ILMIY VA PROFESSIONAL TA’LIM JARAYONIDA MULOQOT, FAN VA MADANIYATLAR
INTEGRATSIYASI
21
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
TYPES OF PROTOTYPES OF THE ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
AND THEIR REINTERPRETED MEANING
Nasrullaeva Nafisa Zafarovna
Doctor of philological sciences (DSc), professor of
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign languages
Abstract.
The present article is devoted to investigation of 4 types of prototypes of the
English phraseological units and their semantic meaning. Attention is paid to linguistic and
extralinguistic factors of the formation of semantic meaning of phraseological units. Theoretical
content of the article is proved by numerous examples.
Key words:
phraseological unit, semantic meaning, prototype, inner shape, plan of
expression, linguistic factor, extralinguistic factors.
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set expressions,
which name various objects and phenomena. They exist in the language as ready-made units. We
can’t change their structure and replace their components.
It is known that phraseology is considered as a science that studies the meaning, form and
use of permanent combinations of verbal signs that exist in a given language and function in the
speech of its speakers, as well as limitations in the compatibility of words and verbal meanings
that create these combinations [3]. Moreover, "winged words", proverbs and sayings, fairy-tale
formulas, historical aphorisms and other diverse creative works, only decomposing into elements,
losing the structural features of the genre, becoming like structural phraseological units, become
the property of the phraseology of the language itself. A.V. Kunin [2] believes: "A
phraseological unit is a stable combination of words, with a fully or partially reinterpreted
meaning." A PhU has a different set of categorical features than a word. These signs are as
follows: a) lexical meaning; b) component composition and c) grammatical categories.
There are some other terms: set-expressions, set-phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups,
collocations
.
Famous Russian scholar in the aspect of phraseology A.V. Kunin created English-
Russian phraseological dictionary which is still actual and useful [1]. He pointed that a
phraseological unit is a fixed expression with a transformed meaning.
Sometimes the structure and components of phraseological unit can be similar with the free word
combination. The difference is – transformed meaning and fixed structure.
Compare for example:
Golden ring and golden hands
Wooden table and wooden head.
Sometimes components of phraseological units and word combinations can be the same:
Red coat / red coat
. Phraseological unit “red coat” means an English soldier.
For actualization of meaning we need a context. This red coat matches your red boots.
Here we have free word combination.
English army had sent several hundreds of “red coats” to the west of the country. Here we
have phraseological unit.
As white as snow / as white as snow
. Phraseological unit “as white as snow” means an
innocent person who is not guilty in something, decent and good-natured person. Compare the
contexts:
I can’t believe he has done this. He is as white as snow. (phraseological unit)
Her wedding dress was as white as snow. (word combination)
Free word-groups are so called not because of any absolute freedom in using them but
simply because they are each time built up anew in the speech process whereas idioms are used
as ready-made units with fixed and constant structures.
ILMIY VA PROFESSIONAL TA’LIM JARAYONIDA MULOQOT, FAN VA MADANIYATLAR
INTEGRATSIYASI
22
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
The essential features of PU are:
1) stability of the lexical components;
2) transferred meaning.
A dark horse
is actually not a horse but a person about whom no one knows anything
definite.
A bull in a china shop
: the idiom describes a clumsy person.
A white elephant –
it is a waste of money because something is completely useless.
The green-eyed monster
is jealousy, the image being drawn from Othello.
To let the cat out of the bag
:
to let some secret become known.
The ambiguity of these interesting word-groups may lead to an amusing
misunderstanding, especially for children who are apt to accept words at their face value. Let’s
analyze the context:
- Little Johnnie (crying):
Mummy, mummy, my auntie Jane is dead.
- Mother:
Nonsense, child! She phoned me 5 minutes ago
.
- Little Johnnie:
But I heard Mrs. Brown say that her neighbours
cut her dead
.
To cut somediv dead
means ‘to rudely ignore somediv; to pretend not to know or
recognize him’.
