Words in speech are brought together to form word-groups, or phrases.
All word-groups are divided into free word-groups and phraseological units. Free word-groups are formed in speech after some structural and semantic patterns; they are traditionally studied by syntax. They are only relatively free, because there are certain collocational restrictions.
e.g. "A black-eyed girl" is all right, but we rule out "A black-eyed table" because it doesn't make sense.
Thus, on the one hand, free word-groups are governed by requirements of logic and common sense. On the other hand, the relations between their components are governed by the rules of grammar and lexical combinability. The latter restrictions often can't be explained,
e.g. a tall man/building/tree, but a high mountain, though tall and high are synonymous.
Phraseological units are word-groups of special kind, studied by phraseology. "A phraseological unit is a stable word-group characterised by a completely or partially transferred meaning." (A.V.Kunin)
11.2. There exist a considerable number of classifications of ph. units based on different principles.
1. The traditional and oldest principle is "thematic". It's widely used in English and American guides to idioms, phrase books, etc. Ph. units are classified according to the sphere of human activity, life, nature, natural phenomena, etc. In this classification we find groups of phraseological units used by sailors, hunters, soldiers, etc. and associated with domestic and wild animals, agriculture, cooking, sports, arts, etc.
2. The well-known classification devised by Academician Vinogradov was the first based on the semantic principle. It takes into account the degree of idiomaticity and identifies three classes of ph. units:
1) ph. fusions, which are completely non-motivated and idiomatic, i.e. their meanings can't be deduced from the meanings and arrangements of their constituents,
e.g. red tape, to show the white feather ("to show cowardice").
2) ph. unities, which are partially motivated. They have a transferred meaning but the metaphor on which the shift of meaning is based is clear,
e.g. to wash one's dirty linen in public, to show one's teeth.
3) ph. collocations (or combinations), which are stable but motivated (non-idiomatic), e.g. to take smth for granted, to win a victory.
This classification does not take into account structural characteristic of ph. units. Besides, the borderline between the first two classes is vague and subjective.
3. The functional principle of classifaction is based on the ability of ph. units to perform the same syntactical functions as words. The following groups of ph. units are identified:
· verbal, e.g. to talk through one's hat;
· substantive, e.g. birds of a feather, white lie;
· adjectival, e.g. safe and sound, mad as a hatter;
· adverbial, e.g. in cold blood, for love or money;
· interjectional, e.g. Good gracious! by George!
4. The classification suggested by Prof. A.V. Kunin is based on the combined structural-semantic principle and the degree of stability of ph. units. Ph. units are divided into the following four classes according to their function in communication determined by their structural-semantic characteristics.
1) nominative ph.units (which function as words, name objects), including those with one meaningful word, coordinative phrases of the type "well and good" and also word-groups with a predicative structure, such as "see how the land lies".
2) nominative-communicative ph. units, which are verbal ph. units of the type "to break the ice" that can be transformed into a sentence with the verb used in the Passive form: "the ice is broken".
3) ph. units which are neither nominative nor communicative (interjectional word-groups),
e.g. God bless me! Good heavens!
4) communicative ph.units (proverbs and sayings) ,
e.g. Stolen kisses are sweet. Everything is fair in love and war.
These four classes are further divided into sub-groups according to the type of structure of ph. units and the degree of transference of meaning.
11.3. According to their origin, ph. units are divided into native and borrowed.
Native ph. units reflect the way of life, customs and traditions, beliefs, superstitions of the English people, facts of English history,
e.g. there are numerous ph. units with the word "Dutch" all of which have negative connotations because of England's wars with Holland: Dutch courage "Inspired by alcohol", "Dutch uncle"-"a severe critic".
Some native ph. units come from English literature. Originally they were created by outstanding English writers and they have become part of the language because they have been long highly valued,
e.g. ph. units that derive from Shakespeare's texts are particularly numerous: to wear one's heart on one's sleeve (Othello), a fool's paradise (Romeo and Juliette), the green-eyed monster (Othello).
Borrowed ph. units are classified into:
(1) interlingual borrowings, i.e. borrowed from other languages,
e.g. blue blood and the fifth column (from Spanish), guilded youth (from French).
Among these borrowings we distinguish biblicisms, i.e. those ph. units that derive from the Bible,e.g. to cast pearls before swine, forbidden fruit, the root of all evil,
and borrowings from Greek and Latin,Greek mythology: an apple of discord, sword of Damocles.
(2) intralingual borrowings, which originally came into existance in the American or Australian variant of the English language,
e.g. to bark up the wrong tree, to look like a million dollars.
