PART B: LEXICOLOGY-SEMANTICS

(5 hours of teaching + 5 hours of discussion and practice + 20 hours of self-study)

LECTURE 1: WORD STRUCTURE AND FORMATION

Objectives
The objective of the chapter is to help the learners revise all aspects of word
structure and the main ways of word formation.

1.1 The morpheme

The morpheme is the minimum/minimal meaningful unit of language.
e.g. teacher = teach + -er (meaningful)
teach => /t/ + /i:/ + /ts/ (meaningless)
There are two types of morpheme: the root morpheme and the affixal or affixational
morpheme.
The root morpheme (the lexical morpheme / the root / the stem): is the primary element of
the word and conveys its essential lexical meaning. The root remains after removing all the
other elements and cannot be analyzed any further.
e.g. bookish
helpful
un kind
The root is classified into:
 Free morphemes: function independently e.g. heart/y, read/able (heart, read: free
roots).
 Bound morphemes: cannot function independently. They are especially characteristic
of loan words.
e.g. bound root:
-clude in include, conclude, exclude
French: arrog- in arrogance
char- in charity
cour-in courage
cow- in coward

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The affixational morphemes are further divided into grammatical morphemes (also
inflection / ending) and derivational morpheme.
The grammatical morpheme (also inflection / ending) is used to create different forms
of the same word. It carries the grammatical meanings only, and is therefore, studied in
grammar.
e.g. -s in teacher/s
-ed in work/ed
-ingin working
-erin taller
The derivational morpheme carries both lexical and grammatical meaning (also called
lexico-grammatical morpheme).
The derivational morpheme is further subdivided, according to their position, into
prefixes, suffixes, and infixes:
Prefixes: un-, im-, dis-
Suffixes: -ness, -ful, -less, -ize
Infix: -n- (in stand), spokesman, statesman, sportsman, fisherman, washerman, doomsday
Based on word structure, words are divided into three types: simple words, derived words and
compound words.
- A simple word is one that only consists of a root morpheme (no derivational
morpheme), e.g. girl, teach, work, white.
- A derived word is one that consists of a root and one or more derivational morphemes:
teacher, worker, impression, modernization.
- A compound word is one that has at least two roots, with or without derivational
morphemes: blackboard, classroom, happy-go-lucky, lady-killer, dining-room, bluebell,
mother-in-law, good-for-nothing.

1.2 Word formation

Word formation is the process of building new words from the material already existing in the
language according to certain structural and semantic patterns and formulae. Below are
common ways of forming words in English.
1.2.1. Affixation: the formation of new words with the help of affixes. As affixes consist of
prefixes and suffixes, affixation is further divided into pre-fixation and suffixation.

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Pre-fixation is the formation of words by means of prefixes. This process mainly modifies the
lexical meaning of the root, and rarely forms new parts of speech:
happy (adj) – unhappy (adj)
do (v) – redo (v)
Suffixation is the formation of words by means of suffixes. The process changes the meaning
of the root, both lexically and grammatically.
Suffixation transfers words to different parts of speech:
beautiful (adj) à beautifully (adv)
modern (adj) à modernize (v)

1.2.2. Compounding/word composition

Compounding (word-composition) is the building of a new word by joining two or more
words. As a result, a compound word is a word consisting of at least two stems (roots) which
occur in the language as free forms.
e.g. classroom, time-table, bedroom, schoolgirl, passer-by, aircraft-carrier, kind-hearted,
handwash, sunbeam etc.
-The components of a compound may be either simple or derived words or even other
compound words.
A compound word may differ from a free word group phonologically, structurally,
semantically or graphically.
a. Phonological criterion:
-There is a marked tendency in English to give compounds a heavy stress on the first element
(determinant)
‘blackboard # ‘black ’board ‘blackbird # ‘black ‘bird
‘bluebottle # ‘blue ‘bottle ‘dancing girl # ‘dancing ‘girl
b. Inseparability criteria (criterion of structural integrity)
Compounds are indivisible. Between the elements of a compound word it is impossible to
insert any other words.
Raincoat, notice-board, identity-card, text-book, tallboy
c. Semantic criterion:
A compound word only expresses a single idea despite the fact that it consist of two or more
words.

