Origin of phraseological units

Euphemisms as a specific type of synonyms

The term ‘euphemism’ is made up of Greek elements: ‘eu’ – well, ‘phemi’ – I speak. So, a euphemism is ___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________.

When a phrase is used as a euphemism, it often becomes a metaphor whose literal meaning is dropped. Euphemisms are often used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas, even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive. This type of euphemism is used in public relations and politics, where it is sometimes called doublespeak.

The word lavatory has produced many euphemisms. Here are some of them: powder room, washroom, restroom, retiring room, (public) comfort station, ladies' (room), gentlemen's (room), wa­ter-closet, W. C., public conveniences and even Windsor Castle (which is a comical phrase for "deciphering" W.' C.).

There are words which are easy targets for euphemistic substitu­tion. These include words associated with drunkenness, which are very numerous.

All the euphemisms that have been described so far are used to avoid the so-called ___________________________. Their use is inspired by social conventions.

Superstitious taboos, Christian religion, mental diseasesgave rise to the use of other type of euphe­misms.

 

5. Antonyms and their classificationsAntonyms may be defined______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________, identical in ___________and nearly identical in __________________, associated and used together so that their denotative meanings render contrary or contradictory notions.V.N. Komissarov in his dictionary of antonyms classified them into two groups (morphological classification): absolute or root antonyms (______________________) and derivational antonyms (______________________________). Absolute antonyms have different __________ and derivational antonyms have the same __________ but different __________. In most cases negative prefixes form antonyms (un-, dis- , non-). Sometimes they are formed by means of suffixes ________ and ________.Derivational antonyms express _______________ notions; one of them excludes the other, e.g. active- inactive. Absolute antonyms express _______________ notions. If some notions can be arranged in a group of more than two members, the most distant members of the group will be absolute antonyms, e.g. ugly, plain, good-looking, pretty, beautiful, the antonyms are ugly and beautiful.According to the semantic classification antonyms are divided into three types: a) complementaries, e.g. ______________________________________________ b) antonyms proper, e.g. _____________________________________________ c) conversives, e.g. __________________________________________________

Antonymy is not evenly distributed among the categories of parts of speech. Most antonyms are adjectives which is only natural because qualitative characteristics are easily compared and contrasted: high — _______, wide — ________, strong — ______, old — __________, friendly — __________.

Verbs take second place, so far as antonymy is concerned. Yet, verbal pairs of antonyms are fewer in number. Here are some of them: to lose — to_______, to live — to ______, to open — to ________, to weep — to________.

Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given: friend — ___________, joy — ________, good — ________, heaven — ________, love — ________.

Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups: a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly — coldly, merrily — sadly, loudly — softly; b) adverbs proper: now — ____, here — ________, ever — ________, up — down, in — _____.

 

Hyponymy

The relations between lexemes in semantic groupings are synonymic, antonymic and hyponymic. The hyponymic relations are based on inclusion. Thus, the concept animal includes __________________________________; colour includes ________________, etc. The hyponymic relationship may be viewed as the hierarchical relationship between the meanings of the general and individual terms. Hyponymic groups generally have 3- 4 levels of abstraction. The hierarchy of a group plant, consisting of four levels, can be illustrated by the hyponymic structure represented below:

 

Plant

grass bush tree shrub flower

 

pine oak ash maple

white pine yellow pine

A more general word is called the hyperonym (from Gk. Hyper - ____________) or the classifier, and, a more specific term is called the hyponym (from Gk. Hypo -_______). For instance, the word plant is a hyperonym to all other words of the group which are hyponyms in relation to the word plant, etc. Words of the same level, for instance, grass, bush, tree, shrub, flower are equonyms towards each other.

