36. The main sources of phraseological units.

The main sources of native phraseological units are: 1. Terminological and professional lexics. E.g. physics: center of gravity (центр тяжести), specific weight (удельный вес): navigation: cut the painter (обрубить канат), lower one's colours (спустить свой флаг) military sphere: fall into line (стать в строй). 2. British literature, e.g. the green-eyed monster — ‘jealousy’ (W.Shakespeare); fall on evil days — ‘live in poverty after having enjoyed better times' (J.Milton): how goes the enemy? (Ch. Dickens) — ‘what is the time?’ 3. British traditions and customs, e.g. baker's dozen — ‘a group of thirteen’. In the past British merchants of bread received from bakers thirteen loaves instead of twelve and the thirteenth loaf was merchants' profit. 4. Superstitions and legends, e.g. a black sheep — ‘a less successful or more immoral person in a family or a group'.  5.historical facts and events, personalities, e.g. as well be hanged (or hung) for a sheep as a lamb — ‘something that you say when you are going to be punished for something so you decide to do something worse because your punishment will not be any more severe’.  6. Phenomena and facts of everyday life, e.g. carry coals to Newcastle — ‘to take something to a place where there is plenty of it available'.  The main sources of borrowed phraseological units are: 1. The Holy Script, e.g. the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing — ‘communication in an organization is bad so that one part does not know what is happening in another pan. 2. Ancient legends and myths belonging to different religious or cultural traditions, e.g. to cut the Gordian knot — ‘to deal with a difficult problem in a strong, simple and effective wav’  3. Facts and events of the world history, e.g. to cross the Rubicon to do something which will have very' important results which cannot be changed after. 4. Variants of the English language, e.g. a heavy hitter — ‘someone who is powerful and has achieved a lot’ (American). 5. Other languages (classical and modern), e.g. second to none — ‘equal with any other and better than most* (from Latin: nulli secundus).

37. Proverbs, sayings, quotations.

A proverb is a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and imaginative way. Proverbs have much in common with set expressions, because their lexical components are also constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made. Another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration together with set expressions is that they often form the basis of set expressions. e.g. the last straw breaks the camel’s back : : the last straw. Both set expressions and proverbs are sometimes split and changed for humorous purposes. They are collected in special dictionaries. The typical features: rhythm, rhyme and alliteration. The most characteristic feature of a proverb or a saying lies in the content-form of the utterance. Proverb presupposes a simultaneous application of 2 meanings: primary and contextual.

As to familiar quotations, they are different from proverbs in their origin. They come from literature but by and by they become part and parcel of the language, so that many people using them do not even know that they are quoting. Quotations from classical sources were once a recognised feature of public speech. A little learning is a dangerous thing; To err is human; ‘times change, and we change with them’They are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas, dashes, italics or other graphical means. Some quotations are so often used that they come to be considered clichés. The cliché (the word is French) is a metal block used for printing pictures and turning them out in great numbers. The term is used to denote such phrases as have become hackneyed and stale. Being constantly and mechanically repeated they have lost their original expressiveness and so are better avoided. to blaze a trail, consummate art, consummate skill, heights of tragedy, lofty flight of imagination. The so-called journalese has its own set of overworked phrases: to usher in a new age, to prove a boon to mankind, to pave the way to a bright new world, to spell the doom of civilization.