6. Free word groups versus set-phrases. Criteria of idioms. Classification of idioms.

An idiom is a sequence of words which functions as a single unit; it is syntactically fixed and semantically conventionalized. The semantics of the idiom are usually not predictable from the meaning of the individual words; this is what linguists call “noncompositionality”. The meaning of idioms is often thought to be metaphorical or proverbial; they are emotionally-charged rather than neutral in meaning. Since idioms are not like free syntactic phrases — which can be accounted for the syntactic and semantic rules of the grammar — but are rather more like single words, the question arises as to whether they should be treated in the morphological component of the grammar, that is, whether they should be treated as unanalyzable wholes. The difficulty with doing so is that there appear to be degrees of idiomaticity, with some idioms permitting syntactic changes and some being more literal in meaning than others.

There are some other terms denoting more or less the same linguistic phenomenon: set-expressions, set-phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups, collocations. The confusion in the terminology reflects insufficiency of positive or wholly reliable criteria by which phraseological units can be distinguished from "free" word-groups. Free word-groups are so called not because of any absolute freedom in using them but simply because they are each time built up a new in the speech process where as idioms are used as ready-made units with fixed and constant structures.

Semantic classification of I (by V.V. Vinogradov):

• Fusions where degree of motivation is very low, we can’t guess meaning of the whole from the meaning if its components, they’re highly idiomatic and can’t be translated word for word into other languages.

• Units where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the meaning of its components, but it’s transferred;

• Collocations where the words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages.

Structural classification of I (by A.I. Smirnitsky):

• units of the type to give up (verb +postposition type): to nose out;

• units of type to be tired;

• prepositional-nominal phraseological units.

Syntactical classification of I (by I.V. Arnold):

• Noun PU denoting an object, a person, a living being ect. They can have different structures: a) N+N: maiden name; b) N’s+N: cat’s paw; c) Ns’+N: ladies’ man; d) N+prep.+N: skeleton in cupboard; e) N+A: knight errant; f) N and N: lord and master; g) A+N: high tea; h) N+subordinate clause: ships that pass at the night.

• Verb PU denoting an action, a state, a feeling ect. They can have different structures: a) V+N: to take advantage; b) V and V: to pick and choose; c) V+(one’s)+N+(prep.): to snap one’s fingers at; d) V+one+N: to give one the bird; e) V+ subordinate clause: to see how the land lies.

• Adjective PU denoting a quality. They can have following structures: a) A+and+A: high and mighty; b) (as)+A+as+N: as mad as hatter.

• Adverb PU: with a bump.

• Preposition PU with the structure prp.+N+prp: on the stroke of.

• Interjection PU: Catch me!

7. Productive types of word formation in Modern English. Morphological classification of words. Types of morphemes.

We must start by identifying the morpheme, the smallest meaningful unit in a language; the morpheme is not necessarily equivalent to a word, but may be a smaller unit. Like the phoneme, the morpheme refers to either a class of forms or an abstraction from the concrete forms of language. A morpheme is internally indivisible; it cannot be further subdivided or analyzed into smaller meaningful units. It has internal stability since nothing can be interposed in a morpheme. It is also externally transportable; it has positional mobility or free distribution, occurring in various contexts. Morphemes are represented within curly braces.

Lexical morphemes express lexical, or dictionary, meaning. They can be categorized into the major lexical categories, or word classes: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. They constitute open categories, to which new members can be added. Lexical morphemes are generally independent words (free roots) or parts of words (derivational affixes and bound roots). Grammatical morphemes express a limited number of very common meanings or express relations within the sentence. They do not constitute open categories; they can be exhaustively listed. Their occurrence is (entirely) predictable by the grammar of the sentence because certain grammatical meanings are associated with certain lexical categories.

8. Affixation. Classification of affixes. Compounding. Types of compound words.

Affixation is a way of word-building which is based on adding affixes to the word’s stem to create new lexical or grammar meaning. Affixation is divided into prefixation and suffixation.