Function of phraseological units Contents Introduction Chapter 1

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 it 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.
To bark up the wrong tree (Am) means ‘to follow a false scent; to look for somebody or something in a wrong place; to expect from somebody what he is unlikely to do’.
The idiom is not infrequently used in detective stories: The police are barking up the wrong tree as usual, i.e. they suspect somebody who has nothing to do with the crime.
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.
- 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 somebody dead means ‘to rudely ignore somebody; 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’.
The author of the “Book of English Idioms” Collins write: “In standard spoken and written English today idioms is an established and essential element that, used with care, ornaments and enriches the language.” Used with care is an important warning because speech overloaded with idioms loses its freshness and originality. Idioms, after all, are ready-made speech units, and their continual repetition sometimes wears them out: they lose their colours and become trite clichés. In modern linguistics, there is considerable confusion about the terminology associated with these word-groups
Most Russian scholars use the term “phraseological units” introduced by academician V.V. Vinogradov. The term “idiom” used by western scholars has comparatively recently found its way into Russian phraseology but is applied mostly to only a certain type of phraseological unit as it will be clear from further explanations. There are some other terms: set-expressions, set-phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups, collocations. The ‘freedom’ of free word-groups is relative and arbitrary. Nothing is entirely ‘free’ in speech as its linear relationships are governed, restricted and regulated, on the one hand, by requirements of logic and common sense and, on the other, by the rules of grammar and combinability.
A black-eyed girl but not of a black-eyed table.
The child was glad is quite correct, but a glad child is wrong.
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.
Free-word groups vs phraseological units.The border-line between free or variable word-groups and phraseological units is not clearly defined. The free word-groups are only relatively free as collocability of their member-words is fundamentally delimited by their lexical and syntactic valency. Phraseological units are comparatively stable and semantically inseparable. Between the extremes of complete motivation and variability of member-words and lack of motivation combined with complete stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure there are innumerable border-line cases. There are differences between word-groups and phraseological units. The difference often is in the interrelation of lexical components, e.g.:Blue ribbon (or red, brown, etc.), but blue ribbon – an honour given to the winner of the first prize in a competition – no substitution is possible in a phraseological unit;
Stretch one’s legs – размять ноги, прогуляться (а не «протянуть ноги»),
See eye to eye – быть полностью согласным (а не «видеться с глазу на глаз»),
Under one’s hand – за собственной подписью (а не «под рукой»),
Stew in one’s own juice – страдать по своей собственной глупости (а не «вариться в собственном соку»).
In free word-groups each of its constituents preserves its denotational meaning. A semantic classification of phraseological units has been given by Smith L.P. and W. Ball, explaining etymologically and arranging them according to different spheres of human activity. It is very easy for a learner of English, having at his/her disposal such a classification, to find immediately the necessary variant of the phraseological unit and use it properly in communication. Numerous phraseological units are linked with:
a) Sea life: ships in the night/ ship that pass in the night= casual acquaintances and friendships that last only a very short time.
b) Colors: to be green= to be inexperienced or untried.
c) Time: to have a rough time= to be treated severely, to have a run of bad luck.
d) Weather: to weather the storm= to overcome a crisis, often financial.
e) Months, days of the week, periods of the day: not to have all day= not to have any more time to spare for somebody.
f) Life of trees, plants, animals: to be in clover= to be in a comfortable situation.
g) Life and Death: like an angel= with the utmost innocence and purity.
h) Birds and Insects: like a bird in a cage= imprisoned, trapped.
i) Body and Mind: to have body= to have weight or substance. j) Relations: marriage lines= a marriage certificate.
k) Town and House: kitchen talk= uneducated talk. l) Furniture and Clothes: table talk= light conversation. m) Food: to be as different as chalk and cheese= to be completely different. n) War and Peace: to win a battle= to be successful in a struggle.
0) Weapon and Arms: to gun for someone= to plot revenge on someone. p) Numbers: in round numbers= in approximate number.
q) School and Education: a different school of thought= a different body of opinion.
r) Work and Occupations: the oldest profession= prostitution. s) Money and Valuables: smart money= money invested wisely. t) Games and Sports: to raise one's game= to better one's performance. u) Music and Theatre: behind the scenes= out of the public view. In his works "Notes on Stylistics" and "French Stylistics" Charles Bally defined four groups of word combinations:
1. Free word combinations (lack fixedness);
2. Usual combinations (relatively free used together);
3. Phraseological sets or series (two notions or one idea);
4. Phraseological unities (loss of meaning of elements).
Here, as we can observe, a definite role plays the degree of stability. In our opinion, a drawback of this classification is lack of concrete description. Later, the same linguist distinguishes two groups out of the previous four:
1. Free combinations;
2. Phraseological unities (words based on his theory of equivalency between phraseological units and words).
Taking into account mainly the degree of idiomaticity, Vinogradov V.V. divides phraseological units into:
1) Phraseological fusions: completely non-motivated word-groups. E.g.: to kick the bucket= to die.
2) Phraseological unities: partially non-motivated, the meaning can be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseologica l unit. E.g.: to show
one's teeth= to show an intention to injure.
