Phraseological units and fixed phrases

INTRODUCTION

Communication of people is carried out, not only by words they link to one another due to their own choice but by means of a wide range of phraseological units and fixed phrases they remember and quite often use without thinking of the collocation structure and composition. In case of the intercultural dialogue which is at a loss use of different languages as a communication medium, it is very difficult to find an equivalent to this or that phraseological unit and this or that fixed phrase \ collocation, because every language has its own cultural traditions making people use a wide range of phraseological units and fixed phrases, which already exist.
The same slice of a reality, the same concept has different forms of language phraseological units and fixed phrases in various languages, which are more or less full, to some extent specific.
The language consciousness in whole of each nation or ethnic group is important, as their self-identification is realised in it the consciousness by means of creating specific phraseological units and fixed phrases.
The practice of language communication shows that each language is not a mechanical appendage of concrete culture as in this condition it could not be used in numerous situations of intercultural dialogue resulting in exchange of a number of phraseological units and fixed phrases. The linguistic relativity would limit potential features of each language to the frameworks of one culture. Actually one of the major properties of the language is its universality allowing a native speaker to use his or her mother tongue as a means of dialogue in all potentially possible situations of communications, including communication with representatives of other cultures.
According to T.G. Grushevitskaya, relations between language and culture can be considered as those of a part and a whole entity. «Language can be apprehended as a component of culture and as a culture tool. However each language at the same time is independent in relation to the culture in whole, and it can be considered as an independent semiotics system. As each native speaker simultaneously is also a culture carrier of his or her own phrases, which get an ability to carry out the function of signs of one culture and serve as a means of representation of basic installations of culture. For this reason each language is able to display cultural and national mentality of its carriers» [38, p. 248].
«A culture component – it is not simple cultural information informed by a certain language, and an integral property of language inherent in all its levels and all branches» [44, p. 15].
The problem of mutual relation of language and culture traditionally have been in sphere of interests of linguists. However in the recent decades the concept «culture» gets an increasingly wider interpretation due to the growing interest to phraseological units and fixed phrases [47, p. 23].
The opinion on national character according to which it is «not a set of specific, original lines inherent only in the given people, but the original set of universal features is widespread enough» [44, p. 136].
The process of phraseological unit and fixed phrase formation in each particular language highly depends on the national character of mass consciousness resulting in producing these or those implicit motivation of any type of word formation process involved.
The object of the research is English phraseological units and fixed phrases.
The urgency of the present research is determined by the general orientation of the modern paradigms of English phraseological units and fixed phrases, which make intercultural communication tremendously difficult and lead from time to time to communication failure.
So as to provide the theoretical basis required concerning discourse theories, functional style distinctive features, stylistic and semantic categories of expressivity, evaluation and emotionality, use of various tropes we refer to the latest linguistic theories developed by a number of researchers, whose investigations are referred to in the bibliography further on.
The objective of our research is analysis of English phraseological units and fixed phrases concerning their difference in structure as well as implicit motivation. Therefore we intend to take into consideration the following tasks:
describing language picture of the world in general,
characterizing conceptual picture of the world: denotation and connotation of various word combinations,
outlining some distinctive features and types of fixed phrases and phraseological units,
analyzing specificity of English fixed phrase and phraseological unit structure as well as semantics.
The topicality is explained by the profound interest to the peculiarities of fixed phrases and phraseological units in the English language.
The scientific novelty of the research is defined by the concrete result of investigation that can be useful for future studies.
The methods of investigations used in this research are:
• descriptive method;
• the method of classification;
• comparative and translation methods;
• the method of semantic analysis.
The theoretical significance of the research is motivated by the necessity to distinguish fixed phrases and phraseological units as well as paying attention to the problem of their adequate translation.
The practical significance of the research is defined by the results of the study, which can help to understand the distinctive features of fixed phrases and phraseological units.
The present research consists of Introduction, Chapter 1 “The problem of differentiation of phraseological units and fixed phrases”, Chapter 2 “Analysis of phraseological units and fixed phrases, Conclusion and Bibliography. In the first part of our study we take into account specific features of formation language picture of the world, denotation and connotation of various word combinations, distinctive features and types of fixed phrases and phraseological units.
In the second part of our research we characterize English distinctive features and types of fixed phrase and phraseological unit structure as well as their implicit distinctive features.
The bibliography contains 64 items.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4
CHAPTER 1. THE PROBLEM OF DIFFERENTIATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS AND FIXED PHRASES 8
1.1 Conceptual Picture of the World: Denotation and Connotation of Various Word Combinations 8
1.2 Distinctive Features and Types of Fixed Phrases 14
1.3 Distinctive Features and Types of Phraseological Units 28
1.4 Summary of Results 38
CHAPTER 2. ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS AND FIXED PHRASES 40
2.1 Nominal Phraseological Units and Fixed Phrases Having the Same Word Components 40
2.2 Verbal Phraseological Units and Fixed Phrases Having the Same Word Components 46
2.3 Adjectival Phraseological Units and Fixed Phrases Having the Same Word Components 49
2.4 Adverbial Phraseological Units and Fixed Phrases Having the Same Word Components 52
2.5Results and Discussion 57
CONCLUSION 58
REFERENCES 61

