- •Нижегородский государственный лингвистический университет им. Н. А. Добролюбова
- •Contents
- •Lexicology as a branch of Linguistics
- •Lexicography
- •The Oxford English Dictionary and Other Historical Dictionaries
- •Antonymic Dictionaries
- •Orthographic Dictionaries
- •The Problem of Definitions
- •A Survey of Current Works on English and American Lexicography in This Country
- •Etymology
- •Etymological Doublets
- •International Words
- •A Contribution of Borrowed Elements into English
- •Celtic Elements in English
- •Latin Borrowings in English
- •The Development of Latin English
- •Greek Element in English
- •Scandinavian Element
- •A Selection of Scandinavian Loanwords in English
- •The Relation of Borrowed and Native Words
- •French Element
- •Army and Navy
- •Fashions, Meals, and Social Life
- •Anglo-Norman and Central French
- •The Contribution to the English Vocabulary from Italian
- •Spanish Element in the English Vocabulary
- •Arabic Words in English
- •German Borrowings in English
- •Russian Borrowings
- •Borrowings from Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Other Languages
- •Hebrew Words in English
- •International Words
- •Folk Etymology
- •Morphological structure of english words
- •Structural Types of English Words
- •Derivational and Functional Affixes
- •Word-building in English
- •The Historical Development of Compounds
- •Classification of Compounds
- •Specific Features of English Compounds
- •Semantic Relationships in Converted Pairs
- •Back-Formation or Reversion
- •Shortening (Clipping or Curtailment)
- •Graphical Abbreviations. Acronyms
- •Blending
- •Onomatopoeia
- •Sound Interchange
- •Distinctive Stress
- •Semasiology
- •Topological Kinds of Polysemy Fellow
- •SynonyMs
- •Sources of Synonyms
- •AntonyMs
- •Homonyms
- •The Origin of Homonyms
- •Polysemy and Homonymy
- •Phraseology
- •Native phraseological units are connected with English customs, traditions, national realia, historical facts:
- •Phraseological Units connected with English realia:
- •Phraseological units connected with the names and nicknames of English kings, queens, scholars, eminent writers, public leaders, etc.
- •Phraseological units connected with historic facts:
- •Shakespearisms constitute more than 100 phraseological units in English:
- •Such great English writers as Jeoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Charles Dickens and Walter Scott contributed greatly to the stock of phraseologisms:
- •Bibleisms represent borrowings which are fully assimilated:
- •Phraseological Borrowings:
- •Phraseological units belonging to ae are the so-called inner borrowings:
- •Similarity and Difference between a Set-Expression and a Word
- •Replenishment of the vocabulary
- •Social Factors and Neologisms
- •Obsolete Words
- •American english
- •The Main Difference between be and ae.
- •British and American Correspondences
- •American School Vocabulary
- •Марина Серафимовна Ретунская Основы Английской лексикологии курс лекций
Phraseology
is a branch of lexicology dealing with word-groups consisting of two or more words, which taken together, mean something different from the individual words in this group when they stand alone: at the eleventh hour (в последнюю минуту), to cook smb’s goose (погубить кого-либо), thirty pieces of silver (цена предательства), the skeleton in the cupboard (постыдный семейный секрет); a white elephant (ненужная, губительная роскошь).
The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect. Other word-combinations are completely regular and logical in their grammar and vocabulary.
There are different terms to name these word-groups: phraseologisms, set-expressions, idioms, phraseological units. The term idiom is too polysemantic, it may denote a mode of expression peculiar to a language, it may be applied to a word (dog-days), groups of words (deaf as a beetle – глухой, как пень), it may also denote a form of expression peculiar to a certain individual, a district (local idiom), a country. The etymology of the word is GK. idioma (property, from “idios” – own, private).
Such word-groups are not created in speech but used as ready-made units being contrasted to free phrases and semi-fixed combinations. In free phrases we can permit substitution of any element: to act well, to do well, to act badly, to do smth. In semi-fixed combinations we can change only one element: to go to bed, to go to school, to go to courts. No such substitution is possible in set-expressions: they are units of fixed context: busy as a bee, to take a French leave, to buy a pig in a poke, red tape. To cut bread but to cut a poor figure (жалко выглядеть).
The origin of phraseological units
There are two origins of phraseological units: native and borrowed. Borrowed phraseological units may be borrowed from other languages by translation or from other variants of English (mainly American), or borrowed in the original unassimilated form.
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Native phraseological units are connected with English customs, traditions, national realia, historical facts:
By bell, book and candle (jocular) – finally, irrevocably (бесповоротно), one of the forms of excommunication (отлучение от церкви) which ends with the following words: Doe to the book, quench the candle, ring the bell!
Baker’s dozen – thirteen instead of twelve. The extra one was the outcome of the imposition of a heavy penalty for underweight. To be on the safe side the baker gave the retailer an extra loaf to the dozen (called in – bread) to avoid all risk of incurring the fine.
To tell it to the bees – a custom many centuries old in country districts, is to tell the bees when a birth occurs in the family, and to hang a piece of black crepe over the hive when a death occurs. The superstition attached to the custom is that unless the bees are told they will not stay. The superstition comes probably, from the belief, as far back as the ancient Greeks, that there was some connection between bees and souls.
To jump over the broomstick – the phrase means “to marry informally” Broomstick is connected with brom, the name for the bit in a horse’s bridle. Thus, to jump over the broom is to avoid the restraint of a full marriage service, and to wed quietly and informally.
To eat humble pie – this phrase dates back to the old days of feasting off venison, when banquets were given in Baronial Halls. The lords and ladies dined off the flesh of the deer. The huntsmen and the servants of the household had to be content with what were called the “umbles” – the heart, liver and the entrails. These were made into huge pies. Hence, to eat umble pie meant that you were not of sufficient importance to suite with the household. You were, in point of fact, an inferior person.