The etymological classification of phraseological units. The degree of the national peculiarity of phraseological units

According to their origin phraseological units are divided into native and borrowed.

Native phraseological units are connected with British realia, traditions, history:

By bell book and candle (jocular) – бесповоротно. This unit originates from the text of the form of excommunication (отлучение от церкви) which ends with the following words: Doe to the book, quench the candle, ring the book!

To carry coal to Newcastle (parallells: Ехать в Тулу со своим самоваром, везти сов в Афины, везти пряности в Иран)

According to Cocker – по всем правилам, точно. E. Cocker is the author of a well-known book on arithmetics.

To native phraseological units also belong familiar quotations came from works of English literature. A lot of them were borrowed from works by Shakespeare: a fool’s paradise (“Romeo and Juliet”), the green-eyed monster (“Othello”), murder will out – шила в мешке не утаишь (“Macbeth”), etc.

A great number of native phraseological units originate from professional terminologies or jargons: one’s last card, the game is up/over lay one's cards on the table hold all the aces (terms of gambling).

Borrowed phraseological units come from several sources.

A number of units were borrowed from the Bible and were fully assimilated: to cast pearl before swine, the root of all evil, a woolf in sheep’s clothing, to beat swords into plough-shares.

A great amount of units were taken from ancient mythology and literature: the apple of discord, the golden age, the thread of Ariadne, at the greek calends ( до греческих календ, никогда ), etc, They are international in their character.

A lot of phraseologisms were borrowed from different languages – let’s return to our muttons (revenons à nos moutons), blood and iron (принцип политики Бисмарка – Blut und Eisen), blue blood, to lose face (кит. tiu lien) and from the other variants of the English language (AmE) – a green light, bark up the wrong tree, to look like a million dollars, time is money (B. Franklin “Advice to a Young Tradesman”).

One more criterion for classification of phraseological units is according to the degree of the national peculiarity of phraseological units. Due to it all phraseological units are divided into three groups:

1) International phraseological units, which are based on universal images, e.g., the alpha and omega of smth, to discover America, to cross the Rubicon, the heel of Achilles (ахіллесова п'ята), the Trojan horse (троянський кінь), the tree of knowledge (дерево/древо пізнання), thirty pieces of silver (тридцять срібняків), Pandora's box, Herculian pillars, Gordian knot, between Scylla and Charybdis; I came, I saw, I conquered; the Ten Commandments, wise Solomon, prodigal son/to be in (the) seventh heaven

2) Locally unmarked phraseological units, which are based on neutral images, not nationally peculiar, e.g., to burn one’s fingers, to break one’s heart, to snake in the grass, a fly in the ointment (ложка дьогтю в бочці меду);, make haste slowly (тихіше їдеш - далі будеш).

3) Locally marked phraseological units with vividly expressed national and cultural component, e.g., to catch the Speaker’s eye, to set the Thames on fire, to carry coals to Newcastle, something is rotten in the state of Denmark, to dine with Duke Humphry, to cut off with a shilling and only in Ukrainian such idioms as передати куті меду, впіймати облизня, ставити на карб, пекти раків, утерти носа, etc.

These and the like idiomatic expressions, including several proverbs and sayings, have usually absolute or near equivalents in languages of one culturally and geographically common area, e.g., to kiss the post - поцілувати замок, as pale as paper - блідий як стіна; grass widow — солом'яна вдова, measure twice, cut once - сім раз одміряй, а раз одріж; to know smth. as one knows his ten fingers - знати щось, як своїх п'ять пальців.

Дата добавления: 2013-12-12