The English Phraseology.

Phraseology is the branch of lexicology studying the set-expressions,

such as idioms, phraseological units, in which the component parts of
the expression are used in transferred meanings.

The term "idiom" generally implies that the essential feature of the
linguistic units is idiomaticity or lack of motivation.
It's a piece of cake - It's easy
It's raining cats and dogs - It's raining hard

The term "word-equivalent" stresses not only semantic but also

functional inseparability of certain word groups, their aptness to function
in speech as single words.

The term "set phrase" implies that the basic criterion of differentiation
is stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure of word-
group. [Word-group – a group of words which exists in the language as a ready-made unit, has
the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function]

Phraseological transference is a complete or partial change of meaning

of an initial (source) word-combination as a result of which the word-
combination acquires a new meaning and turns into a phraseological
unit.

Phraseological transference may be based on:

simile [ˈsɪmɪlɪ], metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche [sɪˈnekdəki], contrast,
synonymy

1. Simile - an expression that describes something by comparing it with

something else, using the words ‘as’ or ‘like':
(as) pretty as a picture, (as) fat as a pig, to fight like a lion, to swim like
a fish, as like as two peas, as оld as the hills.
Alliteration combined with simile: as fit as a fidde, as good as gold
2. Metaphor is a transfer of meaning based on association of similarity
between referents:
a lame duck, a pack of lies, arms race, to swallow the pill, in a
nutshell, to bend somebody to one’s bow ‘to submit someone’.
3. Metonymy is the transfer of meaning based on association of
contiguity between referents:
a blue stocking
4. Synecdoche [sɪˈnekdəki] the practice of using the name of a part of
something to refer to the whole thing, or using the name of a whole thing
to refer to part of it:
in the flesh and blood
Synecdoche combined with metaphor: to hold one’s tongue
5. Contrast a difference between people, ideas, situations, things etc that
are being compared
for love or money, more or less, sooner or later
Alliteration combined with contrast: to kill or cure, now or never
6. Synonymy are words belonging to the same part of speech, differing
in sound form, and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical
denotative meanings.
by leaps and bounds, proud and haughty, with might and main

The place of proverbs, sayings and familiar quotations [kwəʊˈteɪʃən] with

respect to set expressions is a controversial issue. A proverb is a short
familiar epigrammatic [ˈepɪɡræm] saying expressing popular wisdom
[ˈwɪzdəm], a truth or a moral lesson in a concise [kənˈsaɪs] and imaginative
[ɪˈmædʒɪnətɪv] way.

Proverbs have much in common with set expressions, because their

lexical components are also constant, their meaning is traditional and
mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made.

Another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration together

with set expressions is that they often form the basis of set expressions.

A saying is any common, colloquial expression, or a remark often made:

Charity begins at home. It takes two to tango.

Sayings can be represented by

affirmative sentences:
The world is a small place.

That is a horse of a different colour.

interrogative sentences:
Do you see any green in my eye? Can the leopard change his spots? Where do
you hail from?;

negative sentences:
Don't trouble troubles till troubles trouble you. Don't count your chickens before
they hatch.

imperative sentences:
Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Proverbs and sayings possess such characteristics of phraseological
units:

1. they are introduced in speech ready-made;

2. their components are constant;
3. their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative;
4. many proverbs and sayings are metaphorical

E. g. the last straw breaks the camel's back: the last straw;
a drowning man will clutch at a straw:clutch at a straw;
it is useless to lock the stable door when the steed is stolen: lock the
stable door.
As to familiar quotations [kwəʊˈteɪʃən], they are different from proverbs
in their origin. They come from literature and become part of the
language, so that many people using them do not even know that they
are quoting [kwəʊt], and very few could accurately name the play or
passage on which they are drawing even when they are aware of using a
quotation [kwəʊˈteɪʃən].

(Example from Hamlet)

Phraseological units can be defined as non-motivated word groups that
cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made
units.
In modern linguistics, there is a considerable confusion about the
terminology associated with these word-groups.

Most Ukrainian scholars use the term “phraseological unit” which was
first introduced by Academician [əˌkædəˈmɪʃən] Viktor Vladimirovich
Vinogradov. The term “idiom” widely used by western scholars has
comparatively [kəmˈpærətɪvlɪ] recently found its way into Ukrainian
phraseology but is applied mostly to only a certain type of
phraseological unit.
There are some other terms denoting more or less the same linguistic
phenomenon: set-expressions, set-phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups,
collocations.
Phraseological units are stable word-groups characterized by a
completely transferred meaning. Phraseological units cannot be made in
the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units.
The same as words they express a single notion and are used in a
sentence as one part of it.

