Vira Dribniuk
Typology of
phraseological units in English
Difference in terminology (“set-phrases”, “idioms” and “word-equivalents” [1])
reflects certain differences in the main criteria used to distinguish types of phraseological
units and free word-groups. The term “set phrase” implies that the basic
criterion of differentiation is stability of the lexical components and
grammatical structure of word-groups.
There is a certain divergence of opinion as to the
essential features of phraseological units as distinguished from other
word-groups and the nature of phrases that can be properly termed
“phraseological units”. The habitual terms “set-phrases”, “idioms”,
“word-equivalents” are sometimes treated differently by different linguists.
However these terms reflect to certain extend the main debatable points of
phraseology which centre in the divergent views concerning the nature and
essential features of phraseological units as distinguished from the so-called
free word-groups [2, p. 100].
The term “set expression” implies
that the basic criterion of differentiation is stability of the lexical
components and grammatical structure of word-groups.
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 “idioms” generally implies that the essential feature of the
linguistic units under consideration is idiomaticity or lack of motivation. Uriel
Weinreich expresses his view that an idiom is a complex phrase, the meaning of
which cannot be derived from the meanings of its elements. He developed a more
truthful supposition, claiming that an idiom is a subset of a phraseological
unit. Ray Jackendoff and Charles Fillmore offered a fairly broad definition of
the idiom, which, in Fillmore’s words, reads as follows: “…an idiomatic
expression or construction is something a language user could fail to know
while knowing everything else in the language”. Chafe also lists four features
of idioms that make them anomalies in the traditional language unit paradigm: non-compositionality,
transformational defectiveness, ungrammaticality and frequency asymmetry [6, p.
1-3].
The term “idiom”, both in this country and abroad, is mostly applied to
phraseological units with completely transferred meanings, that is, to the ones
in which the meaning of the whole unit does not correspond to the current
meanings of the components.
According to the type of meaning phraseological units may be classified
into:
• Idioms;
• Semi-idioms;
• Phraseomatic
units (after Ryzhkova).
Idioms are phraseological units with a transferred
meaning. They can be completely or partially transferred (red tape [3, p. 740]).
Semi-idioms are phraseological units with two phraseosemantic meanings: terminological and transferred
(chain reaction [3, p. 110], to lay down the arms [3, p. 33]).
Phraseomatic
units are not transferred at all. Their meanings are
literal.
Other types of phraseological units are also distinguished:
• Phrases with a unique
combination of components (born companion [3, p. 138]);
• Phrases with a descriptive
meaning;
• Phrases with phraseomatic and bound meaning (to pay attention to [3, p.
40]);
• Set expressions
(clichés) (the beginning of the end [3, p. 59]);
• Preposition-noun phrases
(for good [3, p. 311], at least [3, p. 414]);
• Terminological
expressions (general ticket [3, p. 755], civil war [3, p. 121]) (after Ryzhkova).
Semantic complexity is one of the most essential qualities of phraseological
units. It’s resulted from the complicated interaction of the component meanings
(meaning of prototype, of semantic structure etc.). All these components are
organized into a multilevel structure [4].
Idioms contain all information in compressed form. This quality is
typical of idioms, it makes them very capacious units (idiom is a compressed
text). An idiom can provide such a bright explanation of an object that can be
better than a sentence. We can compare idioms with fables (the Prodigal son [3,
p. 571]). Idioms based on cultural components are not motivated (the good Samaritan [5],
Phraseological meaning contains background information. It covers only
the most essential features of the object it nominates. It corresponds to the
basic concept, to semantic nucleus of the unit. It is the invariant of
information conveyed by semantically complicated word combinations and which is
not derived from the lexical meanings of the conjoined lexical components [4].
According to the class the word-combination belongs to, we single out:
• idiomatic
meaning;
• idiophraseomatic meaning;
• phraseomatic meaning (after Ryzhkova).
The information conveyed by phraseological units is thoroughly organized
and is very complicated. It is characterized by:
1) multilevel structure;
2) structure of a field (nucleus + periphery);
3) block-schema (after Ryzhkova).
It contains 3 macro-components which correspond to a certain type of
information they convey:
• the
grammatical block;
• the
phraseological meaning proper;
• motivational
macro-component (phraseological imagery; the inner form of the phraseological
unit; motivation) (after Ryzhkova).
Phraseological unit is a non-motivated word-group that cannot be freely
made up in speech but is reproduced as a ready made unit.
Reproducibility is regular use of phraseological units in speech as
single unchangeable collocations.
Idiomaticity is the quality of phraseological unit, when the meaning of
the whole is not deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts.
Stability of a phraseological unit implies that it exists as a ready-made
linguistic unit which does not allow of any variability of its lexical
components of grammatical structure.
Bibliography
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2.
Ãèíçáóðã Ð.Ñ. è
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Favourite English proverbs and sayings = Óëþáëåí³
àíãë³éñüê³ ïðèñë³â’ÿ ³ ïðèêàçêè: 500 âèñëîâ³â/ Óïîðÿä.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom.