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entitled
PHRASEOLOGY.
CLASSIFICATION
OF
Chapter
I.
PHRASEOLOGY.
CLASSIFICATION
OF
PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Definition of phraseological units. Criteria for phraseological
units
Phraseology could be portrayed as gallery, where representations of the
nations cultural customs are collected. Under this perspective, this field of
language is not only the most colorful, but also probably the most egalitarian area
of vocabulary and it drowses its resources mostly from the very depths of popular
speech. Moreover, together with the study of synonyms and antonyms,
phraseology represents one of the most expressive disciplines within linguistics. It
is precisely due to its richness of expressions and to its heterogeneity that it seems
difficult to identify which are the borders of phraseology. Delimiting the object of
study of phraseology and finding a uniformed classification system seems to be a
difficult task (Glser 1988, Melcuk 1988, Howarth 1998, Ruiz Gurillo 1997,
Cowie 1998, Moon 1998, Corpas Pastor 2000). In fact, the same terminological
diversity that linguists (Fernando and Flavell, 1981, Glser 1988, Corpas Pastor
2000) have used to refer both to the generic discipline and to the elements it
studies highlights its instability. Despite the increasing amount of research within
phraseology in the past fifty years, and the consequent improvement regarding the
delimitation of the units that constitute its object of study, there seems to be still a
great diversity of criteria. This hinders the consolidation of a systematic and
scientific study of this topic.
Phraseology is an intermediary field, being close, in the reference literature,
both to vocabulary studies, since it studies fixed word combinations, characterized
by a unitary meaning, as well as to syntax, since phraseologic phenomena are
defined by syntactic relations of various kinds, which are realized on a syntagmatic
axis. Given the expressive nature of phraseologic phenomena, these have also been
associated to stylistics. Taking into consideration the possibility of differentiating
styles and functional variants of a language by analysing phraseologic units, it has
been particularly drawn closer to functional stylistics.
another (form of a) lexical item (kith and kin is a very frequently cited
example of a nearly deterministic co-occurrence of two lexical items,
as is strong tea);
a grammatical pattern (as opposed to, say, a grammatical relation), i.e.
when a particular lexical item tends to occur in / co-occur with a
particular grammatical construction (the fact that the verb hem is
mostly used in the passive is a frequently cited case in point).
We maintain a very productive idea flashed out by the linguist and consisting
in that phraseological meaning cannot be realized without the existence of definite
structures, i.e. it is impossible to study the features of phraseological units without
knowledge of their structure. There are, as far as his scheme goes, seven main
structural types of phraseological units in the English language. They are as
follows:
1. Unitop phraseological units (the term was introduced by A.I. Smirnitsky
consisting of one notional and one functional lexeme, or one notional and two or
three functional lexemes. By functional lexemes one should consider lexemes
which do not function as independent members of thesentence and serve for word
connection
in
the
sentence
(prepositions,
conjunctions),
and
also
for
infinitive and the structure of a sentence with a verb in the passive voice (break the
ice C to make a beginning > the ice is broken the beginning is made).
6. Phraseological units with the structure of a simple or complex sentence (A
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow;
Do you see any green in my eye? Do you really think me to be so naive? Tell
it to the marines! Nonsense!).
In the literature dealing with phraseology, different terms, such as idiom,
phraseme or word-group have often been used to refer to the same category. Each
of them is defined according to different criteria and, for this reason, each term
leads to broader or narrower definitions and views. [11,p.90]
For this reason, although each phraseological unit in the corpus of this paper
has been carefully considered and selected, the pertinence of the inclusion of some
of them has been, and still is, open to discussion. The difficulty of providing a
close and definite corpus of phraseological units, arises from its heterogeneity
and variety and also the from fact that the same investigators are still struggling to
find a precise definition for this category. Below we provide some examples, for
the sake of discussion. In 1979 phraseological units were defined by R. Ginzburg
and her colleagues as follows:
phraseological units are non-motivated word groups that cannot be freely
made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units
Glser, in turn, defines the phraseological unit as:
a more or less lexicalized, reproducible bilexemic or polylexemic wordgroup in common use, which has syntactic and semantic stability, may be
idiomatized, may carry connotations, and may have an emphatic or intensifying
function in a text
Nevertheless, despite the heterogeneity of terminology, there seems to be a
general agreement in that a phraseological unit is a fixed word-combination whose
main features are summarized in Corpas Pastors Manual de fraseologa. Here, she
lists the main features of a phraseological unit, summarizing them from previous
different authors. According to Corpas Pastor a phraseological unit :
It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest only the bad bird defiles the nest:
Augustus: ...Do you mean to say, you scoundrel, that an Englishman is capable of
selling his country to the enemy for gold?
The Clerk: Not as a general thing I would not say it, but there's men here
would sell their own mothers for two coppers if they got the chance.
Augustus:... It's an ill bird that fouls its own nest. (G.B. Shaw).
Interjectional phraseological units can carry out the compensatory function
which is realized in the description of strong sincere emotional experience,
affect,when speech of the subject is complicated and an interjectional
phraseological unit is the only content of the whole remark.
Oh dear my God:
Jimmy: They did not say much. But I think she's dying.
Cliff: Oh, dear (J. Osborne).
The text-building (or the context-building) function is characteristic of
phraseological units at their realization. For the first time the question
concerningtext-building functions of phraseological units was raised by I.I.
Chernysheva. Under text-building factors of phraseological units we mean
realization oflinguistic properties of the given language signs allowing them,
equally with grammatical and lexical means of language, to create those links in
structure of the text which are elements of the structure and in certain cases also
binding means of fragments of the text.
The repetition of one-structural comparisons creates parallel constructions
within the limits of a phrase context.
'Not was but a poor man himself,' said Peggotty, 'but as good as gold and as
true as steel' (Ch. Dickens).
In texts of various types phraseological units carry out various functions
descriptive, characterizing, terminological and others.
All functions considered above are usual. Occasional functions based on
theusual ones are characteristic of phraseological units in the context when
occasionalchanges take place: the function of additional sense, the weakening
interaction
of
functions
is
characteristic
of
idioms
and
idiophraseomatisms:
Like a shot:
quickly, promptly, at full speed;
instantly, at once;
very willingly, with pleasure.
The following fuctions are evident here:
the intensity function;
the expressively-figurative function;
the function of speech compression.
Functions of phraseological units form two principal kinds of binary
oppositions, i.e. regular pair oppositions:
1) stylistically neutral functions stylistically marked functions;
2) usual functions occasional functions
The presence of these oppositions can be explained by the asymmetry in the
sphere of functioning of phraseological units and is one of the important elements
of the phraseological system.[14,p.45]
The enumeration of functions of phraseological units given above does not
represent their classification. This challenge is waiting for its solution.
Michael McCarthy and Felicity ODell use the term idiom in their book
English Idioms in Use and write that idioms are fixed expressions which have a
meaning that is not immediately obvious from looking at the individual words.
Hockett claims that it is a phrase whose meaning is non-compositional, that
is the meaning of the whole cannot be fully deduced from the meanings of the
parts.
The English scholar U. Weinreich asserts that idiom is a phraseological unit
involving at least two polysemous constituents and there is a reciprocal contextual
section of subsenses.
The group of phrases in which the idiom is included also consists of similes
and proverbial phrases. Similes are comparisons like vara som ettrttskynkefr ngn
"be like a red rag to a person". Proverbial phrases are conventional utterances in
the form of sentences like man ska ta seden dit man kommer "when in Rome you
must do as the Romans do".
These categories are parts of what we call an idiom cluster, where the idioms
are at the center and the proverbial phrases and similes are at the outer edges
(Clausen 1993). Similes and idioms often interact: vara [som] ett rott skynke for
ngn "be [like] a red rag to a person". Proverbial phrases and idioms also interact:
[man ska] ta seden dit man kommer.
In analyzing the idioms we give special attention to literal counterparts. We
have noted five types of idioms, four of which have phraseological, non-idiomatic
equivalents. Earlier studies of idioms often discuss non-idiomatic equivalents in
order to describe idiomaticity: the less semantically motivated they think an idiom
is in relation to its literal counterpart, the higher the degree of idiomaticity. The
authors of Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English are clear about the fact
that one of their two categories of idioms called 'figurative idioms' have
equivalents among the restricted collocations (e.g. catch fire).
The first type of idiom (a) has a non-idiomatic equivalent from which a
complement is transferred from the status of examples to the status of fixed
phrases. In the metaphorization focus is shifted and a verb is often weakened or
even omitted. The idiomatic expression vara [som] ett slag i ansiktet "be [like] a
slap in the face" with the metaphorical meaning 'be an insult' has the non-idiomatic
equivalent ge nagon ett slag "give a person a slap" (e.g. han gav honom ett slag i
ansiktet "he gave him a slap in the face"). [30,p.369]
The second type of idiom (b) has a non-idiomatic equivalent with an
optional complement which is transferred and has become obligatory in the
metaphorization. The idiomatic expression f small p fingrarna "get a rap on the
knuckles" with the metaphorical meaning 'be reprimanded' has a non-idiomatic
equivalent
small
[p
fingrarna]
"get
rap
[on
the
knuckles]"
phraseological
fusions,
phraseological
unities
and
phraseological
combinations.
Phraseological fusion is a semantically indivisible phraseological unit which
meaning is never influenced by the meanings of its components [2; 44].
It means that phraseological fusions represent 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.
Once in a blue moon very seldom;
To cry for the moon to demand unreal;
Under the rose quietly.
Sometimes phraseological fusions are called idioms under which linguists
understand a complete loss of the inner form. To explain the meaning of idioms is a
complicated etymological problem (tit to tat means to revenge, but no one can
explain the meaning of the words tit and tat).
Phraseological unity is a semantically indivisible phraseological unit the
whole meaning of which is motivated by the meanings of its components [2; p.45].
In general, phraseological unities are the phrases where the meaning of the
whole unity is not the sum of the meanings of its components but is based upon
them and may be understood from the components. The meaning of the significant
word is not too remote from its ordinary meanings. This meaning is formed as a
result of generalized figurative meaning of a free word-combination. It is the result
of figurative metaphoric reconsideration of a word-combination.
To come to ones sense to change ones mind;
points out two-top units which he compares with compound words because in
compound words we usually have two root morphemes.
The variety of phenomena comprised by phraseology makes classification
attempts difficult. External marks for recognizing a certain category of
phraseologisms are related to the form of the group, the fixed order of elements,
the reduced possibilities of separating them, the impossibility to replace one
element or another, whereas internal marks are related to the fact that the entire
ensemble embodies an act of unitary thinking, equivalent to a single word, the
existence of certain syntactic-semantic phenomena characteristic of the group (the
presence of certain lexical, semantic or syntactic archaisms, ellipsis or
redundancy).
The types of phraseological units, which have received most attention in
linguistic literature, have been phrases and idioms.
The definitions proposed for the term phrase generally have the same
structure, highlighting traits such as stability, syntactic and semantic unity:
expression constitue par lunion de plusieurs mots formant une unit syntaxique
et lexicologique, the group of words more or less that are joined together, that
has a unitary meaning and grammatically behaves as a single part of speech, a
grouping of two or more words, unitary in meaning that relates to the context as a
single element, no matter whether these relations are achieved by one of its
constitutive elements or whether the group, as a whole, establishes connections as
a single term.
Concerning the second fundamental type of phraseologic unit, the idiom,
despite the frequent use of the term in the well-established literature of
phraseology, its features have been revealed particularly by relation to the stylisticfunctional behaviour of phrases. Sometimes, there is not even a clear distinction
between these two terms, their parallel use with the same meaning being the
common practice.[24, p.89]
The majority of studies dedicated to defining and describing idioms take into
consideration the functional-structural and expressive criteria, although there is no
expressivity, repeatability, age, meaning unity. The same category also comprises
synapses, units that are made up of a determined and a determinant carrying the
meaning of one single word, common combinations, representing the names of
certain institutions, titles of literary, scientific, cinematographic works, etc,
emphatic phrases, fixed collocations where one of the terms adds a superlative
meaning to the other [beat turt (dead drunk);], stereotypical similes, emphatic
phrases where the comparison is maintained [ieftin ca braga (as cheap as dirt);],
international formulas and clichs, structures of a conventional and international
nature, occurring in various languages of culture and civilisation [mrul discordiei
(the apple of discord), oul lui Columb (Columbus egg);]. The inventory of terms
related to phraseology and the research of the meanings of various terms bespeak
the difficulties that the delimitation of the sphere of this linguistic discipline
implies. Such efforts prove the complexity of the problems raised by theorizing
phraseologisms, a complexity that is irreducible to unique and definitive solutions.
[22,p.201]
Among one-top units he points out three structural types:
a) units of the type to give up (verb + postposition type);
To back up to support;
To drop out to miss, to omit.
b) units of the type to be tired. Some of these units remind the Passive
Voice in their structure but they have different prepositions with them, while in the
Passive Voice we can have only prepositions by or with:
To be tired of;
To be surprised at.
There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type
to be young:
To be akin to;
To be aware of.
The difference between them is that the adjective young can be used as an
attribute and as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such
units can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar centre
and the second component is the semantic centre:
c) prepositional-nominal phraseological units:
On the doorstep - quite near;
On the nose exactly.
These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions,
conjunctions, adverbs, that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic
centre is the nominal part.
Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural
types:
a) attributive-nominal such as:
A month of Sundays
A millstone round ones neck.
Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be partly or perfectly
idiomatic (if the expression is idiomatic, then we must consider its components in
the aggregate, not separately). In partly idiomatic units (phrasisms) sometimes the
first component is idiomatic: high road; in other cases the second component is
idiomatic: first night.
In many cases both components are idiomatic: red tape, blind alley, bed of
nail, shot in the arm and many others.
b) verb-nominal phraseological units:
To read between the lines;
To sweep under the carpet.
The grammar centre of such units is the verb, the semantic centre in many
cases is the nominal component: to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the
grammar and the semantic centre: not to know the ropes. These units can be
perfectly idiomatic as well: to burn ones boats, to vote with ones feet, to take to
the cleaners etc.
c) phraseological repetitions, such as:
Now or never;
reality, and the meaning of the whole unit cannot be deduced from the
meanings of its components;
Stability (lexical and grammatical) means that no lexical substitution
is possible in an idiom in comparison with free or variable wordcombinations (with an exception of some cases when the author
makes such substitutions intentionally). The experiments conducted in
the 1990s showed that, the meaning of an idiom is not exactly
identical to its literal paraphrase given in the dictionary entry. That is
why we may speak about lexical flexibility of many units if they are
used in a creative manner. Lexical stability is usually accompanied by
grammatical stability, which prohibits any grammatical changes;
Separability means that the structure of an idiom is indivisible; certain
modifications are possible within cer-tain boundaries. Here we meet
with the so-called lexical and grammatical variants. To illustrate this
point we will give some examples: "as hungry as a wolf (as a hunter)",
"as safe as a house (houses)" in English.
