Phraseology

1. PHRASEOLOGY
AND PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set expressions, which like words name various objects and phenomena.
They exist in the language as ready-made units.

A Phraseological unit (PU) can be defined as a non-motivated word-group that cannot be freely made up in speech, but is reproduced as a ready-made unit.
It is a group of words whose meaning cannot be deduced by examining the meaning of the constituent lexemes.
The essential features of PU are:
1) lack of motivation;
2) stability of the lexical components.

2. CLASSIFICATIONS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
3.1. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS (V.V. Vinogradov)
is based on the motivation of the unit
Phraseological fusions are units whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of their component parts. The meaning of PFs is unmotivated at the present stage of language development, e.g.
red tape (бюрократизм, волокита),
a mare’s nest (иллюзия, нечто несуществующее),
My aunt! (вот те на!, вот так штука!, ну и ну!). The meaning of the components is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole;

Phrasological unities are expressions the meaning of which can be deduced from the meanings of their components; the meaning of the whole is based on the transferred meanings of the components, e.g.
to show one’s teeth (to be unfriendly),
to stand to one’s guns (to refuse to change one’s opinion), etc.
They are motivated expressions.

Phraseological collocations are not only motivated but contain one component used in its direct meaning, while the other is used metaphorically, e.g. to meet requirements, to attain success.
In this group of PUs some substitutions are possible which do not destroy the meaning of the metaphoric element, e.g. to meet the needs, to meet the demand, to meet the necessity; to have success, to lose success.
These substitutions are not synonymical and the meaning of the whole changes, while the meaning of the verb meet and the noun success are kept intact.

3. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
The semantic structure of PUs is formed by semantic ultimate constituents called macrocomponents of meaning:
1. Denotational (descriptive) macrocomponent contains the information about the objective reality, it is the procedure connected with categorization, i.e. the classification of phenomena of the reality, based on the typical idea about what is denoted by a PU.

2. Evaluation macrocomponent contains the information about the value of what is denoted by a PU.
The rational evaluation may be:
positive, e.g. a home from home – ‘a place or situation where one feels completely happy and at ease’;
negative, e.g. the lion’s den – ‘a place of great danger’;
neutral, e.g., in the flesh – ‘in bodily form’.

4. Emotive macrocomponent is the contents of subjective modality expressing feeling-relation to what is denoted by a PU within the range of approval/disapproval, e.g.
a leading light in something – ‘a person who is important in a particular group’ (approval),
to lead a cat and dog life – ‘used to describe a husband and wife who quarrel furiously with each other most of the time’ (disapproval).

5. Stylistic macrocomponent points to the communicative register in which a PU is used and to the social-role relationships between the participants of communication:
formal, e.g. sick at heart – ‘very sad’;
informal, e.g. be sick to death – ‘to be angry and bored because something unpleasant has been happening for too long’;
neutral, e.g. pass by on the other side – ‘to ignore a person who needs help’.

6. Grammatical macrocomponent contains the information about all possible morphological and syntactic changes of a PU, e.g. to be in deep water = to be in deep waters;
to take away smb’s breath = to take smb’s breath away;
Achilles’s heel = the heel of Achilles.