 

 

Lecture 8

ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGY1. General characteristics of Phraseological units (PU) in English. 2. Ways of forming PU.3. Principles of Classification of Phraseological Units4. Theory of phraseological stability. 1. General characteristics of Phraseological units (PU) in English.Phraseological units are ________________ that cannot be made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ________________ units. Phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it. The border line between a free word group and phraseological unit is not clearly defined. The so-called ________________________________ are relatively free because their collocations with number of words is limited by their lexical and grammatical valency which makes some of them very close to set phrases. So in general Phraseological unit is _________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The definition is based on the assumption that the essential features of the phraseological units are:· ______________ – the quality of phraseological units when the meaning of the whole is not deductible from the meaning of its constitutive parts· ________________ – implies that it exists as a ready-made linguistic unit that doesn’t allow any variability of its lexical components and grammatical structures· ______________________ – the regular usage of phraseological units in speech as a single unchangeable collocation, e.g. to turn a blind eye, to turn a blind ear, to break one’s word

How to Distinguish Phraseological Units from Free Word-Groups

The task of distinguishing between free word-groups and phraseological units is further complicated by the existence of a great number of marginal cases, the so-called semi-fixed or semi-free word-groups, also called non-phraseological word-groups which share with phraseological units their structural stability, but lack their semantic unity and figurativeness (e. g. to go to school, to go by bus, to commit suicide).

There are two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseological units and free word-groups: semantic and structural.

Compare the following examples:

1) Cambridge don: I'm told they're inviting more American professors to this university. Isn't it rather carrying coals to Newcastle?

2) This cargo ship is carrying coal to Liverpool.

2. Ways of forming PUPrimary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is formed on the basis of a free word-group: a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological units by means of _____________________________________ of terminological word-groups, e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases: e.g. launching pad in its terminological meaning is ________________”, in its transferred meaning -___________;b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups by ___________________________________________, e.g. granny farm;c) phraseological units can be formed by means of _________________ , e.g. a sad sack d) they can be formed by means of ________________________, especially it is characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. My aunt!, Hear, hear ! etce) they can be formed by means of distorting a word group, e.g. odds and ends was formed from „odd ends”, f) they can be formed by using ________________, e.g. in brown study means „in gloomy meditation” where both components preserve their archaic meanings, g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life, e.g. that cock won’t fight.h) they can be formed when we use some unreal image, e.g. to have butterflies in the stomach, to have green fingers, etc. i) they can be formed by using expressions of writers or politicians in everyday life, e.g. corridors of power (Snow), American dream (Alby), locust years (Churchil) , the winds of change (Mc Millan).Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a phraseological unit is formed on the basis of ________________________________________________; they are:a) ______________, e.g. „to vote with one’s feet” was converted into vote with one’s feet;b) changing the _____________form, e.g. Make hay while the sun shines is transferred into a verbal phrase - to make hay while the sun shines; c) _____________, e.g. Curiosity killed the cat was transferred into Care killed the cat; d) _____________, e.g. cold surgery was formed by contrasting it with acute surgery, e) ________________ 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. f) ________________ phraseological units from other languages, either as translation loans, e.g. living space (___), to take the bull by the horns (___) or by means of phonetic borrowings meche blanche (____), corpse d’elite (___), sotto voce (____) etc. Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style and are not used very often.

Origin of phraseological units

The majority of PhUs in English are native English. Native English PhUs reflect traditions, customs of English people, and also myths, historical facts, personalia. For example carry coals to Newcastle 'carry the goods to the place where there are plenty of them', play fast and loose 'play an unfair game, act irresponsibly'.

Some PhUs originated from the names of people, both well-known and common: Tom, Dick and Harry '________________________', according to Cocker '__________________'.

One of the sources of PhUs is professional activity: to sail under false colours, to be all at sea ', hit below the belt, etc.

Many native English PhUs are of literary origin. The majority of them come from Shakespeare's writings: to one's heart's content, cakes and ale', the salt of youth; J.Swift: all the world and his wife', quarrel with one's bread and butter.

The most important source of borrowed phraseology is the Bible. Among more frequently used are ___________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________.

Another important source of literary borrowing of PhUs is ancient mythology, history and literature: ___________________________________________________________, etc.