Expressivity
and
emotiveness
means
that
idioms
are
also
boundary. A similar tack is taken in some recent work by Jackendoff. To name but
one example, Jackendoff is concerned with a phraseological expression the
'time' away construction exemplified by We're twistin' the night away, which, given
its properties with respect to the above parameters, would doubtless nature of the
elements: words and phrases in a transitive phrasal verb frame;
distance of elements: the intransitive verb, the direct object, and away occur
right next to each other;
flexibility of the elements: just like regular transitive phrasal verbs, the
intransitive verb, the direct object, and the particle can occur in the order or
in the order; passivization and tough movement are possible, but rare;
semantics: the pattern of transitive phrasal verbs with time expressions as
direct object and away functions as a semantic unit, which is evidenced by
the fact that this pattern forces a particular interpretation of the clause such
that referent of the subject is understood to act volitionally; the verb must
denote an activity, not a state, and the ly be recognized as a phraseologism
by most phraseologists: referent of the subject uses up the whole time
denoted by the time expression.[17,p.48]
I am not aware that the following has been recognized or even
acknowledged all too openly by transformational-generative grammarians, but it is
interesting to note that the notion of phraseologism, which has been rather on the
fringe in transformational-generative grammar in particular and in most of
theoretical linguistics in general, is so crucial to the revision of the most dominant
linguistic paradigm of the 20th century and, thus, of the way the linguistic system
proper is viewed. More specifically, it is, among other things of course, the
recognition of phraseologisms as theoretically relevant entities in their own right
that begins
to undermine the modular organization of the linguistic system into a
grammar and a lexicon and
transformational-generative
linguistics,
the
identification
of
phraseologisms has been rather eclectic. Given a linguistic system involving only
perfectly productive rules and a lexicon as the grab bag of exceptions and the
objective of developing a language-independent / universal grammar, there has
never been a systematic identification of the inventory of phraseologisms in a
language within transformational-generative grammar. And from this perspective,
why should there be? Phraseologisms are by most accounts not productive, and
thus only to be relegated to the exceptional part to begin with, and phraseologisms
are by their very nature not universal and, thus, of little relevance to the core
objective of the whole generative enterprise. The lack of a comprehensive
identification procedure therefore does not come as a big surprise, and it is
probably fair to say that the identification of phraseologisms has been largely
based on recognizing that a particular semantic unit's behavior be that unit a
single- or multi-word unit defies a characterization in terms of the hard-and-fast
rules of the grammar that are thought to be necessary on syntactic grounds alone.
The most comprehensive identification procedures of phraseologisms are
doubtlessly found in corpus linguistics, which is to be expected given that corpus
linguistics is a methodology mostly concerned with lexical (co-)occurences.
Several levels of sophistication are discernible. As in cognitive linguistics and
Construction Grammar, the most basic approaches are, it seems, also the most
widely used ones. First, much work in this area, e.g., by Stubbs and his colleagues,
involves the generation of frequency lists of n-grams, i.e. uninterrupted sequences
of word forms; the upper limit of n is usually five.[28,p.225]
While the above methods are no doubt the most widespread ones, there are
also some methodological shortcomings that are associated with these. One of the
most severe shortcomings is the oftentimes limited degree of quantitative
sophistication exhibited by many of the studies utilizing the above methods. For
example, Stubbs and Stubbs and Barth largely ignore the immensely interesting
work that has been done concerning the automatic or semi-automatic identification
of multi-word units (cf. below for a variety of relevant references). Similarly,
Hunston and Francis's above formulation that a combination of words needs to be
"relatively frequent" to qualify as a pattern is so vague as to be practically vacuous.
Relatedly, Hunston
moments, and after a few moments of, and then asks that "how many examples of
a three-, four, or five-word sequence are necessary for it to be considered a
phrase?" All this is all the more regrettable because there is a huge body of
research illustrating sophisticated tools for the identification of phraseologisms.
For example, there is a vast array of studies researching how and which
And one more point: free word combinations can never be polysemantic,
while there are polysemantic phraseological units, e.g.
To be on the go
1. to be busy and active
to be leaving
to be tipsy
to be near one's end
have done with
1. Make an end of
give up
reach the end of
Two types of synonymy are typical of phraseological units:
Synonymy of phraseological units that do not contain any synonymous
words and are based on different images, e.g.
To leave no stone unturned = to move heaven and earth
To haul down colours = to ground arms
In free word combinations synonym is based on the synonymy of particular
words (an old man = elderly man).
Phraseological units have word synonyms: To make up one's mind = to
decide
To haul down colours = to surrender
Phraseological unites are partially non-motivated as their meaning can
usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological
unit. For example, to show one's teeth, to wash one's dirty linen in public if
interpreted as semantically motivated through the combined lexical meaning of the
component words would naturally lead one to understand these in their literal
meaning. The metaphoric meaning of the whole unit, however, readily suggests
'take a threatening tone' or 'show an intention to injure' for show one's teeth and
'discuss or make public one's quarrels' for wash one's dirty linen in public.