CONCLUSION

We often see the phrase “language is a living thing”, but we mostly do not stop to think what it really means, since living things grow and change, so does language, where some fixed phrases can become unique due to their idiomatic meaning, which results in considering them as phraseological units.
Phraseological units are just a type of many other fixed phrases, such as slang phrases, euphemistic phrases, terminological phrases and clichés, the boundary between which is highly changeable, so we can deal with fixed phrases, which are considered to be both phraseological units and slang phrases, phraseological units and euphemistic phrases, phraseological units and terminological phrases, with most of them being classified without such an ambiguity.
As the general tendencies of present-day English are towards more idiomatic usage, it is important that our research on phraseological units and fixed phrases should show the other people how the English language is nowadays and how it is developing.
Phraseological units are not a separate part of the English language, which one can choose either to use or to omit; they form an essential part of the vocabulary of fixed phrases having highly (idioms ( идиоматические фразеологические выражения) and phraseological fusions (фразеологические сращения)), fairly (phraseological unities (фразеологические единства)), or a little bit (phraseological combinations (фразеологические сочетания)) idiomatic, connotative, expressive or implicit meaning.
All the types of phraseological units we mentioned are commonly popular in Russia. English-speaking linguists traditionally use such a term as idioms and classify them into slang-originated, euphemism-originated ones as well as highly, fairly or a little bit colloquial ones, those derived from some professional sphere, for example, economics or high technologies.
In any professional sphere (not only in economics or high technologies) there are a lot of terminological fixed phrases.
Since mostly they are not idiomatic, connotative, expressive or implicit they are not considered to be phraseological units.
Those of them, which are fairly idiomatic, connotative, expressive or implicit (Trojan horse, bull hour; bull market), are counted to be phraseological units as well.
The vocabulary of the English language grows continually with new developments in knowledge resulting in appearance of some new phraseological units and fixed phrases because new ideas need new labels to name them. Without new phraseological units and fixed phrases, communication of the contemporary ideas would hardly be possible. Many new phraseological units and fixed phrases come from the English of special subjects such as computer sciences, economics and many other professional spheres.
Words which already exist in the English language can take on an additional (implicit) meaning in a special context. For example, the field of industrial relations has given new meaning to such phrasal verbs as to walk out, to lock out, to sit in, which are not considered to be fixed phrases most of all since they are too many and they are too polysematical. The noun forms spelled as compound words walk-out, lock-out, sit-in are used almost exclusively in this context. The words leak, spill and waste result typically in some highly expressive fixed phrases that become very popular in the community and get some new idiomatic meaning.
The attitude of the English speakers towards style is also becoming more flexible. Several fixed phrases which were considered to be slang in the past have gradually been up-graded in status and are now often considered phraseological units. Much of what was labelled slang in the past is now considered neutral in style. This is partly due to the spread in the use of some highly expressive fixed phrases by educated English speakers.
It is important to realize that phraseological units are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe. They appear in formal style and in slang, in poetry, in the language of the most gifted writers and the Bible.
Phraseological units take many different forms or structures. A phraseological units can have a highly, fairly or a little bit implicit. The clarity of its meaning is not dependent on their structure.
Several phraseological units cannot be changed in any part (except the tense of the verb) (the devil's advocate). Some of them are supposed to have some particular alternative options of their structure (take / get / have a breath of fresh air).
Another difficulty is that of phraseological units and some other fixed phrases with a number of their interpretation variants. It is most important to be exact in one's use of phraseological units and other fixed phrases, as some little mistake may result in misunderstanding and communication failure.
Having a look at adequate interpretation of English phraseological units and some other fixed phrases we have come to the conclusion that above all, when interpreting any idiomatic fixed phrases (not only fixed phrases) any experienced translator should pay attention to the phraseological units and fixed phrases of another language neglecting their structure or different word components, since semantics of them is the most significant factor.

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