elements of the structure and in certain cases also binding means of fragments of the text. The proposition that phraseological units can be binding means not only of contexts, but also context fragments is lawful.

Descriptive, characterizing, terminological and other functions are carried out in texts of various types by phraseological units.

Functions often cross in statements. The interaction of functions is characteristic of idioms and idiophraseomatisms, e.g.: Like a shot - 1) quickly, promptly, at full speed; 2) instantly, at once; 3) very willingly, with pleasure. The following fuctions are evident here: 1) the intensity function; 2) the expressively-figurative function; 3) the function of speech compression.

Functions of phraseological units form two principal kinds of binary oppositions, i.e. regular pair oppositions: 1) stylistically neutral functions - stylistically marked functions; 2) usual functions - occasional functions (for other distinctions. The presence of these oppositions can be explained by the asymmetry in the sphere of functioning of phraseological units and is one of the important elements of the phraseological system. The enumeration of functions of phraseological units given above does not represent their classification. This challenge is waiting for its solution.

The Supplement. The article “U. S. Information Service American English & Culture”

Dear Readers,

It's summertime, and many of you are spending days or perhaps weeks at your dachas. No doubt many of you are also working in your gardens. And of course - what do we find in a garden? FOOD! I thought this might be a good month to write about food, because it is a topic of enduring interest to all of us.

For language teachers, FOOD is a wonderful topic, because it can be used at every level of language proficiency and sophistication, it is a topic that offers a very broad exploration. We can work on names, on classes and uses, preparation, cultural customs and recipes - it's wonderfully adaptable.

Food also lends itself to metaphor. Metaphor is one of the richest dimensions of language, offering us insights into a culture, and providing humans with a wonderful tool for language play. So when we combine the topic of food with a look at metaphor, we are sure to be delighted.

In this article, we will look at what some writers have to say about food, and have a chance to play with our food (metaphorically speaking). I hope you will find this summertime article tasty and nourishing, and that it will give you some ideas for your classroom, when summer is over and the delicious vegetables from your dacha have all been eaten or preserved for winter.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The vocabulary of eating has long been used to categorize and describe a variety of experiences. In American English a casual conversation is chewing the fat, an argument is a rhubarb, a complaint is a beef. Shoddy workmanship is cheesy and 3 defective automobile is 3 lemon; a misleading statement is a waffle; an over-emphatic actor is a ham; a person may tell a corny joke and lay an egg; the meat-and-potatoes man objects to pork-barrel corruption- a statement may be full of baloney; someone, who jeers is giving the raspberry. The taste of food is likewise applied to personalities: A woman can be spicy, delectable, a dish; she may have a sweet or a sour disposition; a man may be described as peppery or bland, as an oily sort, one who knows how to butter you up, and a sugar daddy. And a particularly trying person might be asked, "What's eating you?"

from: Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating p. 117 Peter Farb and George Armelagos

Another author who writes extensively on the English language is Richard Lederer. You may be familiar with his book Anguished English. The following is excerpted from another of his books:

And think of the various people we meet every day. Some have taste. Others we take with a grain of salt. Some drive us bananas or crackers. Still are others are absolutely out to lunch: 'the young sprouts and broths of lads who feel their oats and are full of beans, 'the salty, crusty oldsters who are wrinkled as prunes and live to a ripe old age bell beyond their salad days, 'the peppery smart cookies (no mere eggheads, they}, who use their beans and noodles to cut the mustard, the half-baked meat heads, the flaky couch potatoes and the pudding-headed vegetables who drive us nuts with their slow-as-molasses pea-brains and who gum up the works and are always in a pickle, a jam, hot water, the soup, or a fine kettle of fish, the unsavory, crummy, hard-boiled, ham-fisted rotten apples with their cauliflower ears, who can cream us, bat the stuffing out of us, make us into mincemeat and hamburger, and knock us ass over teakettle and flatter than a pancake the mealy-mouthed marsh-mallows, Milquetoasts, milksops, half-pints and cresmpulfs who walk on eggshells and whose knees turn to jelly as they gingerly waffle and fudge on every issue to see which side their bread is buttered on. the carrot-topped, pizza-faces string beans and beanpoles, who, with their lumpy Adam's apples, are long drinks of water, the top bananas, big cheeses and big breadwinners who ride the gravy train by making lot of lettuce and dough and who never work for peanuts or small potatoes, the honeys, tomatoes, dumplings, cheesecakes and sweetie pies with their peaches-and-cream complexions, strawberry blond hair, almond eyes and cherry lips, "the salt-of-the-earth good eggs who take the cake, know their onions, make life a bowl of cherries and become the apples of our eye and the toasts of the town.