There
are
often
some
losses:
imaginary,
When it is impossible to transfer the semantic-stylistic and expressiveemotional colouring of the phrase we use another method which is connected the
usage of loan words, if possible. This method is preferable when it is possible
to convey the meaning of the original phrase by its word-to-word translation
in order for the reader to understand the phraseological meaning of the
whole expression and not only its constituent parts.
Most loans can be considered to be phraseological, for example, the
English phrase the hill the grass is always greener on the other side of
the hill was used as a word-to-word translation in the newspaper Loc
European in the article What is Good in Toronto?:
14,5 % izraelieni, ce au plecat n Toronto, triesc sub nivelul srciei. ce ia permis directorului general al ministerului de integrare, Mirle Gali, s observe,
c iarba la vecini e ntotdeauna mai verde.
Sometimes translators not only give the loan translation but also some
historical commentary. Such translation is called double or parallel.
For example, white elephant . The expression is not formal, and means a
very costly possession that is worthless to its owner and only a cause of
trouble, - lucru costisitor de ntreinut,care te cost enorm/ ct ochii din cap.
The car we bought last year is a white elephant; it uses a lot of petrol
and breaks down again and again
The recent Budget has offered hundreds of millions of pounds to share
up private enterprise and to finance such white elephants as Concorde and
the Channel Tunnel [New Statesman, 22 Nov 74].
The expression 'white elephant' referred to a practice of the kings of
Siam when they wished to get rid of the followers who had displeased them.
The king would give the follower a white elephant. The elephant was so costly
to keep that its owner would be ruined.
In conclusion, we can say, as we saw from the above-mentioned examples,
that the translation of the idioms is not context-free. Only in the cases when the
same construction is used literally, it may be translated word by word.
with no idiomatic character, which expresses the global sense conveyed by the
original unit. In this case, the meaning is rendered, although the formal aspect,
including the stylistic effect produced by the phraseological unit, is lost. It is also a
good solution when the use of phraseological units in the target language text does
not seem appropriate because of differences in stylistic preferences of the source
and target languages.
The term phraseology designates the discipline as well as its object, the set
or totality of phraseologic units in a given language. According to the origin of
phraseologisms, a line has been drawn between two areas of investigation, namely,
linguistic phraseology understood as a communitys means of expression and
literary phraseology including aphorisms, witticism, word combinations with an
accidental character, belonging to certain writers, outstanding people.
As an autonomous discipline, the object of research of phraseology consists
in phraseologic units from a given language (or a group of languages).[14, p.45]
For the translation of phraseological units which contain culture-bound
elements there are several strategies that can be used, especially when the
expression is paraphrased. Rodica Dimitriu considers that cultural plurality has
given rise to specific translation strategies through which cultural difference is
highlighted. Two such strategies are transcription (cultural borrowing or
assimilation), or what Newmark
translation). The purpose of these strategies is to retain some local colour, but
while the second one does not completely block comprehension, in the first one the
message will in most cases be at best vague, if not entirely opaque. For this reason
Newmark mentions that it is a good practice to employ two or more translation
strategies at the same time, in order to avoid possible misunderstandings. For
example, transference is usually accompanied by naturalisation. There are other
strategies that can be used for different purposes: neutralisation, in which case the
cultural flavour is lost, but the meaning becomes clear. It can be in the form of
either translation by a more general item (a superordinate) or by a more neutral,
less expressive item.
E.g.: a jack of all trades (a person who can do many different kinds of
work, but perhaps does not do them very well) om bun la toate (neutralisation)
Or the translator might opt for cultural substitution, by replacing the
culture-specific item with a target language one which does not have the same
meaning, but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader.
E.g.: Work like a beaver A munci ca o furnic
Another strategy is the translation by omission, when a phraseological unit
may sometimes be omitted altogether in the target text. This strategy can be used
either because it has no adequate equivalent, it cannot be easily paraphrased or for
stylistic reasons.
This strategy is usually accompanied by compensation, which is seen as the
technique of making up for the translation loss of important source text features by
approximating their effects in the target text through means other than those used
in the source text. In this case, the omission of a phraseological unit at some point
in a target text can be compensated by the introduction of another unit in a
different part of the text, thus maintaining the idiomatic character of the text. This
type of compensation is referred to as compensation in place
The concept of phraseologic unit (unit phrasologique) has been first used
by Charles Bally, in Prcis de stylistique, wherefrom it was taken by V. V.
Vinogradov and other Soviet linguists, who translated it by frazeologhiceskaia
edinitsa, which led to the term frazeologhizm, with the same meaning, and then
subsequently borrowed by different languages belonging to the European culture.