There are 2 major [ˈmeɪdʒə] criteria for distinguishing [dɪˈstɪŋgwɪʃɪŋ]

between phraseological units and word-groups: semantic and
structural.
The semantic shift affecting phraseological units does not consist in a
merge [mɜːdʒ] change of meanings of each separate [ˈseprɪt] constituent
[kənˈstɪtjʊənt] part of the unit. The meanings of the constituents [kən
ˈstɪtjʊənt] merge to produce an entirely new meaning:
e.g. to have a bee in one’s bonnet [ˈbɒnɪt] means “to have an obsession
about something”.
The structural criterion [kraɪˈtɪərɪən] also brings forth distinctive features
characterizing phraseological units and contrasting [kənˈtrɑːstɪŋ] them to
free word-groups.
Structural invariability [ɪnˌveərɪəˈbɪlɪtɪ] is an essential feature of
phraseological units, though, some of them possess it to a lesser [ˈlesə]
degree than others:
e.g. a bee in smb’s bonnet – a bee in his hat (an error, a silly choice of
words); to build a castle in the air – to build castles in the air; the early
birds – early birds; by Jove! – by ginger!

The essential features of phraseological units are:

1. reproducibility – regular use of phraseological units in speech as

single unchangeable collocations.
2. idiomaticity – lack of motivation; the meaning of the whole is not
deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts;
sight for sore eyes
3. lexical and grammatical stability – a phraseological unit exists as a
ready-made linguistic unit which does not allow of any variability of its
lexical components, of grammatical structure:
e.g. all the world and his wife, red tape.

According to the classification based on the semantic principle English

phraseological units fall into the following classes:
1. Phraseological combinations – word-groups with a partially
[ˈpɑːʃəlɪ] changed meaning.

They are clearly motivated, the meaning of a unit can be easily deduced
[dɪˈdjuːs] from the meanings of its constituents [kənˈstɪtjʊənt]:
e.g. to break silence, to make friends, to take into account, now and
then.

Phraseological combinations are not only motivated but contain one

component used in its direct [dɪˈrekt] meaning, while the other is used
metaphorically:
e.g. to meet the requirements [rɪˈkwaɪəmənt], to attain success.
2. Phraseological unities – word-groups with a completely changed
meaning; the meaning of the unit does not correspond to the meanings of
its constituent [kənˈstɪtjʊənt] parts.

They are motivated units or, putting it another way, the meaning of the
whole unit can be deduced from the meanings of the constituent [kən
ˈstɪtjʊənt] parts.

The metaphor, on which the shift of the meaning is based, is clear and
transparent; they are metaphorically motivated idioms:
e.g. to wash smb’s dirty linen [ˈlɪnɪn] in public (to tell people about
one’s hidden sins and faults), a snake in the grass (a person with
harmful intentions), to lose one’s heart to smb (to fall in love).

Phraseological units may be classified in accordance [əˈkɔːdəns] with

their structure and their ability to perform the same syntactical functions
as parts of speech.

The classification based on the structural and syntactic principles

distinguishes phraseological units into the following classes.
1. Verbal, denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to lose one’s head,
to take the bull by the horns, to look through one’s fingers, to fish in
troubled waters

2. Substantive [ˈsʌbstəntɪv] (noun, nominative), denoting an object, a

person, a living being, e.g. an apple of discord, strong language, a hard
nut to crack, a black sheep.
3. Adjectival [ˌædʒɪkˈtaɪvəl], denoting a quality, e.g. as busy as a bee,
safe and sound, as slow as a snail, cold as a fish, as poor as a church
mouse, hot as pepper.
4. Adverbial, set expressions functioning like adverbs, e.g. from head to
foot, like a shot, in cold blood, within one’s reach, above one’s reach,
by all means.
5. Interjectional [ˌɪntəˈdʒekʃən], set expressions functioning like
interjections [ˌɪntəˈdʒekʃən], e.g. good heavens!, by George!, great
guns!, a pretty kettle of fish! These are often structured as imperative
sentence: Bless your heart!, my aunt!, Tell me another! Ask me
another!
Many phraseological units are polysemantic (a word having several
meanings is called polysemantic. Most English words are polysemantic ). Their
polysemantic structure develops mostly due to further metaphoric
transference of their meaning.
“You look right as rain, Mr. Carrnody; You’ll be on your feet again in a
week” (F.O’Connor) – I thought that you could stop any plan to
prosecute me in this matter, and gave me time to get on my feet again”
(Th.Dreiser);
3. Phraseological fusions – word-groups with a completely changed
meaning but, in contrast to the unities, they are demotivated, their
meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of the constituent [kən
ˈstɪtjʊənt] parts; they are completely non-motivated idiomatic word-
groups, the metaphor, on which the shift of meaning was based, has lost
its clarity [ˈklærɪtɪ] and is obscure [əbˈskjʊə]:

