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Structure and classification of phraseological units

Категория: Лингвистика

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e) shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the meaning «ошибаться».

f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as translation loans, eg "Living space«(German), «to take the bull by the horns» (Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche» (French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc. < br>
Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style and are not used very often.

There are diffrenent combinations of words. Some of them are free,e.g. to read books (news papers, a letter, etc.) others are fixed, limited in their combinative power, eg to go to bed, to make a report. The combinations of words which are fixed (set-expressions) are called phraseological units.

A free combination is a syntactical unit, which consists notional and form words, and in which notional wordshave the function of independent parts of the sentence. In a phraseological unit words are not independent. They form set-expressions, in which neither words nor the order of words can be changed. Free combinations are created by the speaker. Phraseological units are used by the speaker in a ready form, without any changes. The whole phraseologicalunit has a meaning which may be quite different from the meaning of its components, and therefore the whole unit, and not separate words, has the function of a part of the sentence.

Phraseological units consist of separate words and therefore they are different words, even from compounds. Word have several structural forms, but in phraseologicalunits only one of the components has all the forms of the paradigm of the part of speech it belongs to eg to go to bed, goes to bed, went to bed, gone to bed, going to bed, etc., the rest of the components do not change their form.

By the classification of Academician V. Vinogradov phraseological units are devided into three groups: phraseologicalcombinations, phraseological unities and phraseological fusions.

Phraseological combinations are often called traditional because words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages, eg cash and carry — (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc. It is usually impossible toaccount logically for the combination of particular words. It can be explained only on the basis of tradition, eg to deliver a lection (but not to read a lecture).

In phraseological combinations words retain their full semantic independence although they are limited in their combinative power, eg to wage war (but not to lead war), to renderassistance, to render services (but not to render pleasure).

Phraseological combinations are the least idiomatic of all the kinds of phraseological units. In other words, in phraseological combinations the meaning of the whole can be inferred from the meaning of the components, eg to draw a conclusion, lo lend assistance, to make money, topay attention to.

In phraseological combinations one of the components (generally the component which is used fugiratively) can be combined with different words, eg to talk sports, politics, business (but to speak about life), leading worker, leading article (but the main problem), deadly enemy, deadly shot (but a mortal wound), keen interest,keen curiosity, keen sence of humour (but the great surprise).

Words of wide meaning, as to make, to take, to do, to give, etc. Form many phraseological units, e.g. to take an examination, to take a trip, to take a chance, to take interest, to make fun of, to make inquiries, to make a statement, to make friends, to make haste.

Sometimestraditional combinations are synonyms of words, eg to make inquiries = to inquire, to make haste = to hurry.

Some traditional combinations are equivalents of prapositions, eg by means of, in connection with.

Some phraseological combinations have nearly become compounds, eg brown bread.

Traditional combinations often have synonymousexpressions, e.g. to make a report = to deliver a report.

Phraseological combinations are not equivalents of words. Though the components of phraseological combinations are limited in their combinative power, that is, they can be combined only with certain words and cannot be combined with any other words, they preserve not only their meaning,but all their structural forms, e.g. nice distinction is a phraseological combinations and it is possible to say nice distinctions, nicer distinction, etc., or to clench one’s fist (clenched his fists, was clenching his fists, etc.).

In Prof. A. Smirnitsky’s opinion traditional combinations are not phraseological units, as he considersonly those word combinations to be phraseological units which are equivalents of words.

In phraseological unities the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical), eg to play the first fiddle (to be a leader in something), old salt (experienced sailor) etc. Themeaning of the whole word combination is not the sum of the meanings of its components, but it is based on them and the meaning of the whole can be inferred from the image that underlies the whole expression, eg to get on one’s nerves, to cut smb short, to show one’s teeth, to be at daggers drawn.

Phraseological unities are often synonymsof words, e.g. to make a clean breast of = to confess; to get on one’s nerves = to irritate.

Phraseological unities are equivalents of words as 1) only one of components of a phraseological unity has structural forms, eg to play (played, is playing, etc.) the first fiddle (but not played the first fiddles) to turn (turned, will turn, etc.)a new leaf (but not to turn newer leaf or new leaves) 2) the whole unity and not its components are parts of the sentence in syntactical analysis, eg in the sentence He took the bull by the horns

(attacked a problem boldly) there are only two parts: he — the subject, and took the bull by the horns — the predicate.

In phraseologicalfusions the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other languages, eg. to pull one’s leg (to deceive) at sixes and sevens (in comfusion); a mare’s nest (a discovery which turns out to be false or worthless);to show the white feather (to show cowardice) to ride the high horse (to put on airs).

Phraseological fusions are the most idiomatic of all the kinds of phraseological units.

Phraseological fusions are equivalents of words: fusions as well as unities form a syntactical whole in analysis.

Prof. A. I. Smirnitsky worked out structuralclassification of phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.

Among one-top units he points outthree structural types;

a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), eg 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». Some of these units remind the Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositons with them, while inthe Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or «with», eg to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc. There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type «to be young», eg to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attributeand as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar centre and the second component is the semantic centre;

c) prepositional — nominal phraseological units. These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, thatis why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part, eg on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the course of time such units can become words, eg tomorrow, instead etc.

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