Peculiar Use of Set Expressions
A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. It has lost its precise meaning by constant reiteration: in other words it has become stereotyped. Cliche is a kind of stable word combination which has become familiar and which has been accepted as a unit of a language: e.g. rosy dreams of youth, growing awareness.
Proverbs are short, well-known, supposedly wise sayings, usually in simple language. E.g. Never say never. You can't get blood of a stone.
Proverbs are expressions of culture that are passed from generation to generation. They are words of wisdom of culture - lessons that people of that culture want their children to learn and to live by. They are served as some symbols, abstract ideas. Proverbs are usually dedicated and involve imagery. E.g. Out of sight, out of mind.
Epigram is a short clever amusing saying or poem. E.g. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Quotation is a phrase or sentence taken from a work of literature or other piece of writing and repeated in order to prove a point or support an idea. They are marked graphically: by inverted commas: dashes, italics: All hope abandon, ye who enter (Dante)
Allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of the reader or listener. “ You too, Brutus?” (Shakespeare)
Proverbs, sayings, quotations, allusions and paradoxes are based on the interplay of primary and secondary meanings being also a variety of occasional PU: “to drop a handkerchief and relations”.
Paradox is a statement which though it appears to be self-contradictory, nevertheless involves truth or at least an element of truth. – O. Wilde’s paradoxes: “It’s simply washing one’s clean linen in public”.
Occasional PU are often used in the language of advertising - Our Love is Blinds (Love is blind); Sofa, So Good! (So far, so good); Smirnoff’s Silver is for people who want a silver lining without the cloud. (Every cloud has a silver lining).
Stylistic functions of PU:
a) Compressing information; “ The Moon and Sixpence”, a bird in the hand, birds of feather.
b) Foregrounding some elements, creating a comic effect: to drop a handkerchief and relations.
c) Expressing the message of the book; “ In Chancery”, To Let”, “The Silver Spoon”.
d) Motivating the events: “ Murder is out ” in Jolion’s letter to his son.
e) Characterizing personages, events, etc.: “He was a jolly good fellow: no side or anything like that, he could never set the Thames on fire… they were quite content to give a leg up to a man who would never climb as high as to be an obstacle to themselves”.(S.Mau occasional gham)
f) Creating a comic, ironical, satirical effect: “Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay, if your enemy doesn’t get you, your own folk may”. (J.Thurber)
Seminar 4
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