One of the sources of phraseological borrowing is fairy-tales of various people and authors:___________________________________________________________.

Examples of PhUs borrowed from other languages: German: __________________

_______________________________; Spanish: ______________________________; Italian: ___________________________________________________________, etc.

3. Theory of phraseological stability.The theory of Phraseological stability is not only a linguistic notion, it is a complex phenomenon made up of some micro stabilities :a. stability of _____________: PU are reproduced as ready-made units. They are not individual speaker’s creations but usually pass from generation to generationb. stability of _____________: meaning of PU changes but very slowly: to be on the side of angels (=to support justice), but once it meant to be against the Charles Darvin’s Theory of Evolution of Speciesc. ____________ stability: doesn’t imply any changes in PU. If changes occur, they depend on regularities of phraseological units themselves.d. ________________ stability: means that each PU has fixed syntactic structure (N+N, V+prep+N, etc.)4. Principles of Classification of Phraseological Unitsa) traditional classification of phraseological units.The traditional and oldest principle of classification of PU is based on their original content that is also called ______________ (thematic). On this principle idioms are classified according to the _______________________ (source referring to the particular sphere of human activity of life, natural phenomena). So, L.P. Smith gives in his classification groups of idioms used by sailors, fishermen, soldiers, hunters: to be all at sea__________________________, in deep water______________,to weather the storm ______________________, to sink or swim_________________From the point of view of origin PU may be classified into:- native– e.g. to grin like a Cheshire cat; according to Cocker. - borrowed –after me the deluge (___), killed by kindness (____)b) The __________________ principleof classifying phraseological units is based on their ability to _________________________________________________________ as words. In the traditional structural approach the following principal rules of Ph U are distinguished:1. __________________________ phrases:a) N+N - maiden nameb) N’s+N – cat’s pawc) Ns’ +N – ladies’ man d) N+prep+N – the arm of lawe) N+and+N – lord and masterf) adj.+N – green room g) N+subordinate clause - ships that pass in nighth) N+adj. – knight errant2. ______________________ phrasesa) V+N – to take the advantage b) V+post preposition – to give upc) V+and+V – to pick and choosed) V+ (one’s)+N+ (prep) – to snap one’s fingers at e) V+one+N – to give one the fire f) V+subordinate clause – to see how the land lies3. ____________________ phrasesa) Adj+and+Adj – high and mightyb) (as) Adj. + as+N – as mad as a hatter4. set expressions functioning like _____________a) N+N – tooth and nailb) prep.+N – by heart, of coursec) Adv.+prep+Adj+N – once in a blue moond) prep.+N+or+N – by hook or by crooke) conjunction+clause – before one can say Jack Robinson5. _______________________ phrasesa) prep+N+prep – in consequence of 6. ____________________: Cod bless me!, How do you do!7. ____________________: as long as, as soon asc) classification by V.V. VinogradovThe classification by Academician V.Vinogradov is ________________. His classification is based upon the ________________ principle, motivation of the unit; i.e. the relationship that exists between the meaning of the whole and the meaning of its components. It is founded on the degree of semantic cohesion between the components of phraseological unit. He pointed out three types of phraseological units:· phraseological _____________________ (PC) – they retain their full semantic independence although they are limited in their combinative power – __________________________________________________________________________________________ etc.PC may express: a) _____________ relations: acute pain________________________________b) _____________ relations: to declare war________________________________c) ______________________relations: time flies__________________________d) ________________ relations: to snow heavily, __________________________To the class of standardised combinations of words may be added those common comparisons which are so numerous in the English language: as blue as sky, as busy as a bee, as black as night· phraseological ____________ –are phrases where the meaning of the whole unity is not the sum of the meanings of its components, but is based upon them and may be understood from the ______________. They are motivated units – the meaning of the whole can be _________________from the meaning of the parts; it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical) but no element can be changed in such phrases without destroying the sense of the whole. E.g. to play the first fiddle - ___________________________________________· phraseological fusions – word groups with a completely changed _______________, in contrast to the unities they are completely demotivated or 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, the metaphor on which the shift of meaning was based has lost its clarity and is obscure, e.g. at sixes and sevens - (in a mess) etc;___________________________________d) N.Amosova’s classificationTaking into account that individual meaning of polysemantic words can be