In present-day Romanian linguistics, the concepts of phraseologic unit and
phraseologism are seriously challenged, on different levels, by the structures stable
syntactic groups, phraseologic groups, constant word combinations, fixed word
combinations, fixed syntagms, syntagmatic units. For that matter, Casia Zaharia
has drawn out an extensive list of phraseologic terms used in Romanian and
German linguistics and also wrote, at the same time and in a paper on comparative
phraseology with a significant theoretical foundation, a biography of the most
important ones.[31,p.343]
should
be
clarified,
however;
the
phrases
phraseological
unit,
view can be argued against, since phraseological units lie at the intersection of
lexis, grammar and syntax; they may behave like lexemes, therefore they have
antonyms, synonyms, polysemes and even homonyms. Yet, phrasemes are not
equivalent of lexemes. The word is a notion with multiple denotational and
connotational meanings, while the phraseological unit often implies only one
meaning from this semantic plethora. In addition, the phraseological meaning is
rather related to the connotational, figurative meaning, than to the referential,
denotational one. Metaphorization, metonymization and abstraction generally, take
a leading role in the process of semantic expansion, engaging cognitive processes
which provide a linguistic-cognitive conceptualization and categorization. As a
result, the speaker, easily, often spontaneously, identifies and uses in discourse
certain syntagmatic constituents; for example water as a syntagmatic constituent
for the following multi-word units (in Romanian ap):
ap limpede, ap tulbure, ap de but, ap potabil, ap
plat, ap mineral, ap vie, ap moart, ap de ploaie, a cra ap
cu ciurul, a-i lsa gura ap, a intra la ap, a nu avea nici dup ce bea
ap, a se simi ca petele n ap etc. [in English: drinking water, fresh water,
salt water, still water, mineral water, running water, spring water, tap water, toilet
water, take to sth. like a duck to water, like a fish out of water, muddy the waters,
blood is thicker than water etc.].
To illustrate, consider the following example Puterea opoziiei i opoziia
Puterii from the Romanian media discourse. Also pertaining to the play on words
we can mention the so-called occasional phraseology, relying on antonymic
substitution, through the substitution of some phraseological units with elements,
that allow this type of change, the result often being quite spectacular: lumina din
captul tunelului ntunericul din captul tunelului [light at the end of the tunnel
darkness at the end of the tunnel]. For example, the phraseological unit gol
puc (gun naked) substituted by mbrcat pistolv (pistol dressed) can lead to
creating a phraseological synonymy based on antonymic pairs: gol vs. mbrcat
(naked vs. dressed), puc vs. pistol.[27,p.464]
access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same conceptual domain.
Conventional knowledge is information that is widely know and shared between
members of a speech community,an dis thus likely to be more central to the mental
representation of a particular lexical concept. The author subdivides conventional
knowledge into knowledge relative to position, knowledge relative to the shape,
and knowledge relative to the function of the body-part analyzed.
Idioms containing four main body-part terms are: HEAD, HEAR, EYE, and
HAND. Concerning the motivation of body part idioms, the linguists rightly
emphasize that they are motivated not by one of the three cognitive mechanism
mentioned above: there are cases when a combination of them underlies them. For
instance, in the idiom the right hand does not know what the left hand is going,
The HAND FOR ACTIVITY conceptual metonymy combines with the HAND
FOR PERSON metonymy and equally with the conceptual metaphor
COOPERATION IS SHAKING HANDS. In general, HEAD, HAND, EYE and
HEART idioms do not display significant differences in the two languages
considered by Tratescu. However, there are instances when English idioms do not
have comparable idiomatic equivalents in Romanian: off the top of ones head, in
good heart, not to see eye to eye, take a hand in sth, make sth with ones own fair
hands. The author also identifies and comments on Romanian body part idioms
lacking English idiomatic equivalents:
o dat cu capul/n ruptul capului not for the world,
s-i fie de cap go and be hanged,
i vrsa focul inimii to unburden ones heart,
and
the
expressive
quality
mainly
resulting
from
their
demonstrative association between the concepts that are the very key-words of the
present contribution, viz. idiomatic, phraseological and proverbial/apophthegmatic,
but started from the unassuming remark that some common, widely circulated
phraseologisms are at the same time allusions to, remnants or reminders of, (prior)
well-known proverbial units. That is to say that, in such cases, the dividing line
between the phraseological and idiomatic units, on one hand, and the
proverbial/apophthegmatic units, on the other hand, is rather vague (cf. the manner
in which the issue is treated by most dictionaries).[23, p.248]
The ample domain represented by proverbs, maxims, adages, sayings and
(wise) saws, aphorisms, and even epigrams1 materializes through verbal
expressions that set forth universal wisdom, usually a (general/basic/self-evident)
truth (or practical precept), or some commonplace fact of experience. They are
essentially memorable, short, concise, condensed, and can be found in frequent and
widespread use; more often than not, they use bold imagery, and may summarize
an abundance of ethical, cultural, and even practical aspects; sometimes, briefly
stated rules of conduct, or guiding principles characteristic of a group, etc., are
expressed.
n toi in full swing (n toiul luptei in the thick of the battle), etc.
[37, p.71]
The fact that some phraseological units (seen from the angle of both
expression and image) tend to become (increasingly) international is no doubt an
important feature of current phraseology.
