Contents

Introduction. 3

Chapter I  Definition of phraseological units and the set phrases. 5

1.1 Definition of phrases and their classification. 5

1.2 Definition of phraseological units and classification. 8

Chapter II Translation of the set phrases and phraseological units. 14

2.1 The Difficulties of Translation of the Set phrases and phraseological units. 14

2.2 Analysis of translation of the set phrases and phraseological units from English into Russian. 17

Conclusion. 20

Bibliography. 22

Chapter I  Definition of phraseological units and the set phrases. 

1.1 Definition of phrases and their classification

Great work in the field of phraseology has been done by the outstanding Russian linguist A. Shakhmatov in his work «Syntax» [2, p.357]. This work was continued by academician V.V. Vinogradov [3]. Great investigations of English phraseology were done by Professor A. Koonin, I. Arnold and others.

Shanskiy said that a clear definition of phraseological unit (another name phraseologism) cannot be provided without differentiating it with simple word and free word combination. As we know there are different combinations of words in language system, some of them are free, others are fixed, limited in their combinative power. A free word combination is a syntactical unit, which consists notional and form words, and in which notional words have the function of independent parts of the sentence. The combinations of words which are fixed (set-expressions) are called phraseological units [4].

According to Shanskiy, phraseological units have a fixed semantic meaning and structure. P.U. is built by the components which stay in a strict order, however some of them can change the order of their components. For example, Russian phraseologisms сгореть со стыда - со стыда сгореть, тянуть волынку - волынку тянуть, etc. Both of these variants can be used in the speech. Shanskiy differentiate P.U. from words and free word combination by its feature of having impermeable composition or structure. Words consist of morphemes and phraseologisms consist of components, carrying words character.  Words grammatically are uniformed and phraseological units are separately formed.

In a phraseological unit words are not independent. They form set-expressions, in which neither words nor the order of words can be changed. Free combinations are created by the speaker. Phraseological units are used by the speaker in a ready form, without any changes. The whole phraseological unit has a meaning which may be quite different from the meaning of its components, and therefore the whole unit, and not separate words, has the function of a part of the sentence.

Difference in terminology («set-phrases», «idioms» and «word-equivalents») reflects certain differences in the main criteria used to distinguish types of phraseological units and free word-groups. The habitual terms «set-phrases», «idioms», «word-equivalents» are sometimes treated differently by different linguists. However these terms reflect to certain extend the main debatable points of phraseology which centre in the divergent views concerning the nature and essential features of phraseological units as distinguished from the so-called free word-groups.

The term «set phrase» (expression) implies that the basic criterion of differentiation is stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure of word-groups.

The term «word-equivalent» stresses not only semantic but also functional inseparability of certain word-groups, their aptness to function in speech as single words.

The term «idioms» generally implies that the essential feature of the linguistic units under consideration is idiomaticity or lack of motivation. Uriel Weinreich[5] expresses his view that an idiom is a complex phrase, the meaning of which cannot be derived from the meanings of its elements. He developed a more truthful supposition, claiming that an idiom is “a subset of a phraseological unit”. Ray Jackendoff and Charles Fillmore offered a fairly broad definition of the idiom, which, in Fillmore’s words, reads as follows: «…an idiomatic expression or construction is something a language user could fail to know while knowing everything else in the language» [6]. Chafe also lists four features of idioms that make them anomalies in the traditional language unit paradigm:

- non-compositionality

- transformational defectiveness

- ungrammaticality

- frequency asymmetry

Being the object of the research of phraseology, phraseological units, having been studied by different names as: “indissoluble combinations”, “fixed combinations” or “set expressions” [7]. A. V. Koonin, Koonin defined phraseological units as “stable word-groups with partially or fully transferred meanings” [8, p.160].