observed in certain contexts and may be viewed as dependent on those contexts, it is said that phraseological units are also to be defined through specific types of fixed contexts. Units of fixed context are divided into 2 types:1. phrasemes – are always binary: one of the components have phrase bound meaning, the other serves as a determining context: to bite one’s tongue off______________2. idioms -that cannot be separated into components like phrasemes; the meaning of an idiom is created by unit as a whole a mare’s nest___________________a) idioms containing some obsolete (old) elements which don’t occur in any other expressions: in the nick of time- _____________________, to flog a dead horse - ______________________________, b) idioms which can be easily co-related with homonymous free phrases: dark horse, in deep waterse) classification by prof. KooninThe classification is based on combined _____________________________ principle and it also considers the quality of stability of phraseological unit.A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed out _____________and ____________________ways of forming PUs.PUs are subdivided into 4 classes according to their function in communication determined by their semantic-structural characteristics:1. Nominative PUs are represented by _____________________, including the ones with one meaningful word and coordinative phrases of the type wear and tear, well and good.The first class also includes word groups with a predicative structure: ships that pass in the night; see how the land lies2. Nominative-communicative PUsinclude word-groups of the type to break the ice – ice is broken - it is the verbalword-group which is transformed into a sentence when the verb is used in Passive Voice.3. Neither nominative nor communicative PUsinclude interjectional word-groups Go to hell! What the hell!4. Communicative PUsare presented by proverbs and sayings: There is no smoke without fire. So many men so many minds. f) A.I. Smirnitsky’s classificationProf. A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification 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____________ morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in compound words we usually have _____________________ morphemes.Among one-top (one-summit) units he points out three structural types;a) units of the type „to give up” (verb + postposition type), e.g. to back up, to drop out.________________________________________________________________________b) units of the type „to be tired”. Some of these units remind the Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositions with them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions by or with, e.g. to be tired of.________________________________ c) prepositional-nominal phraseological units. These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: _________________, ________________, ____________, that’s why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (______________), on the nose (_____________), etc. In the course of time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural types:a) attributive-nominal such as: a month of Sundays. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic units sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night.In many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley, bed of nail, shot in the arm and many others.b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines, to speak BBC. The grammar centre of such units is the ________, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component, e.g. to fall in love. c) phraseological repetitions, such as: now or never, part and parcel. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ______________________________:Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more than two tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat; lock, stock and barrel;to be a shadow of one’s own self; at one’s own sweet will.J.R.Nattinger and J.S.DeCarrico’s classification

Another classification presented by the British linguists J.R.Nattinger and J.S.DeCarrico proceeds from structural and functional principles. PhUs in this classification are termed ________________________ and are subdivided into four main types:

1)Polywords are _________________________________________________

_______________________________________________. They cannot be varied, and their parts cannot be separated: in a nutshell, by the way, so to speak, so far so good, once and for all.

2) Institutionalized expressions are _______________________________________

______________________________________________________________. Like polywords, they are invariable, and their parts cannot be separated. They include proverbs, aphorisms, and other quotable utterances: How do you do?_____________________

3)Phrasal constraints. These are phrases which ____________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

4) Sentence builders are phrases which provide the framework for whole sentences; they allow considerable variation: not only ... but also ..., my point is that ..., I'm a great believer in ..., that reminds me of ..., let me begin by ...

Phrases from any of these categories may be used to perform the same 'pragmatic function. For example, the function of leave-taking can be expressed by:

a) a polyword________________,

b) an institutionalized expression______________________

c) a phrasal constraint_________________________.