By conducting a modest though essentially didactic-oriented
comparative analysis of the corpus sampled for English and Romanian, we could
detect a number of points of (literal) convergence and divergence.[26, p.76]
There are units that seem to prove Romanian to be the more expressive
language:
si cu asta basta and that is that;
l paste un pericol a danger threatens him;
a bate toba to make a great fuss;
a baga (pe cineva) la apa to get (smb.) into trouble;
a baga n mormnt to be the death of;
a fi cu cntec to have its (hidden) meaning;
a mnca ct patru to be a heavy eater;
a nu se baga to stand aloof, to keep off;
a o scrnti, a face una boacana to put ones foot in it;
a se baga pe sub pielea cuiva to ingratiate oneself with smb.;
a se vr (pe) sub pielea cuiva to curry favour with smb.;
a sta n capul oaselor to sit up;
a vorbi ntre patru ochi to talk (to smb.) in private;
a-si lua cmpii to run away;
amorezat/ndragostit lulea (de cineva) nuts/carried away/crazy about;
cntec de inima albastra sad song;
de atta amar de vreme for such a long time;
de caciula per head, each, apiece;
de-a berbeleacul head over heels;
din acelasi aluat of a kind;
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, forbidden fruit, Jobs
comforters ( someone who apparently offers consolation to another person
but actually makes the other person feel worse), kill the fatted calf (the
return of the Prodigal Son), thirty pieces of silver ( the money Judas
Iscariot received for betraying Jesus to the authorities), through a glass
darkly (to have an obscure or imperfect vision of reality Apostle
Paul),valley of the shadow of death (the Twenty-third Psalm (The Lord is
my shepherd) meaning the perils of life, from which God protects
believers), [37, p.34] ,wolves in sheeps clothing (the image of false
Prophets, adapted from words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount;
figuratively, it stands for anyone who disguises a ruthless nature through
an outward show of innocence); [29,p.295]
(b) phraseological units whose structure includes the conjunction and, e.g.
alpha and omega i.e. the beginning and the end in the New Testament Book of
Revelation; loaves and fishes cf. Jesus miracle, when he was preaching to a
crowd of several thousand who grew hungry and needed to be fed); sometimes, the
conjunction can be missing, e.g. easy come, easy go;
(c) phraseological units that have/can have a sentential structure, e.g.
Consider the lilies of the field cf. the words of Jesus, encouraging his followers
not to worry about their worldly needs: Why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.
And yet we say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these; By their fruits ye shall know them Jesus words suggesting that we
are able to distinguish between false and genuine Prophets by the things they do
and say; Cast not pearls before swine/Do not cast your pearls before swine to
refrain from sharing something of value with those who will not appreciate it; Cast
thy bread upon the waters cf. the Book of Ecclesiastes; the saying calls on people
to act with the faith that the benefit of their good deeds will not be lost on them;
The last shall be first; [37, p.94]
[37, p.39]
So, the more conventionalized the structures are, the less expressive they are
overall: Rom. tot o apa/tot un drac Eng. much of a muchness; a face pe cineva
albie de porci to call smb. names. [37, p.78]
Yet, such phrases as the ones below are altogether comparable: a fi rebegit de
frig to be stiff with cold, to be chilled to the bone/frozen to the marrow.
Sometimes, the biblical-cultural allusion has a jocular tinge, e.g. Romanian
n costumul lui Adam in ones birthday suit.
Similarly, the cultural allusion encapsulated by an idiom has, in some cases,
become completely opaque, e.g. mother Carey is plucking her geese (Rom. Baba
Dochia si scutura cojoacele): see Mother Carey [Possibly translation and
alteration of Medieval Latin mater cara, Virgin Mary: Latin mater, mother + Latin
cara, dear]. Even an isolated (expressive) term can display cultural allusion, e.g.
to kowtow a face temenele [from Chinese k'o t'ou, from k'o to strike, knock +
t'ou head].
But the most interesting cases are, we think, those exhibiting different
cultural loads in the two languages analysed (cf. the specific cultural and historical
bias), e.g. a o sterge englezeste cf. to take French leave. Quite similarly, there is the
case of Eng. to stand a Dutch treat and Romanian a plati nemteste [a Dutch treat
means an outing, a date, an entertainment, meal, etc., where each person pays for
themselves, and to go Dutch means (informal) to go on such a date, where
expenses are equally shared].[8,p.21]
Here are some examples of embedded historical and cultural anecdotes
(the Romanian counterpart of the Eng. expression as the saying goes, i.e.
povestea vorbei): to let the cat out of the bag to make known smth. that was a
secret, accidentally and at the wrong time; to disclose a secret (Rom. a-l lua
gura pe dinainte; a lasa sa-i scape/dezvalui/divulga un secret; infml. a lasa sa-i
scape porumbelul din gura): Formerly, countryfolk going to market would
sometimes put a cat in a bag that they pretended held a sucking pig, hoping to
impose this on a greenhorn who would buy it without examination; but, if the
intending buyer opened the bag, the trick was disclosed; (to sit) above the salt;
(antonym (to sit) below the salt); not fml., old-fash. (To be) in a position of
honour/not (to be) in a position of honour, esp. among guests at a dining table.
