31. Discrepancies between free word-groups and phraseological units.

a word-group is a combination of at least two meaningful words joined together according to the rules of a particular language

a phraseological unit is a non-motivated word-group that cannot be freely made up in speech but is reproduced as a ready-made unit

Semantic:the semantic change affects the whole word-group, e.g. a wolf in a sheep’s clothing, to have one’s heart in one’s mouth; the semantic change affects one of the components, e.g. to fall ill, to lose one’s temper;

Structural: restriction in substitution; restriction in introducing additional components; grammatical invariability.

-the contextual approach proceeds from the assumption that individual meanings of polysemantic words can be observed in certain contexts and may be viewed as dependent on these contexts;

-a phraseological unit is a unit of fixed context characterised by specific and unchanging sequence of definite lexical components and a peculiar semantic relationship between them;

-the two criteria of PhU – specialised meaning of the components and non-variability of context – display unilateral dependence.

constructed in speech wg	ready-made pu
substitution is possible	as a rule, no substitution
individual meanings of the components (motivated)	meaning is non-motivated (idiomatic)
each notional word functions as a separate syntactic unit	the whole expression functions as a single syntactic unit
unpredictable	predictable

32..Phraseological units: a variety of terms and the problem of definition. Characteristic features of phraseological units.

Main Features of Phraseological Units: idiomaticity reproducibility stability predictability inseparability

Terminological Vagueness:a phraseological unit (V. V. Vinogradov) an idiom a set-phrase a word-equivalent a collocation

a phraseme (N. M. Amosova) a quasi-idiom (I. Melchook).

33..Classifications of phraseological units.

Phraseological combinations (collocations): clearly motivated; made up of words possessing specific lexical valency which accounts for a certain degree of stability in such word-groups; variability of member-words is strictly limited, e.g. to meet the demand, to make a mistake, to bear a grudge, to pay a compliment, to give a speech etc.

Phraseological unities:partially non-motivated, i.e. their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole unit, e.g. to lose one’s head, a fish out of water, to show one’s teeth, to wash one’s dirty linen in public,

Phraseological fusions: completely non-motivated, i.e. the meaning of the components has no connection, at least synchronically, with the meaning of the whole group; characterised by complete stability of the lexical components and the grammatical structure of the whole unit, e.g. once in a blue moon, to be on the carpet, under the rose etc.

34. Polysemy, synonymy and stylistic features of phraseological units.

Absolute synonyms (identical in meaning and stylistic connotations):

break one’s word = depart from one’s word; bring (drive) to the bay = drive (force) to the wall; like lightning = with lightning speed = like a streak of lightning;

Ideographic synonyms denote different shades of common meaning, e.g. to come to / arrive at / jump at / leap at a conclusion. In other cases, they differ in intensity of a given meaning:

to have two minds – to be in twenty minds; to be in one’s cups ‘tipsy’ – to be drunk as a skunk ‘drunk and incapable’;

Stylistic synonyms (appropriate only to definite contexts):

What on earth is this? – What the hell is this?

on the Greek calends – When pigs fly.

Polysemy of phraseological units:

to be on the go – 1) be energetic; 2) keep doing smth; 3) be in a hurry; 4) be drunk.

Stylistic Aspect of Phraseology Not all phraseological units bear imagery: clichés / stock phrases (see you later, take it easy, joking apart etc.); some proverbs (better late than never); some euphonic units: rhyme (out and about); alliteration (forgive and forget, now or never, safe and sound); repetition (little by little, inch by inch); with archaic words (to buy a pig in a poke).