I don't wish to take the words right out of your mouth, but, in a nutshell, it all boils down to the fact that every day we truly eat our words.

from: Crazy English pp. 97-99 Richard Lederer

FORUM magazine recently (Oct-Dec 1998, v.36, #4) carried an interesting article about food and language and how they are intertwined. The article illustrates how food nourishes language. Much of our language contains references to food. These references conjure up images worth a thousand words each. Indeed, we say that something interesting and worthwhile gives us "food for thought". Here is a little story using lots and lots of food metaphors. Following that you will find an explanation of those metaphors, some of which are obvious, others a bit more subtle.

HE TAKES THE CAKE!

/ tell you, that guy Fred, he's a real top banana. The guy's out to lunch. He better be careful because real soon he's going to find himself eating humble pie. His ideas are ok on the surface, but when you start to look at them you realize that they're really Swiss cheese - not well thought out. He always expects us to fill in the holes and make him look good. We get everything he gives us done to a T, but he takes all the credit. It would be nice if, for once, he would give us time to develop something challenging that we can really sink our teeth into. At least it would be nice to get credit for all that we do to make him and our organization look good, but I doubt that will happen; he always wants the whole enchilada for himself. He is always dangling the carrot of private compliments in our faces, but we know they are insincere. He must think we are a bunch of cream puffs. Someday, we are not going to fill in the holes and he will get his pie in the lace. He'll be in a real stew and we won't be there to clean it up. Soon... He'll get his just desserts.

Now - here are the metaphors:

1. top banana: The person referred to is the boss or the top person in a group or organization.

2. he takes the cake: usually used in a negative sense meaning that the person or action referred to is disagreeable.

3. out to lunch: the person referred to is unaware Of important or obvious information, or is seemingly not present, mentally speaking; the person referred to doesn't have a clue about what is going on.

4. eating humble pie: publicly being forced to admit defeat and be apologetic

5. Swiss cheese; a plan that is like Swiss cheese is one that is full of holes; it's a plan that has a lot of possibilities for failure (Swiss cheese is made with lots of holes in it

6. cut the mustard: to achieve a standard of performance necessary for success (usually used in the negative)

7. done to a T: done to perfection (from cooking a steak on a grill - the steak is turned at the right time so it cooks evenly throughout and is then taken off the grill; so it is done to a turn, abbreviated to 'done to a T')

8. sink our teeth into: to get really involved with something in an interesting and substantive way

9. in a pickle: in trouble, in a mess

10. to take something with a grain of salt: to listen to a story or an explanation with considerable doubt, to not give much credit or importance to what was said

11. the whole enchilada: the whole or complete thing, everything (enchilada is a Mexican dish).

12. dangling the carrot: getting someone to do something by promising them a small reward in return (wagon drivers used to dangle a carrot in front of a donkey to get the donkey to chase after the carrot and therefore pull the cart)

13. cream puff: someone who is easily swayed or influenced or easily beaten (a cream puff is a delicate pastry filled with a thick sweet custard or cream-like substance)

14. to to have your cake and eat it too: to nave the advantage of both alternatives

15. pie in the face: the blame or responsibility for a bad plan or action is publicly credited to someone.

16. in a real stew: in trouble, in a state of worry or confusion (a stew is a mixture of meat potatoes. and vegetables in a thick hot brown sauce)

17. get his just desserts; to get what is coming to him in the form of justice or punishment for his wrongful actions (dessert is the sweet course of food served at the end of a meal)

18. as easy as pie: very easy, simple.

Think about it - everyday we use many metaphors that relate to food. You might ask your students to do a little individual research on this - for a couple of weeks they could try to collect some food metaphors themselves, and then part of one lesson could be a presentation on what the students either read or heard. Here are a few to get them (and you) started.

It's a piece of cake! •

A juicy bit of gossip

He's a real turkey

You're sweet; you're my honey

He's a real grease-ball

She looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

How his pie, you're drivin' me crazy

You look good enough to eat

Anything more would just be frosting on the cake

From here on, it's all gravy

Chew the fat

Lecture 2. Stability of phraseological units.