Idioms. Idioms proper and their stylistic peculiarities. Deformation of idioms
Idioms are word-combinations or multi-word units (the term in the British tradition) which reveal in their semantic and syntactic structure the specific and peculiar properties of a given language.
In this broad meaning "idiom" stands for both "habitual" or "restricted collocation" and what in the Russian tradition has been described as "фразеологическаяединица".
Фразеологическаяединицалишенаобразности, идиомаимеетобраз.
The difference between the two is the degree of idiomaticity. Some word-combinations appear to be more literal in meaning than others. This finds reflection in current terminology:
"Idioms vary from being opaque (непрозрачные) in their meaning (to kick the bucket contains no clues as to its idiomatic meaning of to die), to being semi-opaque (to pass the buck can be paraphrased)
- to being relatively transparent (to see the light meaning to understand) is a phrase most learners English do not find too bewildering" (McCarthy, 1990)
-Idiom is a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words.
- idiomatic- containing expressions that are natural to a native speaker of a language. Oxford advanced learner's dictionary.
- she was angry with me. She tore me off a strip.
Key characteristics of idioms:
- unchanged in form and meaning
- senses can no longer be traced
- stored and recalled as wholes
- remain in constant circulation over considerable periods
18th century
Samuel Johnson, Introduction to "A dictionary of the English language"- первыйавторсловаря
- the intention to exclude from his dictionary words and word-combinations which can be described as belonging to "spoken (colloquial) English" and idioms proper which were declared by him as contradicting the laws of logic and common sense.
19th century
T. Hardy's "The writer and his background"
- idioms were not viewed as "barbarisms " any longer but, on the contrary, were considered to be the elements that reflected the worldview of this or that nation.
20th century
E. Partridge's A dictionary of clichés.
D. Crystal. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language.
- some of the modern English authors regard idioms as banal phrases which ceased to be original and either avoided or refashioned.
- traditional proverbs and sayings, downgraded from their canonical or earliest forms to lower-level grammatical units: a compound sentence to a single clause, or a clause to a group:
Man proposes, but God disposes.
One man's meat another man's poison.
Too many cooks (spoil the broth)
A stitch in time (saves nine)
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Deformation of idioms
Shortening
- a bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush)
- birds of a feather (flock together)
- don't count one's chickens (before they're hatched)
Replacement
- a drowning man will clutch at a straw
Clutch/grasp at straws
- it's the (last) straw that breaks the camel's back
That last straw/final straw
CLASSIFICATION
Phraseological units (idioms) can be classified according to the ways they are formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning, according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.
WAYS OF FORMING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed out primary andsecondary ways of forming phraseological units. Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit isformed on the basis of a free word-group :
a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups, e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases: «launching pad» in its terminological meaning is «стартоваяплощадка» , in its transferred meaning - «отправнойпункт», «to link up» - «cтыковаться, стыковатькосмическиекорабли» in its tranformed meaning it means -«знакомиться»;
b) A large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups by transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «пансионатдляпрестарелых», «Troyan horse» - «компьюторнаяпрограмма, преднамеренносоставленнаядляповреждениякомпьютера»;
c) Phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a sad sack» - «несчастныйслучай», «culture vulture» - «человек, интересующийсяискусством», «fudge and nudge» - «уклончивость».
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d) They can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !»etc
e) They can be formed by means of distorting a word group, e.g. «odds and ends» was formed from «odd ends»,
f) They can be formed by using archaisms, e.g. «in brown study» means «in gloomy meditation» where both components preserve their archaic meanings,
g) They can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life, e.g. «that cock won’t fight» can be used as a free word-group when it is used in sports (cock fighting ), it becomes a phraseological unit when it is used in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,
h) They can be formed when we use some unreal image, e.g. «to have butterflies in the stomach» - «испытыватьволнение», «to have green fingers» - «преуспеватькаксадовод-любитель» etc.
i) They can be formed by using expressions of writers or polititions in everyday life, e.g. «locust years» (Churchil) , «the winds of change» (Mc Millan).
Secondaryways of forming phraseological units are those when a phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit; they are:
a) Conversion, e.g. «to vote with one’s feet» was converted into «vote with one’s f eet»;
b) Changing the grammar form, e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines» is transferred into a verbal phrase - «to make hay while the sun shines»;
c) Analogy, e.g. «Curiosity killed the cat» was transferred into «Care killed the cat»;
d) Contrast, e.g. «cold surgery» - «a planned before operation» was formed by contrasting it with «acute surgery», «thin cat» - «a poor person» was formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;
e) Shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the meaning «ошибаться».
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f) Borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the bull by the horns» (Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche» (French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc.
Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style and are not used very often.
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