3) Phraseological collocations: motivated, but they are made up of words possessing specific lexical valence, which accounts for a certain degree of stability in such word-groups. For instance, bear a grudge may be changed into bear malice, but not into bear a fancy or liking.Phraseological and phraseomatic units are made up of words of different degree of wordness depending on the type of set expressions they are used in. Their structural separateness, an important factor of their stability, distinguishes them from compound words (e.g. blackbird and black market). Other aspects of their stability are: stability of use, lexical stability and semantic stability. Stability of use means that set expressions are reproduced ready-made and not created in speech. They are not elements of individual style of speech but language units. Lexical stability means that the components of set expressions are either irreplaceable or partially replaceable within the bounds of phraseological and phraseomatic variance:
Lexical (e.g.: skeleton in the cupboard= a skeleton in the closet);
Grammatical (e.g.: to be in deep water = to be in deep waters);
Positional (e.g.: head over ears = overhead and ears) ;Quantitative (e.g.: to lead somebody a dance = to lead somebody a pretty dance);Mixed variants (e.g.: raise (stir up) a hornet's nest about one's ears = arouse (stir up) the nest of hornets).
Semantic stability is based on the lexical stability of set expressions. Even when occasional changes are introduced the meaning of set expressions is preserved. In spite of all occasional changes phraseological and phraseomatic units remain semantically invariant or are destroyed.Phraseological combinations – expressing ideas in short but coloured meaningful way. Besides that, these are expressing the identity, way of life, material and spiritual values, history, culture and customs of the peoples of the world in their own language is incomparable. Phraseological units take attention in the context of the people’s use of language units, their general rules and language norms in their usage. The researches of B.S. Schwartskopf, Yu.A. Belchikov, V.A. Itskovich, A.I. Molotkov draws special attention to this issue. As, according to B.S. Schwartskopf: “Phraseological norm is a linguistic phenomenon, the use of traditionally consistent, homogeneous and equally valuable phraseology, which in a certain period of time was accepted by the language community and understood as correct and exemplary”.It cannot be considered a variant of its proverbial prototype because it does not possess all the features of the variant singled out by Alexander V. Kunin in his doctoral thesis, namely: identity according to the quality of meanings,
 identity according to the quantity of meanings,
 identity according to the stylistic functions,
 identity according to the syntactic functions
 identity according to the combinability with other words,
 partial identity in lexical composition,
 partial identity in the forms of the word components,
partial identity in the component order.
Specially, V.A. Svakovich, B.S. Schwartskopf, Yu.A. Belchikov had given three types of deviations from the phraseological norm. These are:Firstly, is the involuntary use of literary language units in speech without understanding the norm, even though it is not premeditated or deliberate;Secondly, is the misinterpretation of language units in speech with correct comprehension and its analyses; Thirdly, is the usual form of phraseological units in the process of speech, The expression of which is contrary to their structural rules and internal system;When they are applied in the context not in their own way, as in the traditionalpattern that is passed from generation to generation, word of mouth, but incompletely or distorted.Phraseological units that exist should be widely used in works of all genres, should be standardized in order to be used as one of the effective means of communication, increasing the aesthetic expression of the word between the protagonists of the work. The English language, unlike other languages of the world, experienced a signifcant influence of the Bible. Biblical expressions and phrases have enriched English phraseology. There are many biblical phraseological units in English phraseology:
3. Job’s comforter – a person who tries to comfort people but occasionally makes
their misfortune even harder;
 Judas kiss – betraying kiss;
 Jacob’s ladder – slanted staircase, staircase made of rope;
 a man of blood – person who killed a person;
 as poor as Job – an extremely poor person;
 a man of Belial – immoral, indecent person;
 Benjamin’s mess – very big part, huge portion;
 a doubting Thomas – skeptic, a person who hardly believes in something
 the curse of Cain – the guilt in somebody’s death or misfortune.
To this day, words and phrases that are passed from mouth to mouth folklore, and used in oral speech without any change, can be called normal or original phraseologies. For example, the phrase “throwing a hat (Uzbek hat) into the sky” is included in the “Phraseological Dictionary of the Uzbek Language” and means “to be very happy, funny” and is used in these senses in “See You, If I got “four”, I would have thrown my hat to the sky! “as well as from H. Nazir’s novel “Green Lights” “Schoolchildren threw their hats into the sky”.Occasionally phraseological units can be replaced by other words as a result of their distortion in terms of meaning and form. As result of their previous form changes and the new form also gives originality to the content.Moreover, the lexical and structural-grammatical norm expresses the property of lexical-grammatical change of expressions in speech and that these changes do not affect their integrity while preserving their meanings, and that structural stability remains relative. Phraseological units appear in dictionaries, textbooks and manuals, scientific documents, and in many cases in the same meaning and form as they appear in the vernacular, that is, in their original, normal state.Above mentioned examples show us the fact that phraseological units have a great contribution to the vocabulary layer of each language. In order to use phraseological units there are norms and standards of usage. As a conclusion we can say that phraseological combinations expressing the identity, way of life, material and spiritual values, history, culture and customs of the peoples of the world in their own language is incomparable.