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dirty work (dishonourable proceedings) (vs clean work, dry work: phrase)
blackmarket, redtape, greenhouse, bluebottle, lip-service, chatterbox, blackboard.
d. Graphic criterion (spelling criterion)
A compound is often spelt with a hyphen or with no separation at all: headmaster,
loudspeaker or head-master, loud-speaker, night-club

1.2.3. Shortening
Shortening is a productive way of building words in English, especially in colloquial speech
and advertisement.
e.g. ad (advertisement), TV, I.O.U.
Shortening includes abbreviation and blending.
Abbreviation includes acronyms and clipping
Acronyms are words built from the initials of several words.
the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
The UN (United Nations)
The UNO (United Nations Organization)
Clipping is further classified into Initial, Final, Initio-final, Medial, Elliptico-conversional
clipping
+ Initial clipping: the first part of the word is clipped.
Phone (telephone), cute (acute), fend (defend)
+ Final clipping: the last part of a word is clipped
doc (doctor), prof (professor), uni (university).
+ Initio-final clipping: both the first and the last parts are clipped:
frig/fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza), tec (detective)
+ Medial clipping: the medial part is clipped.
maths (mathematics), specs (spectacles)
+ Elliptico-conversional: (phrasal clipping): a combination of ellipsis, conversion and
clipping:
e.g. open on (open fire on), finals (final examinations), prelims (preliminary examinations)
Blending is one special type of shortening where parts of words merge into one new word.

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Breathalyzer (breath + analyzer)
Broasted (broiled + roasted)
Transistor (transistor +receiver)
Ecotecture (ecological architecture)

1.2.4. Conversion
(functional change/zero derivation)
Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speech without adding any
element.
e.g. chair (n)  to chair finger (n)  to finger
milk (n)  to milk water (n)  to water
Partial conversion: the building of some nouns from verbs:
Have a look / talk / smoke / dance / wash / a chat / a swim
Give a ring / kick / blow Give a jerk / a jump / a start
Take a ride / a walk / the lead Make a move / a dive
Substantivation: the formation of nouns from adjectives or the transition into nouns:
private (adj)  a private captive (adj)  a captive
conservative a conservative criminal a criminal
female a female
+ partial substantivation:
the old, the young, the dead, the dying, the living, the unemployed, the wounded, the lower-
paid.

1.2.5. Sound imitation

Sound imitation is the way of forming words by imitating sounds produced by actions, things
etc.
-Words showing animals: crow, cuckoo, humming bird, cricket.
-Words showing sounds made by animals: howl, quack, croak, mew, moo.
Words showing movement of water: flush, splash, babble.
-Words showing actions made by man: giggle, chatter, grumble, murmur,

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1.2.6. Back derivation (back formation)
Definition: Back derivation is the building of new words by subtracting a real or supposed
affix from existing words.
to beg from beggar to burgle from burglar
to cobble from cobbler to baby-sit from baby-sitter
to force-land from forced-landing

1.2.7. Sound and stress interchange

Sound interchange: New words are built by changing the root vowel or consonant of the old
words.
E.g. .food (n)  feed (v) (root vowel)
speak (v)  speech (n) (root consonant)
life (n)  live (v) (both)
Stress interchange: The new word is built by changing the place of the stress on the old one,
eg.
‘export (n)  to ex’port (v) ‘conduct (n)  to con’duct (v)
‘contrast (n)  to con’trast ‘convict (n)  to con’vict
‘digest (n)  to di’gest ‘essay (n)  to a’ssay

1.2.8. Word from names (metaphor and metonymy based words)

Jumbo: a huge elephant brought to the US

jumbo jet plane, jumbo cassette-recorder
Names of authors: Have you read Shakespeares?

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 LECTURE II: LEXICAL MEANING

Objectives
The objective of the chapter is to help the learners revisit major aspects of lexical
meanings.

2.1. Classification of meaning

Two kinds of meanings: Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning

 Lexical meaning is the realization of concept of emotion.

 Grammatical meaning is what unites words with different lexical meanings. It divides
words into groups with their own grammatical features, for example:
table, chair, bed, book …  singular nouns, common case
walk, go, run, eat,… verbs
There are two components of lexical meaning: Denotational meaning (denotation) and con-
notational meaning (connotation)
The denotative component expresses the conceptual (notional) content of a word. It includes
or points out things, concepts.
The connotative component shows us how things, concepts etc are indicated (denoted). It
conveys the speaker’s attitude, emotions and so on.
eg. father, dad, daddy: the same denotational meaning but different main types of
connotations are stylistic, emotional, evaluative and expressive or intensifying.
Lexical meaning is further classified into direct meaning and indirect meaning.
Direct meaning is the meaning that directly denotes something without comparing it or
associating with other things i.e. we do not need a context. Direct meaning is also called
literal meaning.
Indirect meaning is the meaning that indirectly denotes something. To understand it we have
to compare it or associate with other things, i.e. we need context. Indirect meaning is also
called figurative or transferred meaning
E.g.: head: part of the body (direct meaning), leader (indirect meaning)

2.2. The motivation of English words

Motivation means the relationship between structure and meaning and between direct and
indirect meaning. There are 3 types of motivation: morphologic, phonetic and semantic.

