Classifications of phraseological units

One of the existing classifications of phraseological units was done by V.V.Vinogradov. Taking into account mainly the degree of idiomaticity he classified phraseological units in

1) Phraseological fusions are completely non-motivated word groups in which the meanings of the components have no connection with meaning of the whole group. Idiomaticity is combined with complete stability of lexical components and grammatical structure of the fusion.

E.g.: “heavy father” – серйозна частина п’єси “red tape” – бюрократія

“all ales and skittles” – безтурботне життя “a battle of the books” – вчений диспут

To pull smbs leg зрадити to bell the cat ризикувати заради когось white elephant непотрібний подарунок

2) Phraseological unities are partially non-motivated as their meaning can usually be deduced through metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit. Phraseological unities are as a rule marked by a high degree of stability of lexical components.

E.g.: “to show one’s teeth” – погрожувати “to wash one’s dirty linen in public”

3) Phrseological combinations 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 combinations variability of member words is strictly limited.

E.g.: “to bear a grudge” (мати зуб на когось) may be changed into “to bear malice” but not into “to bear a fancy” or “to bear a liking”.

We can name them standardized phrases. E.g.: to give help, to win a victory, to make a mistake

They may express:

1) attributive relations: acute pain, cold reason, black sheep

2) object relations: to declare war, to take measures

3) subject-predicative relations: extremes meet, time flies

4) adverbial relations: to freeze hard, to snow heavily, to rain fast.

Here also belong some comparisons: as blue as the sky, as black as a crow, as busy as a bee etc.

We also distinguish phraseological expressions – proverbs, sayings and aphoristic familiar quotations. E.g.: Birds of a feather flock together. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread (A. Pope). Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (W. Shakespeare). Still water runs deep.

N.Amosova. Fixed context phrasemes idioms.

A.Koonin. It is based on the function units fulfill in speech