would learn vocabulary words.
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words denotations would suggest. For example, an English speakerwould understand the phrase kick the bucket to mean to die - as well as to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context. An idiom is not to be confused with other figures of speech such as a metaphor, which invokes an image by use of implicit comparisons ( eg , laquo ; the man of steel ); asimile, which invokes an image by use of explicit comparisons ( eg , faster than a speeding bullet ); and hyperbole, which exaggerates an image beyond truthfulness ( eg , like missed by a mile ). Idioms are also not to be confused with proverbs, which are simple sayings that express a truth based on common sense or practical experience.origin of idioms is closely connected with people s mentality .The present day English can t be considered full of value without idiomatic usage, as the use of idioms is the first sign of a certain language s developing. Idiomatic sentences enrich a language and the knowledge of idioms signal that the speaker knows the language on the level of a native speaker. The belles-lettres investigated by us revealed a great number of idiomatic sentences used by prominent writers in their works to make their language more expressive and colourful.
The idea that phraseology has the right to exist as a separate linguistic discipline was first put forward by Kunin. He also introduced the term phraseological stylistics to denote the study of stylistic properties of phraseological units. He viewed phraseological stylistics as a part of both general stylistics and phraseology. He developed his ideas of stylistic use of phraseological units in his works. (7, 20 p.). The word phraseology has very different meaning in post-soviet countries, in Great Britain and, for example, in the United States. So, different researches assign different terms. That s why arouses the problem of definition of phraseological word-groups. In modern linguistics, there is a considerable confusion about the terminology associated with these word-groups. Phraseology itself means a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set expressions, which like words name various objects and phenomena. (2, 98p.). Such set expressions exist in the language as ready-made units. The very term phraseological unit was introduced by acad. Vinogradov VV, who attempted to work out a reliable criterion to distinguish free word-groups from set expressions. (3, 98). Most Russian and Ukrainian scholars use this term. English and American linguists often use the term idiom. In such case the term idiom may denote:
- a mode of expression;
- structural form peculiar to a given language;
- idiom may be synonymous to the words language or dialect denoting a form of expression peculiar to a people, a country, a district, or to an individual. (3, 98p.).
The term idiom widely 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. There are some other terms denoting more or less the same linguistic phenomenon: set-expressions, set phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups, collocations, etc. The term set phrase implies that the basic criterion of differentiation is stability, of the lexical components and grammatical structure of word-groups. The term idiom generally implies that the essential feature of the linguistic units is idiomaticity or lack of motivation. The term word-equivalent stresses not only semantic but also functional inseparability of certain word-groups, their aptness to function in speech as single words. (8, 272-273p.) The problem of definition is also researched by foreign scholars: It is a challenge to write on phraseology since it is an area with a confusing range of terminology and different approaches. I fully agree with Cowie that a lack of standartised terminology exists (Cowie: 4, 225p.). Three decades have passed and the situation is not much better. Idiom is the most common term among the terminology used. Other terms also exist, such as:
multiword lexical unit (Cowie 1992);
fixed phrase (Verstraten 1992);
- fixed expression (Moon 1992; Svensson 2008);
- phraseme (Sabban 1999, 2009; Burger 2007);
- phrasal lexical items (Kuiper 2009) and many o...
