Phraseological fusions, completely non-motivated word-groups, (e.g.
tit for
tat), represent as their name suggests the highest stage of blending together. The
meaning of components is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole, by its
expressiveness and emotional properties. Phraseological fusions are specific for every
language and do not lend themselves to literal translation into other languages.
Semantic stylistic features contracting set expressions into units of fixed
context are simile, contrast, metaphor and synonymy. For example:
as like as two
peas, as оld as the hills and older than the hills (simile);
from beginning to end, for
love or money, more or less, sooner or later (contrast); a
lame duck, a pack of lies,
arms race, to swallow the pill, in a nutshell (metaphor);
by leaps and bounds, proud
and haughty (synonymy). A few more combinations of different features in the same
phrase are:
as good as gold, as pleased as Punch, as fit as a fiddle (alliteration,
simile);
now or never, to kill or cure (alliteration and contrast). More rarely there is an
intentional pun:
as cross as two sticks means 'very angry'. This play upon words
makes the phrase jocular.
There are, of course, other cases when set expressions lose their metaphorical
picturesqueness, having preserved some fossilised words and phrases, the meaning of
which is no longer correctly understood. For instance, the expression
buy a pig in a
poke may be still used, although
poke 'bag' (cf.
pouch, pocket) does not occur in other
contexts. Expressions taken from obsolete sports and occupations may survive in their
new figurative meaning. In these cases the euphonic qualities of the expression are
even more important. A muscular and irreducible phrase is also memorable. The
muscular feeling is of special importance in slogans and battle cries.
Saint George
and the Dragon for Merrie England, the medieval battle cry, was a rhythmic unit to
which a man on a horse could swing his sword.
The modern Scholarships not
battleships! can be conveniently scanned by a marching crowd.
N.N. Amosova's approach is contextological. She defines phraseological units
as units of fixed context. Fixed context is defined as a context characterised by a
specific and unchanging sequence of definite lexical components, and a peculiar
semantic relationship between them. Units of fixed
context are subdivided into
phrasemes and idioms. Phrasemes are always binary: one component has a
phraseologically bound meaning, the other serves as the determining context
(small
talk, small hours, small change). In idioms the new meaning is created by the whole,
though every element may have its original meaning weakened or even completely
lost:
in the nick of time 'at the exact moment'. Idioms may be motivated or
demotivated. A motivated idiom is homonymous to a free phrase, but this phrase is
used figuratively:
take the bull by the horns 'to face dangers without fear.
In the nick
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