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Structural classification of phraseological units

The structural principle of classifying phraseological units is based on their ability to perform the same syntactical functions as words. In the traditional structural approach, the following principal groups of phraseological units are distinguishable.

1. Verbal.

E. g. to run for one's (dear) life, to get (win) the upper hand, to talk through one's hat, to make a song and dance about something, to sit pretty

(Amer. sl.).

2. Substantive.

E. g. dog's life, cat-and-dog life, calf love, white lie, tall order, birds of a feather, birds of passage, red tape, brown study.

3. Adjectival.

E. g. high and mighty, spick and span, brand new, safe and sound.

In this group the so-called comparative word-groups are particularly expressive and sometimes amusing in their unanticipated and capricious associations: (as) cool as a cucumber, (as) nervous as a cat, (as) weak as a kitten, (as) good as gold

(usu. spoken about children), (as) pretty as a picture, as large as life, (as) slippery as an eel, (as) thick as thieves, (as) drunk as an owl (sl.), (as) mad as a hatter/a hare in March.

4. Adverbial.

E. g. high and low

(as in They searched for him high and low), by hook or by crook

(as in She decided that, by hook or by crook, she must marry him), for love or money

(as in He came to the conclusion that a really good job couldn't be found for love or money

5. Interjectional.

E. g. my God/ by Jove! by George! goodness gracious! good Heavens! sakes alive!

12. Euphemisms. ˈyo͞ofəˌmizəm

There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite. As the "offensive" referents, for which these words stand, must still be alluded to, they are often described in a round-about way, by using substitutes called euphemisms. This device is dictated by social conventions which are sometimes apt to be over-sensitive, see "indecency" where there is none and seek refinement in absurd avoidances and pretentiousness.

e.g. The word lavatory has, naturally, produced many euphemisms. Here are some of them: powder room, washroom, restroom, retiring room, (public) comfort station, ladies'(room), gentlemen's (room), water-closet,

Pregnancy is another topic for "delicate" references. Here are some of the euphemisms used as substitutes for the adjective pregnant: in an interesting condition, in a delicate condition, in the family way, with a baby coming, (big) with child, expecting.

 

Euphemisms may, of course, be used due to genuine concern not to hurt someone's feelings. For instance, a liar can be described as a person who does not always strictly tell the truth and a stupid man can be said to be not exactly brilliant.

The Christian religion also made certain words taboo. The proverb Speak of the devil and he will appear must have been used and taken quite literally when it was first used, and the fear of calling the devil by name was certainly inherited from ancient superstitious beliefs. So, the word devil became taboo, and a number of euphemisms were substitutes for it: the Prince of Darkness, the black one, the evil one.

The word God, due to other considerations, also had a great number of substitutes which can still be traced in such phrases as Good Lord!, By Heavens!, Good Heavens', (My) goodness!, (My) goodness gracious!, Gracious me!

Mental diseases also cause the frequent use of euphemisms.

A mad person may be described as insane, mentally unstable, unbalanced

All the above examples show that euphemisms are substitutes for their synonyms. Their use and very existence are caused either by social conventions or by certain psychological factors.

Antonyms.

We use the term antonyms to indicate words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meanings, such as hot - cold, light - dark, happiness - sorrow, toaccept - to reject, up - down.

If synonyms form whole, often numerous, groups, antonyms are usually believed to appear in pairs. Yet, this is not quite true in reality.

A polysemantic word may have an antonym (or several antonyms) for each of its meanings. So, the adjective dull has the antonyms interesting, amusing for its meaning of "deficient in interest", clever, bright, capable for its meaning of "deficient in intellect", and active for the meaning of "deficient in activity", etc.

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 - low, wide - narrow, strong - weak, old—young, friendly — hostile.

Verbs take second place, so far as antonymy is concerned. Yet, verbal pairs of antonyms are fewer in number: to lose — to find, to live — to die, to open - to close, to weep - to laugh.

Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given: friend-enemy, joy - grief, good — evil, heaven - earth, love - hatred.

Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups:

a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly - coldly, merrily — sadly, loudly - softly;

b) adverbs proper: now - then, here - there, ever - never, up - down, in - out.