e.g. to pull smb’s leg (to deceive smb.), to bell the cat (to take a risk for
the good of others), a white elephant (a present one can’t get rid of)
Contextual Classification (Nataliya Nikolayevna Amosova):

She defines phraseological units as units of fixed context. Fixed context

is a context characterized by a specific and unchanging sequence of
definite lexical components and a peculiar [pɪˈkjuːlɪə] semantic relations
between them.

Phrasemes are always binary: one component has a phraseologically

bound meaning, the other serves as the determining [dɪˈtɜːmɪn] context:
small talk, small hours, small change. A phraseme, also called a set
phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression is a multi-word or multi-
morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is
selectionally constrained by linguistic convention such that it is not
freely chosen.

In Idioms the new meaning is created by the whole, though every

element may have its original meaning weakened or even lost: in the
nick of time

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kunin's classification is based on the

functions of the units fulfil in speech. They may be nominating (a bull
in a china shop), interjectinal (a pretty kettle of fish), communicative
(familiarity breeds contempt), or nominating-communicative (pull
somebody's leg). Further classification into subclasses depends on
whether the units are changeable or unchangeable, whether the meaning
of the one element remains free, and, more generally, on the
interdependence between the meaning of the elements and the meaning
of the set expression.
Within each of these classes a further subdivision is as follows:

a) Set expressions functioning like nouns:

N+N: maiden name 'the surname of a woman before she was married'; brains trust
'a committee of experts'

N+A: blight errant (the phrase is today applied to any man ready to help and
protect oppressed and helpless people)

N+and+N: lord and master 'husband'

A+N: high tea 'an evening meal which combines meat or some similar extra dish
with the usual tea'

b) Set expressions functioning like verbs:

V+N: take advantage

V+and+V: pick and choose

V+(one's)+N+(prp): snap one's fingers at

V+one+N: give one the bird 'to fire smb'

V+subordinate clause: see how the land lies 'to discover the state of affairs'.

c) Set expressions functioning like adjectives:

A+and+A: high and mighty

(as)+A+as+N: as old as the hills, as mad as a hatter

d) Set expressions functioning like adverbs:

N+N: tooth and nail

e) Set expressions functioning like prepositions:

prp+N+prp: in consequence of

f) Set expressions functioning like interjections:

these are often structured as imperative sentences: Bless (one's) soul! God bless
me! Hang it (all)!

Origin of all phraseological units: native and borrowed.

The main sources of native phraseological units are: terminology and

professional lexics:
physics – center of gravity,
navigation – cut the painter ‘to become independent’,
military sphere – fall into line ‘conform with others’;
British literature:
the green-eyed monster – ‘jealousy’ (Shakespeare);
fall on evil days – ‘live in poverty after having enjoyed better times’
(Milton);
a sight for sore eyes – ‘a person or thing that one is extremely pleased or
relieved to see’ (Swift);
How goes the enemy? (Dickens);
Present British traditions and customs:
baker’s dozen
Superstitions and legends:
a black sheep
Historical facts and events, personalities:
as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb - according to an old law a
person who stole a sheep was sentenced to death by hanging, so it was
worth stealing something more because there was no worse punishment
Phenomena and facts of everyday life:
carry coals to Newcastle – Newcastle is a town in Northern
England where a lot of coal was produced.

The main sources of borrowed phraseological units are:

the Bible :
the kiss of Judas
doubting Thomas;
Ancient legends and myths belonging to different religious or
cultural traditions:
Pandora’s box
Facts and events of the world history:
to meet one’s Waterloo
Variants of the English language:
a heavy hitter – ‘someone who is powerful and has achieved a lot’
(AmE)
Other languages (classical and modern):
second to none – ‘equal with any other and better than most’ (from
Latin: nulli secundus);