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Morphologic motivation: is the direct relationship between the morphologic structure of the
word and its meaning. In other words, it is the relationship between morphemes of the words:
E.g.
an employer: a person that employs others
an employee: a person who works for somebody.
Phonetic motivation: is the direct relationship between the phonetic structure of the word
and its meaning. In other words, there is similarity between the sound-form of the word and
the sound produced by the object the word denotes.
E.g. quack, moo, meau, giggle, bang, ping-pong, tick-tack
Semantic motivation: is the relationship between direct and indirect meaning. There is co-
existence of literal and figurative meanings based on metaphor, for example:
The foot of the mountain
The neck of a bottle

2.3. Homonymy and polysemy

2.3.1 Homonyms (Gr. homes (similar) + onoma (name)): words identical in pronunciation
and/or spelling, but different in meaning. They are not connected semantically (They have no
semantic relation). They are quite different words.
According to form, homonymy is classified into full/perfect homonyms and partial
homonyms
Full/perfect homonyms: words identical both in pronunciation and spelling. Theyare of the
same part of speech.
E.g. seal: a sea animal
seal: a design printed on paper by means of a stamp.
Partial homonyms: words identical both in pronunciation and/or spelling. They are
homonymous only in some of the forms of their respective paradigms. They may be found
both within the same part of speech and in different parts of speech.
E.g. to found, founded, founded – to find, found, found
pail (n) - pale (adj)
lie, lied, lied lie, lay, lain lay, laid, laid
According to meaning, there are lexical homonyms and grammatical homonyms.

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Lexical homonyms: words of the same part of speech, but of different meanings and there is
no semantic relation between them.
eg. match:que diêm, trận đấu
board: tấm ván, boong tàu, ủy ban
Grammatical homonyms: words of different parts of speech.
eg. work (n) - work (v) asked (simple past) - asked (PII)
brothers - brother's light (n) - light (adj)
Homonyms are also classified into homophones and homographs:
Homophones: words identical in pronunciation, but different or coincidental in spelling.
eg. son - sun air - heir night - knight
Homographs: words of the same spelling, but of different pronunciation.
eg. tear/ti∂/ - tear /te∂/ bow /b∂u/ - bow / bau/
2.3.2Polysemy refers to the case in which a word has more than one meaning. Most English
words are polysemantic, just few words are monosemantic (mainly scientific terms).
The first meaning of a word is called “the direct or primary” meaning and the other meanings
are called “secondary or derived”
All the meanings of a word form its semantic structure and the more common the word is, the
more meanings it has.
There are two common patterns of polysemic structure, namely radial polysemy and chain
polysemy.
Radial polysemy: all the transferred meanings are formed on the basis of one literal/direct
meaning.
Chain polysemy: the second meaning is formed on the basis of the first, the third on the basis
of the second, and so on.
Polysemy and homonymy are distinguished based on a number of criteria, namely semantic
criterion, derivational criterion, criterion of synonyms and criterion of combination.

2.4. Synonymy
Synonyms are words (two or more) of the same part of speech, similar in their denotational
meaning, but different in their phonetic and graphic forms, connotational meaning and
combinability. There are absolute synonyms, semantic synonyms, stylistic synonyms,
euphemisms, semantic-stylistic synonyms and phraseological synonyms

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+ Absolute synonyms: words having the same denotational and connotational meanings.
This is a result of borrowing and territorial synonyms.
eg. Br E - team (in a football match) Am E - squad
luggage baggage
+ Semantic synonyms: words differing in shades of meaning
eg. beautiful, pretty, good-looking, nice, lovely, fair
+ Stylistic synonyms: words belonging to different stylistic layers, differing in emotive value,
expressiveness.
eg. to begin - to commence (lit., official)
- Euphemisms: words or expressions synonymous to those denoting unpleasant notions or
processes and sounding pleasant or basing on the desire not to hurt other people's feelings.
eg.
corpse - remains poor - underprivileged
crisis -recession, slow-down, depression drunk-merry, intoxicated
+ Semantic-stylistic synonyms: words differing both in shades of meaning and stylistic aspect.
eg. house - shack, slum, pad (sl.)
to dismiss, to sack, to fire, to expel, to lay off, to kick out (sl)
+ Phraseological synonyms: words differing in their combinability.
eg. do exercises make money

