Toleshova Mukhabbat
South Kazakhstan State University named after M.Auezov
Types
of phraseological units in English
First of all it is generally known that the role of
English phraseological units has increased dramatically in recent years. It is
reflected in the spate of dictionaries and practice books devoted to them which
have recently appeared in Britain, especially it refers to so called phrasal
verbs which play an integral role in Modern English.
The famous English scientist in the field of lexicology Logan Pearsall
Smith said the following: “We have also in English a curious kind of compound
verbs. In this kind of formation the 19th century was especially rich and gave
birth to such modern expressions as to boil down, to go under, to run across.
Verbs of this type are often colloquial, add an idiomatic power to the
language, and enable it express many fine distinctions of thoughts and
meaning”. [1, p.36 ]
Secondly they are typical features of the English language with a verbal
type of expression and necessary to be understood in order to master English.
Phraseological units are also one of the most difficult problems in the
process of teaching. Now there are a lot of methods and approaches in that
sphere. The English methodologist R. Dixon writes: “The students may learn
grammar and, with time, acquire an adequate vocabulary, but without working
knowledge of such idioms as to put out… his speech remains awkward and
stilted”. [2, p.45]
And the last but very important reason for studying this problem is that
they have great future and as stated S.H. Sager they will “change the English
language” [5, 10]. They are more picturesque than literal words.
The aim of the research work is to investigate peculiarities of using
the phraseoligical units in business English.
According to the aim of the work the following objectives were set:
- to analyse different approaches to the classification of
phraseological units;
- to investigate the peculiarities of the employment of phraseological
units in business English;
- to examine usage of neologisms in newspaper headlines.
The most fundamental methodological researches of the given problem have
been carried out by such methodologists as: Alexander L. in his “English
grammar” where classification of phraseological units is described, Smith “The
English Language”, Berlison C. “English phraseological units”, N.M. Kayevska
“English lexicology”, Jane Povey “Phrasal verbs and how to use them”, Daniel
Blockman “Tests in English phrasal verbs” and many others.
The theoretical value lies in studying verbal collocations with the
purpose of giving detailed information concerning their peculiarities and the
sphere of usage.
The practical importance use the material in lectures for studens and
teachers.
The methods of the investigation are analis,
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], Lot’s wife [5],
the Troy horse [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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