3. Phraseological units and their distinguishing features
Ph.u. possess phraseological s t a b i l i t y which may be called macrostability; it is made up of several microstabilities.
The stability of use. Ph.u. is reproduced ready-made, it is not based on a grammatical and semantic pattern of a free word-group. They are registered in dictionaries and handed down from generation to generation; they are public property, not private.
Stability of meaning. The meaning of ph.u. is fully or partially transferred. Metaphor and metonymy are the common types of the complication of meaning. E.g., fully transferred meaning: a bull in a china shop, to make a mountain out of a molehill, like a fish out of water; Wall Street, Fleet Street; time and tide wait for no man, на козаку нема знаку; Ten Commandments, to be or not to be, десять заповідей, бути чи не бути, Jack Ketch (hangman), Tom Pepper(great Her), Tom Tailor (tailor), Tom Thumb (a small man, a Lilipntian), Nosy Parker (людина, що втручається/суне ніс не в свої справи). Similarly in Ukrainian: Макар Касян, i.e. (ненажера), Чалий (підступна, зрадлива людина); Герострат, Ксантипа (сварлива Сократова дружина),
- partially transferred meaning: as brave as a lion, as sly as a fox, to drink like a fish, язиката Хвеська, сердешна Оксана.
The stability of meaning does not mean that the meaning of ph.u. doesn't change. E.g., to give up the ghost (to die), now it's applied to trains, cars, etc. (stopped functioning).
Lexical stability. 1) Ph.u. with no lexical replacement possible, e.g., to pay through the nose (to pay a very large sum of money), Tomy Atkins (American soldier), a bloody Mary (a drink). But they may have grammatical forms, e.g., He kicked the bucket (He died); 2) certain, limited replacements are possible, e.g., close (near) at hand, not to stir (raise, lift, turn) a finger, to close (shut) one's eyes to smth. Variants are fixed, their number is determined, they must be learned.
Phraseological stability might roughly correspond to another term i d i o m a - t i c i t y, used by English and American linguists and some of the Soviet ones (Ginzburg R.A., e.g.). By idiomaticity they mean two essential features of phraseological units – stability of lexical components and lack of motivation. Mainly on the basis of the second feature the definition of an idiom given in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is formed: "Idiom ... peculiarity of phraseology approved by usage, though having meaning not deducible from those of the separate words" (Sixth edition, 1376).
Besides phraseological stability ph.u. are characterized by s t r u c t u r a l
s e p a r a b i l i t y (the term of A.I. Smirnitsky). Ph.u. are made up of words which have grammatical forms. The markers of structural separability are: a) morphological – changes of the verb, e.g., to burn one's finger (burnt, has burnt, will burn); changes of the noun, e.g., he is pulling my leg (our legs); changes of adjectives, e.g., he is poorer than a church mouse; b) morphological and syntactical, e.g., the formation of the Passive Voice – Don't you see that our legs are being pulled? c) the structure of the ph.u. as a whole is different from that of compound words, e.g., my God! good Heavens!