Practice 5

Consider your answers to the following:

1. What are the two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseological units and free word-groups? How can you show that the "freedom" of free word-groups is relative and arbitrary?

2. How do proverbs differ from phraseological units and can proverbs be regarded as a subdivision of phraseological units? Give reasons for your answer.

3. What are the merits and disadvantages of the thematic principle of classification for phraseological units?

4. Explain the semantic principle of classification for phraseological units.

5. Comment on Professor A.I. Smirnitsky’s and Professor A.V. Koonin’s classification systems for phraseological units.

6. What is the source of the following idioms? If in doubt consult your reference books.

The Trojan horse, Achilles heel, a labour of Hercules, an apple of discord, forbidden fruit, the serpent in the tree, an ugly duckling, the fifth column, to hide one's head in the sand.

7. Show that you understand the meaning of the follow ing phraseological units by using each of them in a sentence.

1. Between the devil and the deep sea; 2. to have one's heart in one's boots; 3. to have one's heart in the right place; 4. to wear one's heart on one's sleeve; 5. in the blues; 6. once in a blue moon; 7. to swear black is white; 8. out of the blue; 9. to talk till all is blue; 10. to talk oneself blue in the face.

8. Explain whether the semantic changes in the following phraseological units are complete or partial. Paraphrase them.

A wolf in a sheep's clothing; to fly into a temper; to stick to one's word; bosom friend; small talk; to cast pearls before swine; to beat about the bush; to add fuel to the fire; to fall ill; to fall in love; to sail under false colors; to be at sea.

9. Read the following jokes. Identify the phraseological units using the two major criteria: structural and semantic. What are the jokes based on?

1. He: Don't you hate people who talk behind your back?

She: Yes, especially at the movies.

2. "I'd hate to be in your shoes," said a woman yesterday, as she was quarrelling with a neighbor.

"You couldn't get in them," sarcastically remarked the neighbor.

3.Herbert: Arthur hasn't been out one night for three weeks.

Flora: Has he turned over a new leaf?

Herbert: No, he's turned over a new car.

4.Motorist: How far is it to the next town?

Native: Nigh to five miles as the crow flies.

Motorist: Well, how far is it if a damned crow has to walk and carry an empty gasoline can?

5. "So, she turned you down, eh?"

"Yes, I made the mistake of confessing that my heart was in my mouth when I proposed."

"What has it to do with it?"

"Oh, she said she couldn't think of marrying a man whose heart wasn't in the right place."

10. Give the proverbs from which the following phraseological units have developed.

Birds of a feather; to catch at a straw; to put all one's eggs in one basket; to cast pearls before swine; the first blow; a bird in the bush; to cry over spilt milk; the last straw.

11. a) Read the following text. Compile a list of the phraseological units used in it. Translate them into Russian by phraseological units (if possible) or by free word-groups. On what principle are all these idioms selected?

If you feel under the weather, you don't feel very well, and if you make heavy weather of something, you make it more difficult than it needs to be. Someone with a sunny disposition is always cheerful and happy, but a person with his head in the clouds does not pay much attention to what is going on around him. To have a place in the sun is to enjoy a favorable position, and to go everywhere under the sun is to travel all over the world. Someone who is under a cloud is in disgrace or under suspicion, and a person who is snowed under with work is overwhelmed with it.

When you break the ice, you get to know someone better, but if you cut no ice with someone, you have no effect on them. To keep something on ice or in cold storage is to reserve it for the future, and to skate on thin ice is to be in a dangerous or risky situation. If something is in the wind, it is being secretly planned, and if you have the wind up, you became frightened. To throw caution to the winds is to abandon it and act recklessly, but to see how the wind blows is to find out how people are thinking before you act. If you take the wind out of someone's sails, you gain the advantage over him or her by saying or doing something first. To save something for a rainy day is to put some money aside for when it is needed. To do something come rain or shine is to do it whatever the circumstances. Finally, everyone knows that it never rains but it pours, that problems and difficulties always come together. But every cloud has a silver lining – every misfortune has a good side.

b) Give at least fifteen examples of your own to illustrate the phraseological units in your list.

12. Complete the following similes. Translate the phraseological units into Russian. If necessary, use your dictionary.

A. as black as-- B.---- as a lion

as green as--- ---- as a lamb

as cold as--- ------------------- as a mouse

as white as--- as a cat

as old as--- --------------------- as a kitten

as changeable as-- as an eel

as safe a s-- ---- as an owl

as brown as-- ----------------- as a wolf

as clean as--- ---- as a cricket

as dull as--- -------------------- as a bee

13. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and classify them according to the semantic principle.

1. The operation started badly and everyone was in a temper throughout. 2.1 know a man who would love meeting you. The perfect nut for you to crack your teeth on. 3.I wish I had you for Maths (my favourite subject). But alas, we cannot have our cake and eat it too. 4. He said: "Well, never mind, Nurse. Don't make such heavy weather about it." 5. Did you know that 50% of the time I've been barking up all the wrong trees. 6. However, while appreciating that the best way to deal with a bully is to bully back, I never quite had the nerve. 7. What is it — First Aid? All you need know is how to treat shock and how to stop haemorrhage, which I've drummed into you till I'm blue in the face. 8. Don't let them (pupils) lead you by the nose. 9. But I thought he was afraid I might take him at his word. 10. Ruth made no bones about the time she was accus­tomed to have her dinner. 11. Poor Eleanor – what a mess she made of her life, marrying that man Grey! 12. There was a list of diets up in the kitchen, but Auntie had it all at her finger-tips.

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