XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

A phraseological unit is “a block longer than one word, yet functioning as a whole. It is a semantically and structurally integral lexical collocation, partially or completely different from the meaning of its components” [2, p. 6] Its main characteristic feature is that its meaning can’t infer from the sum of its components because each PU is characterized by a certain degree of cohesion or semantic integrity.

There exist different classifications of PU. According to I.R. Galperin’s classification of the English vocabulary all the PU can be subdivided into neutral, literary and non-literary PU [1, p. 72].

The peculiar use of set expressions

The peculiar use of set expressions can also be called stylistic phraseology or phraseological stylistics, as it studies phraseological units in their unusual use in the text (the term “phraseology” was suggested by Soviet scholars in honor of the Swiss linguist Shales Bally, who introduced the term "phraseology" as a branch of stylistics dealing with coherent phrases and word combinations). In Western linguistic schools the corresponding term "idiomaticity" is used instead of it.

All types of set phrases (phraseological units, or PU) generally have the property of expressiveness. The field of phraseology or idiomatics in any language is so diverse and fascinating that you can spend a lifetime analyzing it and considering it from different points of view. In linguistics phraseology describes the context in which a word is used. This often includes typical usages / sequences such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and multi-word units.

A phraseological unit or idiom is a ready-made combination of words that is reproduced in speech as a whole. Permanent features are:

• Linguistic stability

• Semantic unity

• Intact syntactic structure

In other words, a phraseological unit is a fixed word-combination in which the meaning of the whole does not depend on the meaning of its components.

In language studies there are two very clearly-marked tendencies that the student should never lose sight of, particularly when dealing with the problem of word-combination. They are the analytical tendency, which seeks to dissever one component from another, and the synthetic tendency which seeks to integrate the parts of the combination into a stable unit.

These two tendencies are treated in different ways in lexicology and stylistics. In lexicology the parts of a stable lexical unit may be separated in order to make a scientific investigation of the character of the combination and to analyse the components. In stylistics we analyse the component parts in order to get at some communicative effect sought by the writer. It is this communicative effect and the means employed to achieve it that lie within the domain of stylistics.

Also the integrating tendency is closely studied in the realm of lexicology, especially when linguistic scholars seek to fix what seems to be a stable word-comb in at ion and ascertain the degree of its stability, its variants and so on. The integrating tendency is also within the domain of stylistics, particularly when the word-combination has not yet formed itself as a lexical unit but is in the process of being so formed.

Here we are faced with the problem of what is called the cliché.

The cliché is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. It is generally used in a negative context and expressed by idioms.

Practically all tropes tend to lose their imaginative power, or part of their imaginative power thus becoming trite, but often they retain their emotional colouring.

In other words, the cliché is a kind of stable word combination which has become familiar, has won general recognition and which by its iteration has been accepted as a unit of the language. E.g. rosy dreams of youth, deceptively simple, the march of science, rising expectations, growing awareness, to see things through rose-coloured glasses.

The effects achieved by using clichés include besides expressing emotions or attitudes, also evaluation and brevity.

The cliché applies also to almost any situation, subject, characterization, figure of speech, or object – in short, any sign – that has become overly familiar or commonplace. Because the novelty or frequency of an expression's use varies across different times and places, whether or not it is a cliché depends largely on who uses it, the context in which it is used, and who is making the judgment. E.g. times are changing, as easy as a piece of cake, as wet as blood, as clear as day.

The examples above also represent a special kind of simile – equatives (comparative structures of an equal degree of the quality involved).

The meaning of a particular cliché may shift over time, often leading to confusion or misuse.

List of references:

Galperin I. R. – English Stylistics, M.: Либpoком, 2014

Кунин А.В. – Курс фразеологии современного английского языка: Учеб. для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз.– 2-е изд., перераб.– М.: Высш. шк., 1996

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