Evaluate and give examples of Thematic or Etymological classification of phraseological units

1. Phraseology, classification of phraseological units. Vinogradov’s classification of phraseological units:

a) phraseological combinations (сочетания). b) unities (единства). c) fussions (сокращения).

a) phraseological combinations — are word — groups with a partially changed meaning. They may be said to be clearly motivated, that is the meaning of the units can be easily deduced from the meanings of its constituents.

Ex. to be good at smth., to have a bite….

b) unities — are word — groups with a completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of the unit doesn’t correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts.

Ex. to loose one’s head (to be out of one’s mind), to loose one’s heart to smb.(to fall in love).

c) fussions — are word — groups with a completely changed meaning but, in contrast to the units, they are demotivated, that is, their meaning can’t be deduced from the meanings of its constituent parts.

Ex. to come a cropper(to come to disaster).

The Koonin’s classification is the latest outstanding achievement in the Russian theory of phraseology. The classification is based on the combined structural — semantic principle and it also considers the quotient of stability of phraseological units.

I. Nominative phraseological units — are represented by word — groups, including the ones with one meaningful word, and coordinative phrases of the type wear and tear, well and good.

II. Nominative — communicative phraseological units — include word — groups, of the type to break the ice — the ice is broken, that is, verbal word — groups which are transformed into a sentence when the verb is used in the Passive Voice.

III. Phraseological units — which are neither nominative nor communicative include interjectional word — groups.

IV. Communicative phraseological units — are represented by proverbs and sayings.

EVALUATE AND GIVE EXAMPLES OF STRUCTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS There are three main structural types of collocations:

1. Verb-adverb collocation.

e.g. To look after, to run out.

The dominant word, the semantic and grammatical centre of this collocation is the verb and the whole unit is a verb-equivalent. This proves that not every verb-adverb construction is a collocation. Without this semantic fusion which produces a new meaning there would be no collocation. Some collocations of the verb-adverb type are polysemantic,

e.g. To make out means

a)to see, hear or understand someone or something with difficulty;

b) to pretend that something is true.

These collocations are stylistically colloquial. Their synonyms are verbs which are more definite in their semantic structure and neutral in style.

e.g. The synonym for to give up is to abandon.

2. Attributive collocations.

e.g. Out-of-place, out of the question.

These collocations function as attributes to nouns and the whole unit is an adjective-equivalent.

e.g. An out-of-the way village, a matter-of-fact remark.

3. Preposition-noun collocations.

a)Adverb-equivalents.

e.g. By heart, in time.

b)Linking phrases, which are equivalents of form words.

e.g. Instead of, in order that, in accordance with.

There are phraseological units with two centers. They are termed set expressions. The components do not dominate one over the other. There are three main types of set expressions:

1. Verb-noun set expressions.

e.g. To fall in love, to go to bed, to take root.

2. Adjective-noun set-expressions.

e.g. Best man, brown bread, first night.

Set expressions of this type have a tendency to become compound words of syntactical type. The adjective and the noun may become fused and if the combination acquires a uniting stress a compound word is formed.

3. Phraseological repetitions. They are formed:

— out of antonymic elements:

e. g Up and down, from top to toe, here and there.

— out of alliterative elements:

e. g. Part and parcel, really and truly, there and then, at sixes and sevens.

There also exist set expressions with more than two centres: e.g. Every other day, every now and then.

Idioms proper form a special class in phraseology and should be distinguished from the phraseological units given above, although structurally they do not differ from them.

The distinction lies in the fact that idioms proper are such combinations of words which occur in metaphorical use and possess a special stylistic colouring or expressiveness.

The phraseological units discussed above do not possess this degree of expressiveness. The idioms are divided into the following types.

1. Those that are based on metaphor.

a)The metaphorical use of every day things or notions,

e.g. To have other fish to fry, as dead as a door nail.

b)The metaphorical use of specialized things or notions.

e.g. To sit above the salt, to put off to the Greek Calends.

2. Those that are based on transference from one functional sphere into another.

e.g. To hit below the belt (from sport), to start a hare (from hunting).

Structurally we can distinguish the following idioms.

1. That in all cases remain unchanged.

e.g. Can leopard change his spots?, a little bird told me.

2. That can undergo grammatical change.

e.g. To take a leaf out of smb’s book (He took a leaf out of his father’s book; She will take a leaf out of your book).

According to the type of motivation and other above-mentioned features R.S. Ginzburg classifies phraseological units into three groups:

1. Phraseological fusions.

e.g. «Red tape» means ((bureaucratic methods»; «kick the bucket» — «die». They are completely non-motivated. Idiomaticity is combined with complete stability of the lexical components and the grammatical structure of the fusion.

2. Phraseological unities.

They are clearly motivated. The emotional quality is based on the image created by the whole. Phraseological unities are marked by a high degree of stability of the lexical components.

e.g. «To stick (to stand) to one’s guns» i.e. «to refuse to change one’s statements or opinions in the face of opposition)) implying courage and integrity.

3. Phraseological combinations.

They are motivated; contain one component used in its direct meaning while the other is used figuratively. The mobility of this type is rather great,

e.g. To meet the demand, to meet the necessity, to meet the requirements.

l EVALUATE AND GIVE EXAMPLES OF SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS Semantic criterion

l free word-groups- each meaningful component stands for a separate concept

e.g. a red flower

l phraseological units – convey a single concept

e.g. red tape

l Phraseological units are characterized by different degrees of semantic change:

1. semantic change may affect the whole word-group (“complete transferred meaning”) e.g. to skate on thin ice (to take risks), to have one’s heart in one’s boots (to be anxious about smth.)

2. semantic change may affect only one of the components of a word-group (“partially transferred meaning”)

e.g. to fall in love, small talk, to talk shop

l V.V. Vinogradov’s Classification

l phraseological combinations (фразеологические сочетания) – word-groups with partially changed meaning

e.g. to be good at smth., to have a bite, bosom friends

l phraseological unities (фразеологические единства) – word-groups with completely changed meaning, the meaning of the unit does not correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts, but deducible as it is based on metaphor