2.5. Lexical variants and paronyms

Lexical variants are examples of free variation in language, in so far as they are not
conditioned by contextual environment but are optional with the individual speaker.
E.g. northward / norward; whoever / whosoever.The variation can concern morphological or
phonological features or it may be limited to spelling. Compare weazen/weazened ‘shrivelled
and dried in appearance’, an adjective used about a person’s face and looks; directly which
may be pronounced [di'rektli] or [dai'rektli] and whisky with its spelling
variant whiskey. Lexical variants are different from synonyms, because they are characterised
by similarity in phonetical or spelling form and identity of both meaning and distribution.
The cases of identity of stems, a similarity of form, and meaning combined with a difference
in distribution should be classed as synonyms and not as lexical variants. They are discussed
in many books dedicated to correct English usage. These are words belonging to the same part

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of speech, containing identical stems and synonymical affixes, and yet not permitting free
variation, not optional. They seem to provoke mistakes even with native speakers. A few
examples will suffice to illustrate the point. The adjectives luxurious and luxuriant are
synonymous when meaning ‘characterised by luxury’. Otherwise, luxuriant is restricted to the
expression of abundance (used about hair, leaves, flowers). Luxurious is the adjective
expressing human luxury and indulgence (used about tastes, habits, food,
mansions). Economic and economical are interchangeable under certain conditions, more
often, however, economic is a technical term associated with economics (an economic
agreement). The second word, i.e. economical, is an everyday word associated with economy;
e. g. economical stove, economical method, be economical of one’s money.
Paronyms are words kindred in origin, sound form and meaning and therefore liable to be
mixed but in fact different in meaning and usage and therefore only mistakenly interchanged.
The term paronym comes from the Greek para ‘beside’ and onoma ‘name’, it enters the
lexicological terminology very conveniently alongside such terms as synonyms, antonyms,
homonyms and allonyms.
Different authors suggest various definitions. Some define paronyms as words of the same
root, others as words having the same sound form, thus equalising them with word-families or
homonyms. Any definition, however, is valuable only insofar as it serves to reflect the
particular conception or theory of the subject one studies and proves useful for the practical
aims of its study. As the present book is intended for the future teachers of English, it is vital
to pay attention to grouping of words according to the difficulties they might present to the
student. That is why we take the definition given above stressing not only the phonetic and
semantic similarity but also the possible mistakes in the use

2.6. Antonymy
Antonyms are words of the same part of speech, but opposite in meaning.
There are two types of antonyms: antonyms proper and derivational antonyms.
Antonyms proper: words of different forms and having completely opposite meanings.
eg. tall – short, beautiful – ugly, thin – thick
Derivational antonyms: two words of the same root, one of which bearing a negative affix.
eg. lock – unlock, polite – impolite, honest – dishonest, careful – careless

2.7. Full and empty words

Full words express a notion or concept (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs).

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eg. study, tree, table....
Empty words do not have lexical meaning (articles, conjunctions, certain pronouns,
prepositions).
eg. the, in, on, because, off, of

2.8. The change and development of meaning

Words change when either the denotation and connotation experiences some sort of change.
Eg: silly once meant happy.
OE: husband à master of the house
Meaning is changed either many causes
(i) Extra linguistic causes: connected with development of society, changes in social,
political, economic, cultural life, in science and technology.
(ii) Linguistic causes: factors acting within language, connected with the system of language.
Ellipsis: If a phrase consists of two words one of them can be omitted and its meaning is
transferred to its partner:
To propose marriage = to propose
Discrimination of synonyms: the result of borrowing:
Deer: animal, beast (rats, mice and such small deer)
Now it only denotes only a certain kind of animal.
Attraction of synonyms
One of the synonyms gets new meaning, the other synonyms get this new meaning
too.
Eg:
catch means to understand and its synonyms (grasp, get) acquire this meaning too.
(iii) Psychological reasons (taboos, euphemisms)
Psychological reasons concern the avoidance of expressing explicitly problematic
concepts such as death, sex…
Eg: restroom for toilet,
African-American for coloured / black
The meaning of a word or expression may change over time in two respects: denotation and
connotation

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Denotation: developing in 2 ways
- Extended (or generalized)
Eg: ready: prepared for a ride – prepared for anything
- Narrowed (or specialized)
Eg: meat: any (sweetmeat)– animal flesh
Connotation: may be changed in two ways
- Degradation of meaning (deterioration)
Eg: knave: boy, servant – rogue
- Elevation of meaning:
Eg: Minister: a servant, an attendant – head of a state department.
Semantic change also refers to transference from literal meaning to figurative meaning is
expressed by the figures of speech. The most popular figures of speech are: metaphor,
metonymy, hyperbole, litotes, irony and euphemisms.

