UNIT 7. PHRASEOLOGY § 1. Free word groups versus set-phrases The vocabulary of a language includes not only words but also free word
combinations and phraseological units.
How to distinguish phraseological units from free word-groups is the most
controversial problem in the field of phraseology (a branch of linguistics). The first
attempt to place the study of various word-groups on a scientific basis was made by
the outstanding Russian linguist A.A. Schachmatov in his world-famous
75
book Syntax. Schachmatov‘s work was followed by Academician V.V. Vinogradov.
Investigation of English phraseology was initiated by prof. A.V. Koonin.
Phraseological units are usually defined as non-motivated word-groups that cannot be
freely made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready made units.
American and British lexicographers call such units
‗
idioms‘, but this term is applied
mostly to a certain type of phraseological unit. Besides the term
‗
phraseological unit‘
there exist some other terms denoting more or less the same linguistic phenomenon:
‗
set-expressions‘,
‗
set-phrases‘,
‗
fixed word-groups‘,
‗
collocations‘.
The essential features of phraseological units are stability of the lexical
components and lack of motivation whereas components of free word-groups may
vary according to the needs of communication.
Thus, for example, the constituent red in the free word-group
red flower may, if
necessary, be substituted for by any other adjective denoting color (
‗
blue‘,
‗
white‘,
etc), without essentially changing the denotational meaning of the word-group (a
flower of a certain color). In the phraseological unit
red tape (bureaucratic methods)
such substitution is impossible, as a change of the adjective would involve a complete
change in the meaning of the whole group. A
blue (black, white) tape would mean
‗
a
tape of a certain color‘.
Grammatical structure of phraseological units is to a certain extent also stable.
Thus, though the structural formula of the word-groups
red flower and
red tape is
identical (
A + N) , the noun
‗
flower‘ may be used in the plural (
‗
red flowers‘),
whereas no such change is possible in the phraseological unit
‗
red tape‘;
‗
red tapes‘
would then denote
‗
tapes of red color‘ but not
‗
bureaucratic methods‘.
There exist different classifications of phraseological units: according to the
structure, according to the degree of motivation, according to the ways they are
formed, etc. Some of the classifications are given below