phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top
units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only
one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with
compound words because in compound words we usually have two root
morphemes.
Among one-top units he points out three structural types;
a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to
art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich
in etc.;
b) units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the
Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositons with
them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or
«with», e.g. to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc.
There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type
«to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference
between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attribute and
as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units
can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar
centre and the second component is the semantic centre;
c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are
equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs ,
that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the
nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in
the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the
course of time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.
Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural
types:
a) attributive-nominal such as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a
millstone round one’s neck and many others. Units of this type are noun
equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic
units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high
road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night.
In many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley,
bed of nail, shot in the arm and many others.
b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines , to
speak BBC, to sweep under the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units
is the verb, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component,
e.g. to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the
semantic centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly
idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats,to vote with one’s feet, to
take to the cleaners’ etc.
Very close to such units are word-groups of the type to have a glance, to
have a smoke. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a
special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.
c) phraseological repetitions, such as : now or never, part and parcel ,
country and western etc. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and
downs , back and forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g
cakes and ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by
means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives
and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic,
e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter (perfectly).
Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more than two
tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a
thing on, lock, stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at
one’s own sweet will.
SYNTACTICAL CLASSIFICATION
OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Phraseological units can be clasified as parts of speech. This
classification was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following
groups:
a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g.
bullet train, latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,
b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to
break the log-jam, to get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to
nose out , to make headlines,
c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose,
dull as lead ,
d) adverb phraseological units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like
a dream , like a dog with two tails,
e) preposition phraseological units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke
of ,
f) interjection phraseological units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!»
etc.
In I.V.Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents,
proverbs, sayings and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes
him tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too many
cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule non-metaphorical, e.g.
«Where there is a will there is a way».
BORROWINGS
Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English
throughout its history More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are
borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French,
Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their
phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their
grammatical forms. It is also characterisitic of borrowings to be non-
motivated semantically.
English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other
countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion,
the adoption of Cristianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the
British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and
cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The
majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their
pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from
native words.
English continues to take in foreign words , but now the quantity of
borrowings is not so abundunt as it was before. All the more so, English
now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva franca of the
twentieth century.
Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:
a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,
b) according to the degree of assimilation,
c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.
(In this classification only the main languages from which words were
borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian.
Spanish, German and Russian.)
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE BORROWED ASPECT
There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans,
semantic borrowings, morphemic borrowings.
Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages, they are
called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling,
pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in
the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the
borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of
the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often
influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm
of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also
changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic
borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic
borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from
Italian etc.
Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme )
translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion
is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical
units, «to take the bull by the horns» (Latin), «fair sex» ( French),
«living space» (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in English
from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday (solis dies).
There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: «pipe
of peace», «pale-faced», from German «masterpiece», «homesickness»,
«superman».
Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit
existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two
relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g.
there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the
meaning «to live» for the word «to dwell’ which in Old English had the
meaning «to wander». Or else the meaning «дар» , «подарок» for the word
«gift» which in Old English had the meaning «выкуп за жену».
Semantic borrowing can appear when an English word was borrowed into some
other language, developed there a new meaning and this new meaning was
borrowed back into English, e.g. «brigade» was borrowed into Russian and
formed the meaning «a working collective«,»бригада». This meaning was
borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true of the
English word «pioneer».
Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the
language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one
language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words
becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can
find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is
why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes
have different origin, e.g. «goddess», «beautiful» etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF ASSIMILATION
The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following
factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word
belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language
belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is borrowed:
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