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 LECTURE III: SENTENCE MEANING AND UTTERANCE MEANING

Objectives
The objective of the chapter is to help the learners revise issues of sentence
meaning and utterance meaning.

3.1 Sentence meaning

On the basis of the principle of compositionality, it is possible to speak about a number of
meanings that reside in the sentence: structural, textual, representational and interpersonal.

 Structural meaning
- The structural meaning of the sentence is the kind of meaning that results from a particular
arrangement of the parts of the sentence.
The mantte wernnted a yob.
Our knowledge of English is sufficient to allow us to understand that this sentence is about
something that did something to something else.

 Representational meaning:
The representational meaning may be defined in terms of experiential and logical functions
(meanings).
- The experiential function is to communicate ideas. It is the main function by which a
speaker expresses the content elements of his utterance, by referring to people, objects, states
of affairs, events, qualities, places, actions and circumstances.
Bill Gates gave me books to read after each session.
It is possible to understand the experiential meaning of this sentence as it contains
speaker, actions (give, read), past – gave, object – books, actor – Bill Gates, time – after each
session, and recipient – me.
- The logical function relates ideas to each other on an equal or subordinate basis.
I came, I saw and I conquered. (equality or co-ordination)
I came early so that I could meet her. (subordination)
 Interpersonal meaning:
The interpersonal function of language is firstly to:

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- establish and maintain social relations (phatic function - used to share feelings or to establish
a mood of sociability rather than to communicate information or ideas.)
Good morning / Have a nice day.
- influence people’s behaviour and get things done (instrumental function).
Can you get me some water, please?
Danger. Road works.
- express the speaker’s feelings, attitudes and opinions.
What she said might be right.
You must be feeling hungry.
 Textual function:
- The textual function is to create texts. It is this function which helps to give texts coherence
and cohesion.

3.2 Proposition
A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs
The state of affairs typically involves persons or things referred to by expressions in the
sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence, a speaker typically asserts a proposition.
The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences express different
propositions. If there is a set of circumstances in which one sentence is true, while the other is
false, we can be sure that they express different propositions.
True proposition corresponds to facts. False propositions do not correspond to facts.
There are lions in Africa.
Hanoi is uninhabited by human beings.
One can entertain propositions in the mind regardless of whether they are true or false, e.g. by
thinking them, or believing them. But only true propositions can be known.
If Mary came to the party, Phyllis must have been upset.
Was your father in the Navy?
When a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he asserts the proposition. By uttering a
simple interrogative or imperative, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without
asserting its truth.

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 3.3 Utterance meaning
3.3.1 Performative utterance and constative utterance
A performative utterance is one that actually describes the act that it performs, i.e. it
performs some act and simultaneously describes that act.
e.g. “I promise to pay you tomorrow” is performative because in saying it the speaker
actually does what the utterance describes, i.e. He promises to repay the hearer the next day.
That is the utterance both describes and is a promise.
A typical performative utterance usually contains the first person pronoun “I”, followed by a
certain type of verb in the present tense. (e.g. I promise ..., I congratulate..., I admit ...). These
are all verbs describeing speech acts. We classify them as “performative verbs”.
e.g.: apologize, authorize, condemn, pronoun, declare, name, object, name, plead...
A constative utterance is one which makes an assertion, i.e it is often the utterance of a
declarative sentence, but is not performative.
e.g. “I am trying to get this box open with a screwdriver” is a constative utterance because it
makes an assertion about a particular state of affairs, but is not performative, i.e. the utterance
does not simultaneously describe and perform the same act.
3.3.2 Components of a speech act
A speech act consists of 3 related acts: a locutionary act, an illocutionary act, and a
perlocutionary act.

 A locutionary act: is the act of saying something (in a full sense of “say”) which is
meaningful and can be understood.
A locutionary act may include a phonetic act, a linguistic act, a referring act.