From the fact that in the houses of rich and important people salt was formerly
kept in a large container placed in the middle of the long diningtable; Rom. a fi
asezat n capul/vs. coada mesei; a ocupa un/a fi ntr-un post mare; colloq. a fi n
capul treburilor; to pay through ones nose (colloq.) to pay an exorbitant
price/an extortionate amount; to be overcharged: In the 9th century, the Danes
imposed a poll tax in Ireland, and the penalty for non-payment was the slitting of
the nose; to take time by the forelock (not fml., rather old-fash.): to act quickly
and without delay, to take advantage of present chances; from the fact that time
was represented by an old man with no hair on his head, except for a forelock over
his forehead; the Greek god of occasion, Chairos, was represented with a full
forelock. (Shakespeare, who uses the image in several plays, calls time, that bald
sexton. Rom. a prinde momentul prielnic/favorabil; a bate fierul ct e cald; a
nu pierde vremea (de pomana); to go through fire and water to suffer risks or
dangers willingly, because one is so determined to do smth. or to serve smb.;
Rom. a trece prin ncercari grele; a trece prin multe; a trece prin foc si para
(pentru cineva); approx. a trece prin ciur si prin drmon: The risk of being
burned or drowned is used as a symbol of what a person is ready to undergo; the
expression may allude to the mediaeval ordeal by fire and water in trials, in AngloSaxon times. We think it would suffice to add such (now semantically opaque)
Romanian expressions as a da sfoara n tara, cal de gloaba, a plati gloaba (pentru
ceva), etc [37, p.15]
A situation in which a desired solution or outcome is impossible to
attain because of a set of paradoxical/inherently illogical rules, or
set of circumstances/conditions; the rules or conditions that create
such a situation;
a situation characterized by absurdity, in which any move that
someone
we
can
say
that
phraseologisms
and
idioms,
and
apophthegmatic units too represent, on the one hand, well-known challenges in the
acquisition of English as a foreign language, and, on the other hand, most valuable
instruments to use in becoming proficient in that language.
CONCLUSION
Languages lead their speakers to construe experience in different ways,
specific to their culture. As a consequence, a great challenge that the translator
faces in the case of phraseological units is to reconcile respect for the cultural
specificity with the desire to render the foreign familiar. The aim is to make them
available to someone unfamiliar with the culture, without destroying the cultural
images on which they are based. In the translation of phraseology, perhaps more
than in any other type, the translator becomes a real mediator between cultures and
languages. And this is beyond a doubt a tough row to hoe.
The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by
phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in
the process of speech; they exist in the language as ready-made units.
Translation has played a role throughout history any time there has been an
intersection of two cultures and languages. And each time one culture has produced
a written text, translators serve as the bridge that allows literate members of one
culture to be exposed to the written material the other has produced.
This paper, focused on the contrastive analysis of English and Romanian
phraseology involving kinship terms, started summarizing the main theoretical
aspects related to phraseology, culture and kinship.
Phraseology becomes the embodiment of persons national consciousness
and culture, and at the same time serves as the means of communication and the
knowledge of reality.
The analysis of special literature during the last decades shows that the
majority of linguists consider the coincidence of semantic structure, grammatical
(or syntactical) organization and componential (lexeme) structure the main criteria
in defining the types of interlanguage phraseological conformities/disparities with
the undoubted primacy of semantic structure.
The contrastive analysis of the phraseological units that was performed in
the practical chapter of the present research paper revealed the techniques and
methods used in their translation from English into Romanian. We can say that
the phraseological
units
are
translated
either
by
the
already
existed
31
Total equivalence
Partial equivalence
No ecuivalence
100
69
differ
from
the
original
phrase
by
some
components,
usually
transfer their meanings into any other language one should use nonphraseological ways of translation.
The following translation techniques used for phraseological units and
idioms were depicted: calque, cultural substitution and omission.
Translation techniques
14
29
57
calque
cultural substitution
omission
There
are
often
some
losses:
imaginary,
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Literary Criticism
1. Aliokhina, A.I. 1968. Frazeologieskaja antonimija v sovremennom
anglijskom jazyke, rezumatul tezei, eljabinsk.
of
Literary
Prose,
Napoli,
Loffredo
[1987].
(1996),
31. .. . ( . . ) .,
,1970. 343.
Internet resources
32.www.bohemika.com Phraseological combinations and fusions.
33.www.schwabe.ch Phraseological Units.
34.www.corpus.bham.ac.uk the Determination of Phraseological Units.
35.http://www.ranez.ru/article
Literary works
36.Biblia, Patriarhia Romn, 1988.
37.Book of Wisdom. The sin of the people, London, 1809.
38.Fowles John. The Ebony Tower. Little, Brown, 2013 p. 320
39.Maugham W. Somerset. Creatures of Circumstance. Transaction
Publishers, 2011. p. 375
40.Maugham W. Somerset. The Moon and Sixpence. Arc Manor LLC, 2008
p.180
41.Maugham W. Somerset. The Hero. The Floating Press, 2012 . p. 288
42.The Holy Bible Commonly Known as the Authorized (King James)
Version, The Gideons International, 1988.