32. Phraseological units vs. Free word groups. Proverbs, sayings, familiar quotations and clichés.

WG - two-facet LU comprising more than one word, which is observed on the syntagmatic level of analysis of how words are joined together to make up single self-contained LU.

PU - non-motivated or partially motivated word-groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units; stability of the lex. components and gr. str..

Components of FWG which may vary according to the needs of communication, member-words of PU are always reproduced as single unchangeable collocations. E.g., red flower ‘the flower of a certain colour’ (adj. can be substituted), red tape ‘official bureaucratic methods’ (adj. can’t be substituted).

Grammatical structure of PU is to a certain degree also stable: red tape - PU, red tapes - FWG.

PU vs. FWG:

• semantics: FWG - lexically motivated (the combined lexical meaning of the group is deducible from the meanings of its components); PU - non- or partially motivated;

• scope of valency: FWG - high variability, restricted only by lexical or grammatical valence; PU - either invariable or the changes in the components are very limited;

• degree of spontaneity: FWG are spontaneously formed in speech, PU are reproduced as ready-made elements.

FWG demotivation:

- member of FWG → archaic → fully or partly non-motivated (to and fro);

- meaning disappear and can be found only in certain collocations (to have a mind to do smth 'to have a purpose');

- professional → literary usage (puppet theatre: to pull the strings/wires);

- part of a proverb or saying (new brooms sweep clean), quotation (the green-eyed monster).

Proverbs express national wisdom; instructive and didactic sentences with a traditional and mostly figurative meaning (metaphoric meaning): The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

They have much in common with PU due to the stability of their components and ready-made reproduction in speech. They can be separated for the purpose of irony.

Saying is a short phrase in direct way: All's well that ends well.

Familiar quotations have a literary character and constitute the cultural treasure of the language testifying to the richness of one’s background knowledge, especially those from classical sources, Shakespeare, Pope. Sometimes we may preserve the original form: To be or not to be - that is the question, O tempora, o mores! Cherchez la femme!

Clichés are quotations which became habitual and lost their original expressiveness: the irony of fate, to break the ice. Cliches — word-combinations that are used very often together and reproduced together esp. in newspaper style (ladies and gentlemen).

33. Different classifications of phraseological units (according to the degree of motivation, structural mobility, semantic, structural, part of speech).

Phraseological units - non- or partially motivated word-groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units (word-groups that exist in the language as ready-made units).

L.P. Smith (1925):

- conjunction of similar ideas (fear and trembling);

- opposed ideas (more or less);

- alliteration (rack and ruin);

- rhymed (fair and square);

- repetition (more and more);

- comparisons showing popular beliefs or prejudices;

- common experiences.

Semantic (Vinogradov):

• fusions - completely non-motivated word-groups (as mad as a hatter – “utterly mad”; white elephant – “an expensive but useless thing”);

• unities - partially non-motivated, meaning can be perceived thru the metaph. mean. of the whole PU (to bend the knee ‘to obey submissively’; to wash one’s dirty linen in public ‘to discuss or make public one’s quarrels’);

• collocations - motivated, one component - its direct meaning, the other - metaph. (to meet the requirements, to attain success); some substitutions are possible - don’t destroy the meaning of the metaphoric element (to meet the needs, demand, necessity).

Degree of motivation:

- opaque idioms - high idiomaticity (on cloud nine)

- semi opaque (to pass the buck 'responsibility')

- transparent - figurative m. of literary senses (to see the light)

Structural mobility (Nunberg, Sag, Wasow):

• idiomatically combining expressions – allow syntactic mobility of the components; can be put them apart in the sentence (lex. substitutions, diff. pronouns);

• idiomatic phrases – do not allow modifications (kick the bucket ‘die’, no passive: *My head was talked off).

Structural classification (Smirnitsky):

• one-top (one root morpheme) units:

a) units of the type to give up (verb + postposition): to art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich in, etc.;

b) units of the type to be tired (remind the passive voice in their structure but they have different prepositions with them, while in the PV only prepositions «by» or «with» are): to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc.

c) prepositional-nominal phraseological units (equivalents of prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs): in the course of = during, on the nose = exactly.

• two-top units (two root morphemes):

a) attributive-nominal: a month of Sundays, grey matter; noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic; in partly idiomatic units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, (high road), in other cases the second component (first night) or both components are idiomatic (red tape, blind alley, bed of nail, shot in the arm);

b) verbal-nominal: to read between the lines; the grammar centre - verb, the semantic centre - nominal comp. (to fall in love); can be perfectly idiomatic as well: to burn one’s boats, to vote with one’s feet, to take to the cleaners’, etc.;

c) phraseological repetition/reiteration: now or never; can be built on antonyms (back and forth); often formed by means of alliteration (as busy as a bee); equivalents of adv. or adj. and have no grammar centre; partly or perfectly idiomatic (cool as a cucumber - partly), bread and butter - perfectly).

Structural classification:

• fixed

  • fixed regular - can’t be varied on the grammatical level;

  • fixed irregular - can be varied on the grammatical level (to have a bee in one’s bonnet - she has.., I have...);

• variable - can be varied on the lexical level (to add fuel to the fire/flame, to mind one’s (own) business);

• dialectal (BrE: to have a skeleton in the cupboard; AmE: to have a skeleton in the closet).

Part of speech (Arnold)

• nouns denoting an object, a person (bullet train);

• verbs denoting an action, a state, a feeling (to break the logjam);

• adjectives denoting a quality (loose as a goose);

• adverbs (in the soup);

• prepositions (in the course of);

• interjections (Catch me!).