According to the semantic feature, the ready-made phraseological units, idioms, have nearly nothing to do with their separate components; the meaning of such a unit is entirely new, and the current meanings of the constituents far removed . Such an example is:
To say black is white
This idiom means ‘to lie’. It has absolutely nothing in common with its constituents and if we try to understand its meaning according to them, we shall misunderstand it.
Academician Vinogradov described the semantic change as a meaning which results from a peculiar chemical combination of words. (Arnold I. V.)
This seems a really nice comparison because an entirely new quality comes into existence. The semantic shift affecting phraseological units does not consist in a mere change of meanings of each separate constituent part of the unit. The meanings of the constituents merge to produce an entirely new meaning. Another example is:
Put in the red
According to the separate components, we can’t guess the real meaning of the idiom, but due to these constituents we have an entirely new meaning, that is, 'to brust, to lose everything'.
Phraseological units are characterized by unity and they have been defined as word- groups conveying a single notion whereas in free word-groups each meaningful component stands for a separate notion. And it is this characteristic that makes words and phraseological units similar to each other; both of them possess semantic unity. But words unlike phraseological units, are also characterized by structural unity and this feature evidently lacks in phraseological units.
A phraseologial unit is a stable word-group characterized by completely or partially transferred meaning. According to the definition, the semantic degree in phraseological unit may vary; it may be either completely or partially transferred. This means that semantic change can affect either the whole word-group or only one of its constituents. An example of the first type is the following:
Mark a day with a white stone
In this phraseological unit the semantic change has affected the whole word-group, which means 'To consider the day a remarkable one' whereas in 'Mark a day with a white chalk' the meaning is changed and we comrehand it literally.
The second type is represented by phraseological units in which one of the constituents preserves its primary meaning and the other one is used in a transferred meaning:
The blackest day of my life
This idiom means ‘to lie’. It has absolutely nothing in common with its constituents and if we try to understand its meaning according to them, we shall misunderstand it.
Academician Vinogradov described the semantic change as a meaning which results from a peculiar chemical combination of words. (Arnold I. V.)
This seems a really nice comparison because an entirely new quality comes into existence. The semantic shift affecting phraseological units does not consist in a mere change of meanings of each separate constituent part of the unit. The meanings of the constituents merge to produce an entirely new meaning. Another example is:
Put in the red
According to the separate components, we can’t guess the real meaning of the idiom, but due to these constituents we have an entirely new meaning, that is, 'to brust, to lose everything'.
Phraseological units are characterized by unity and they have been defined as word- groups conveying a single notion whereas in free word-groups each meaningful component stands for a separate notion. And it is this characteristic that makes words and phraseological units similar to each other; both of them possess semantic unity. But words unlike phraseological units, are also characterized by structural unity and this feature evidently lacks in phraseological units.
A phraseologial unit is a stable word-group characterized by completely or partially transferred meaning. According to the definition, the semantic degree in phraseological unit may vary; it may be either completely or partially transferred. This means that semantic change can affect either the whole word-group or only one of its constituents. An example of the first type is the following:
Mark a day with a white stone
In this phraseological unit the semantic change has affected the whole word-group, which means 'To consider the day a remarkable one' whereas in 'Mark a day with a white chalk' the meaning is changed and we comrehand it literally.
The second type is represented by phraseological units in which one of the constituents preserves its primary meaning and the other one is used in a transferred meaning:
The blackest day of my life
Here the words ‘day’ and ‘life’ are used in their direct meanings which help the understanding of the idiom, while ‘black’ is used metaphorically due to its symbolic meaning in culture.
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