Classification of phraseological units

A.I. Smirnitsky offered a classification which combines structural and semantic approaches. Phraseological units in this classification are grouped according to the number of significant elements. Two large groups were established: a) one-summit units with one meaningful constituent: to give up, to be lifted; and b) two- or multi-summit units with two or more meaningful parts: black art; first night, common sense.

Then, within each of these large groups of phraseological units they are further classified according to the part-of-speech meaning of the summit member into verbal-adverbial ( to give up ); verbal adjectival ( to be tired ); prepositional-substantitive ( by heart ), attributive-substantitive units ( black art ), and others.

A.I. Smirnitsky also distinguished between proper phraseological units with non-figurative meaning and idioms, which are metaphorical.

A.V. Kunin worked out the most comprehensive classification of phraseological units and combined structural-semantic principles of classification, quotient of stability of phraseological units and their functions in communication. His classification needs a special analysis, here only the most important features of this theory are mentioned.

From the point of view of the function that phraseological units perform in speech, he subdivided them into the following four major classes:

1) nominative that perform nominating function; they are utterances below the level of a sentence( to breath one’s last ‘to die’, Hobson’s choice ‘no alternative; take what you are offered or none at all’, off colour ‘not in the usual form’, safe and sound, see how the land lies, wear and fear );

2) communicative that convey the thought; they include proverbs and sayings: It is as broad as it is long ‘it is the same whichever way you view it’ A cheerful wife is the joy of life; A hungry man is an angry man; A fool may make money but it takes a wise man to spend it; Fingers were made before forks; He is the richest that has fewest wants; and If a man deceived me once, shame on him; if twice, shame on me;

3) nominative-communicative word groups that normally perform anominating function but only slight transformations in grammar make them perform a communicative function( to break the ice – the ice is broken; to square the circle ‘to attempt something impossible’— the circle is squared );

4) interjectional phraseological unitsthat mainlyexpress emotions ( Well, I’ll never! By George! It’s a pretty kettle of fish! ).

He was also the first to apply in practice theoretical principles to the choice and classification of phraseological units. They helped to determine which units are to be included and how they should be presented in an entry. The first edition of his Англо-русский фразеологический словарь (English-Russian Phraseological Dictionary) was in 1955. The second (1956), the third (1967), the fourth (1984) and the fifth (1998) editions are improved in selection, systematic analysis and descriptive precision.

In his dictionary A.V. Kunin is careful to limit coverage of restricted collocations to those that allow no or minimal variation (e.g . the naked truth; ask/look for trouble ).

At the same time he distinguishes several types of phraseological variants:

lexical ( to bear/give/lend a hand; not to lift/raise/stir/turn a finger );

grammatical ( in deep water/waters; Damocles’ sword/the sword of Damocles );

lexical-grammatical ( close/shut a/the door );

positional ( head over ears/over head and ears );

orthographical ( hand in glove/hand-in-glove ) and some others.

In cases when variation involves fundamental structural and semantic differences they are regarded as members of the same phraseological series and are treated as distinct entries each having their own number (for example, C 179. care killed a/the cat, C 270. a cat has nine lives, C 280. a cat with nine lives, C 290. have as many lives as a cat, C 314. cat and dog existence ).

A.V. Kunin’s dictionary arranges phraseological units according to the pivotal word – the central and invariable component of the word group which is determined by a number of principles. To facilitate use of the dictionary, all phraseological units are also listed in alphabetical order with the index of their entry in the dictionary. Thus, in the alphabetical list of the included word groups the phraseological unit misfortunes never come alone/singly ) has the index number M-811. This index number means that phraseological unit is to be found in the dictionary under the letter M in entry 811, and the letter M indicates that the pivotal word here is misfortunes.

As A.P. Cowie remarks, “despite its limitations, which arise chiefly from the difficulties experienced by the compiler in gaining access to up-to-date texts and, in particular, modern non-literary material, the English-Russian Phraseological Dictionary is a meticulous work of scholarship and a model of theory-driven lexicography” /Cowie 1998: 220/.

The first (and probably the best), large-scale, theoretically grounded English phraseological dictionary compiled by native speakers is the Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English (1975, 1983)by A.P. Cowie, R. Mackin and I.R. McCaig. Like A.V. Kunin’s Dictionary it contains a theoretical section where the authors explain how word groups – candidates for inclusion – were accessed, and which framework of categories of phraseological units ( composites and functional expressions ) the authors followed.

The composites and functional expressions were subdivided according to the degree of idiomaticity and called pure idioms with totatllytransferred and hardly deducible meanings ( spill the beans ‘to tell a secret too soon or to the wrong person’), figurative idioms in which interpretation ofmetaphormay restore the meaning of the phrase( a clean sheet ‘a good reputation’) and restricted collocations without a metaphor ( a safe job ). In the list of restricted collocationsthe authors included only the entirely invariable items ( to break one’s journey, a safe job ) or items with limited valence ( to do the necessary/needful ).

Another characteristic of the dictionary is that the compilers provide lexical and grammatical information about internal and external valence and variability of phraseological units. For example, they use special conventions to signal that the figurative idiom hold water ‘to be sound, valid’ is usually preceded by the subjects theory, argument, explanation, reason, excuse, belief, need. This information is of great value for a non-native speaker, it helps to use phraseological units with confidence.

The most comprehensive Russian-English Dictionary of Idioms by Sophia Lubensky, edited by Random House in1995, is also compiled under the influence of A.V. Kunin’s theory. It presents some 13, 000 traditional Russian idioms and combines features of translation and learner’s dictionaries. It uses the term ‘idiom’ in its wider sense treating it like a ‘phraseological unit’.

The most common 500 proverbs and sayings used in Russian and Soviet fiction literature in the 19^th – 20^th centuries and in oral communication with their English equivalents are presented in the Русско-английский словарь пословиц и поговорок by S.S. Kuzmin and N.L. Shadrin /1996/. The dictionary is richly illustrated with quotations.

Further reading:

Амосова Н.Н. Основы английской фразеологии. – Л.: Изд-во Ленинградского университета, 1968.

Англо-русский словарь глагольных словосочетаний (English-Russian Dictionary of Verbal Collocations) /Под редакцией Э.М.Медниковой. – М.: Русский язык, 1986.

Виноградов В.В. Лексикология и лексикография. Избранные труды. – М.: Наука, 1977.

Кузьмин, С.С., Шадрин Н.Л. Русско-английский словарь пословиц и поговорок. – Спб.: МИК/Лань, 1996.

Кунин А.В. Английская фразеология. – М.: Высшая школа, 1970.

Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. – М.: Советская Энциклопедия, 1984.

Кунин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа, 1986.

Телия В.Н. Типы языковых значений. Связанное значение слова в языке. – М.: Наука, 1981.

Шадрин Н.Л. Перевод фразеологических единиц и сопоставительная стилистика. – Саратов, Изд-во Саратовского университета, 1991.

Benson M., Benson E., Ilson R. The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English. – Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company, 1986; M.: Русский язык, 1990.

Cowie A.P., Mackin R. Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English. – Oxford: OUP, v.1-2, 1984.

Idioms: structural and psychological perspectives (ed. by Martin Everaert, et al.) – Hillsdale, New Jersey: LEA, 1995.

Lubensky, Sophia. Russian-English Dictionary of Idioms. – New York: Random House, 1995.

Phraseology (Ed. by A.P. Cowie). – Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

Chapter 7. SEMANTIC RELATIONS OF WORDS AND STRUCTURE
OF THE ENGLISH LEXICON

You shall know a word by the company it keeps.

— J.R. Firth

Most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another.

— O. Henry