Puns are frequently based on the ambiguousness of idioms:
-
Isn’t our Kate a marvel! I wish you could have seen her at the Harrisons’ party
yesterday. If I’d collected
the bricks she dropped
all over the place, I could built a villa’.
To drop a brick
means ‘to say unintentionally a quite indiscreet or tactless thing that
shocks and offended people’.
There are four types of prototypes – speech, language, extra-linguistic and mixed, and
internal forms – simple and complex. This classification is based on a single principle, since the
material on the basis of which the phraseology arose is taken into account.
Speech and language prototypes correspond to a simple or complex internal form, while
non–linguistic ones correspond only to a complex one.
The phrases that go back to speech prototypes include phrases with a transparent inner
form:
burn one's fingers
– "burn yourself on something";
the cat among the pigeons
– "cat in the
dovecote", "making a commotion";
flog a dead horse –
"quilting a dead horse", "doing useless
business".
The internal form is peculiar not only to PhU with the structure of the phrase, but also
with the structure of the sentence, going back to variable phrases [4].
So, at the heart of the playful phraseology
the old woman is picking her geese
– "it's snowing" is
the image of an old woman plucking geese.
The PhU
that cock won't fight
- "this number won't pass" is based on the image of a
rooster who does not want to fight. The internal form of the PhU
doctors differ (or disagree
) –
"the opinions of the authors differ" is based on a figurative rethinking of the situation in which
the doctors could not come to a consensus.
Language prototypes include PhU, from which other PhU are formed. So, PhU
the last
straw
– "the last drop (overflows the cup) comes from the proverb
It is the last straw that breaks
the camel's back
– "the last straw breaks the camel's back" = "the last drop overflows the cup".
Thus, the internal form of the last straw is complicated, as it arises as a result of the interaction of
explicit, i.e. mediated by the proverb, elements of the last straw and implicit elements of breaks
the camel's back.
A similar phenomenon is observed in the PhU
make hay
– "to use a convenient moment"
(part of the proverb
make hay while the sun shines
= "braid the braid while the dew is";
an old
bird
– "old sparrow" (part of the proverb old birds are not to be caught with chaff – "you can't
hold an old sparrow on chaff), etc. The internal form in the above PhU is multicomponent.
Non-linguistic prototypes include various extralinguistic factors with which they are
connected by derivational relations. Such factors preceding the appearance of the PhU include
legends, beliefs, traditions of the English people, etc.
ILMIY VA PROFESSIONAL TA’LIM JARAYONIDA MULOQOT, FAN VA MADANIYATLAR
INTEGRATSIYASI
23
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Let's give an example:
be born within the sound of Bow bells –
"to be born in London"
(St. Mary-le-Bow church, famous for its bell ringing, is located in the center of London);
have
kissed the Blarney stone
– to be a flatterer (according to tradition, everyone who kissed a stone
located in Blarney Castle in Ireland received the gift of flattering speech) [5].
Mixed prototypes, i.e. intrastructural and interstructural, include PhU, ascending to a
particular text, from which other PhU are formed by updating phraseological derivation. So, PhU
girl Friday
"assistant", "reliable employee", "right hand" (special. about the secretary girl) is
formed by analogy with a person, Friday is "faithful servant" (after the name of the faithful
servant in D. Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe") [5].
Thus, in the sphere of phraseology, the internal form is inherent only in motivated
phraseological units and is no longer felt in phraseological mergers. The motivation of the
phraseological meaning is understood as its synchronous connection with the semantics of the
prototype. The disappearance of one or another reality, situation violates the derivational
connection between the PhU and its prototype, which denoted this reality, which leads to the
oblivion of the inner form, i.e. to its demotivation.
Literature
:
1.
Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. – Изд. 3-е, испр., в двух книгах.
– Москва: СЭ, 1967. – Т.1. – 738 с.; Т.2. – 739 - 1264 с.
2.
Кунин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. – Дубна: Феникс+,
2005. – 488 с.
3.
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д-ра филол. наук. – Ташкент, 1999. – 56 с.
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Collins V.H. A Book of English Idioms. With Explanations. – London:
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6.
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