PROPERTIES OF ENHANCING UNITY AND STABILITY OF SET EXPRESSIONS

Abstract

Language is the major means of communication among people however it impacts the acquisition of the language. This current article making use of an authentic text sheds light upon the classification of set expressions and their property of enhancing unity and stability. The words and word combinations are the main source of enriching vocabulary of a language. Some of them refer to free word combinations while the others are called set expressions. There is a staple unity used for both of them which is called the term phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups which comprise proverbs, sayings, clichés, quotations as well as various kinds of allusions may be used for stylistic purpose. Being crystallized metaphors phraseological units enhance the exits expressiveness of which is often intensified by parallelism, antithesis, and alliteration. The basic characteristics of phraseological units are that they exist in the language as ready-made units. It should be noted that they cannot be made in the process of speech. The criterion that assists to distinguish set expressions from free phrases with variable context is the stability of such word-groups which is viewed in terms of statistical probability of co-occurrence for the member words. The whole meaning of a phraseological unit doesn’t depend on the meaning of its components which is explained by the feature of a phraseological unit having a fully and partial figurative meaning being a stable, cohesive and fixed combination of words. Phraseology is supposed to merge into an agreed set of terms and frameworks which has captured a considerable interest from a wide range of language related disciplines. Despite the fact that, a number of miscellaneous approaches have been put forward, and the boundaries of this set, its classification and the place of phraseology in the vocabulary still appears as one of the controversial issues of cutting-edge linguistics. The term set expression is on more definite and self-explanatory vice-versa since the first element points out the most significant characteristic of these units, more precisely, their stability, their fixed and ready-made nature. The word "expression" is relevant in this case, because it is deployed as a general term – the words, groups of words and sentences inclusive.