Meaning and polysemy

Meaning can be more or less described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. The complex relationships between referent (object, etc. denoted by the word), concept and word are traditionally represented by the following triangle:

Thought or Reference

 

Symbol Referent

By the "symbol" here is meant the word; thought or reference is concept. The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between word and referent: it is established only through the concept.

The branch of linguistics which specialises in the study of meaning is called semantics. As with many terms, the term semantics is ambiguous for it can stand, as well, for the expressive aspect of language in general and for the meaning of one particular word in all its varied aspects and nuances (i.e. the semantics of a word = the meaning(s) of a word).

The meaning is a certain reflection in our mind of objects, phenomena or relations that makes part of the linguistic sign — its so-called inner facet, whereas the sound-form functions as its outer facet.

POLYSEMY

A word having several meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by the term polysemy.

Most English words are polysemantic.

e.g. “stone” has the following meanings:

1) hard compact nonmetallic material of which rocks are made, a small lump of rock;

2) pebble;

3) the woody central part of such fruits as the peach and plum, that contains the seed;

4) Jewellery, short for gemstone;

5) a unit of weight, used esp. to Brit, a unit of weight, used esp. to express human body

weight, equal to 14 pounds or 6.350 kilograms;

6) a calculous concretion in the body, as in the kidney, gallbladder, or urinary bladder;

a disease arising from such a concretion.

The older a word is, the better developed is its semantic structure.

No general or complete scheme of types of lexical meanings as elements of a word's semantic structure has so far been accepted by linguists. The following terms may be found with different authors:

Differentiation between the terms primary/secondary main/derived meanings is connected with two approaches to polysemy: diachronic and synchronic.

If viewed diachronically, polysemy is understood as the growth and development (or change) in the semantic structure of the word.

Synchronically polysemy is understood as the coexistence of various meanings of the same word at a certain historical period of the development of the English language.

Polysemy is a phenomenon of language, not of speech.

When analysing the semantic structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis.

On the first level, the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings.

The above scheme suggests that meaning I holds a kind of dominance over the other meanings conveying the concept in the most general way whereas meanings II-V are associated with special circumstances, aspects and instances of the same phenomenon.

Meaning I (generally referred to as the main meaning) presents the centre of the semantic structure of the word holding it together. It is mainly through meaning I that meanings II-V (they are called secondary meanings) can be associated with one another, some of them exclusively through meaning I, as, for instance, meanings IV and V.

Metonymy

Metonymy is the transfer of name based on the association of contiguity. It is a universal device in which the name of one thing is changed for that of another, to which it is related by association of ideas, as having close relationship to one another, e.g. the chair may mean "the chairman", the bar - "the lawyers".

Another term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied by the image of the other; or they may be associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, of some material and an object which is made of it, etc.

Let us consider some cases of transference based on contiguity

The meaning of the noun hand realised in the context hand of a clock (watch) originates from the main meaning of this noun "part of human body". It also developed due to the association of the common function: the hand of a clock points to the figures on the face of the clock, and one of the functions of human hand is also that of pointing to things.

Another meaning of hand realised in such contexts as factory hands, farm hands is based on another kind of association: strong, skilful hands arc the most important feature that is required of a person engaged in physical labour (cf. with UA. Роботящ Упрацьовит руки).

The main (and oldest registered) meaning of the noun board was "a flat and thin piece of wood; a wooden plank". On the basis of this meaning developed the meaning "table" which is now archaic. The association which underlay this semantic shift was that of the material and the object made from it: a wooden plank (or several planks) is an essential part of any table. This type of association is often found with nouns denoting clothes: e. g. a taffeta ("dress made of taffeta"); a mink ("mink coat"), a jersy ("knitted shirt or sweater").

Meanings produced through transference based on contiguity sometimes originate from geographical or proper names. China in the sense of "dishes made of porcelain" originated from the name of the country which was believed to be the birthplace of porcelain.

Tweed - a coarse wool cloth got its name from the river Tweed and cheviot (another kind of wool cloth) from the Cheviot hills in England. The name of a painter is frequently transferred onto one of his pictures: a Matisse-a painting by Matisse.

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