Ways of forming phraseological units

A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed, pointing out primary and secondary ways of forming phraseological units.

Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is formed 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. launching pad, to link up;

b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word-groups by transforming their meaning, e.g. granny farm, Troyan horse;

c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration, e.g. a sad sack, culture vulture, fudge and nudge;

d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. My aunt! Hear, hear!;

e) by means of distorting a word group, e.g. odds and ends;

f) by using archaisms,e.g. in brown study;

g) by using a sentence in a different sphere of life,e.g. that cock won’t fight;

h) by using some unreal image,e.g. to have butterflies in the stomach, to have green fingers;

i) by using expressions of writers or politicians in everyday life,e.g. corridors of power, American dream, the winds of change).

Secondary ways 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 → vote with one’s feet;

b) changing the grammar form, e.g. make hay while the sun shines → to make hay while the sun shines;

c) analogy, e.g. curiosity killed the cat → care killed the cat

d) contrast, e.g. acute surgery → cold surgery;

e) shortening of proverbs and sayings, e.g. you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear → a sow’s ear;

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, e.g. sotto voce (Italian), corpse d’elite (French).

ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MODERN ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Outline

Etymological characteristics of the English vocabulary.

Words of native origin.

The foreign component in the English vocabulary.

Assimilation of borrowings.

Etymological doublets.