 An illocutionary act: is performed via the communicative force of an utterance. An

illocutionary act is using a sentence / utterance to perform a function eg. question, command,
greeting, warning.
A perlocutionary act is the results or effects that are produced by means of saying something.
An illocutionary act is a linguistic act preformed in uttering certain words in a given context,
a perlocutionary act is a non-linguistic act performed as a consequence of the locutionary and
illocutionary acts.
3.3.3 Indirect speech acts

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Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have a direct
speech act. Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, we
have an indirect speech act.
a. It’s cold outside.
b. I hereby tell you about the weather. (direct)
c. I hereby request of you that you close the door. (indirect)
3.3.4 Presupposition
A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an
utterance.
Below are different types of presupposition:
a. Existential presupposition: (possessive structures, the)
The King of Sweden, the car, the girl next door. Mary’s dog
b. Factive presupposition : know, realize, regret, be aware, be odd, be glad
She didn’t realize he was ill.
We regret telling him.
c. Lexical presupposition: lexical forms
You’re late again.
d. Structural presupposition: Wh-questions
When did he leave?
e. Non-factive presupposition: dream, imagine, pretend
I dreamed that I was rich.
g. Counter-factual presupposition: what is presupposed is not only not true, but is the
opposite of what is true, ‘or contrary to facts.’
If you were my friend, you would have helped me. (>>you’re not my friend)
3.3.5 Implicature
There is a general idea that people involved in a conversation will cooperate with each other.
In most cases, the assumption of cooperation is so pervasive that it can be stated as a
cooperative principle of conversation and elaborated in four sub-principles called maxims.
Conversational implicatures are the implicatures that derive from the cooperative principle of
conversation and a number of maxims expected to be followed by participants in a speech
event.

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e.g. A. I hope you brought the bread and the cheese.
B. Ah, I brought the bread.

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 LECTURE IV: PHRASEOLOGY

Objectives
The objective of the chapter is to help the learners re-examine features and main
types of English set expressions.

4.1 Structural features of set expressions

Set expressions are characterized by the stability of its lexical components and grammatical
structure.
e.g. red flower/pen/car/flag/tape(sing./plu)- free word group
red-tape (bureaucratic methods)- set expression.

4.2 Semantic features of set expressions

The meaning of a set expression is not a mere sum of the meanings of it components - Set
expressions are said to be completely or partially idiomatic.
e.g. to pull smb's leg (to tease him) - completely idiomatic
to be in high feather (to be in good spirits) -ibid-
to break the ice (to overcome formality or reserve in conversation)
to get people on friendly terms - partially idiomatic, transferred meaning
to show one's teeth (to take up a threatening attitude) -ibid-
- Set expressions exist in language and are reproduced in speech as ready-made units, whereas
free word groups or combinations are created in speech every time we need them.
e.g. to show the white feather (to show fear) - set expression
to show one's anger/great courage/... -free word group
Based on meaning-form relationship (motivation), proverbs can be classified into
phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological combinations.
Phraseological fusions: completely idiomatic set expressions :
the meaning of the whole has no connection with the meanings of its components, e.g. to be
in high feather, to beat about the bush, white elephant.
Phraseological unities: partially idiomatic set expressions:
the meaning of the whole can be perceived as the figurative (metaphoric) meaning of the
components

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e.g. to fish in troubled waters; to show one's teeth; to wash dirty linen in public,
a slip of the pen /the tongue; to be Jack of all trades and master of none.
Phraseological fusions and unities are called phraseological units proper. In many cases it is
difficult to tell whether a given set expression belongs to fusions or unities, whether it is
completely or partially idiomatic (non-motivated), because motivation often depends on the
speaker's education and knowledge.
Phraseological combinations: non-idiomatic word combinations, which contain one
component used in direct meaning while the other is used metaphorically and restricted in its
valency ability to be combined with other words. They may be called traditional phrases.
e.g. to do one's duty, to make a mistake, to meet the requirements, a burning question, acute
pain, blank look/face/expression

4.3 Proverbs and idioms

A proverb is a short saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise
and imaginary way.
-He who laughs last laughs best.
He laughs best who laughs last.
-Two heads are better than one.
-No pains no gains.
Characteristic features of proverbs:
Their lexical components are stable, or constant;
Their meaning is mostly figurative;
They are ready-made units.
Idioms are set expressions, short sayings usually characterized by the fact that their meaning
cannot easily be deduced from their components.
-like a cat on hot bricks.
-jump the lights
-get in sb’s hair
-catch sb red-handed

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