A course In Modern English Lexicology

§ 10. Summary and Conclusions m
ake up phrases or word-groups. The main fac-
tors active in bringing words together are lexical and grammatical valency of the components of word-groups.
2. Lexical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in various collocations. All the words of the language possess a certain norm of lexical valency. Restrictions of lexical valency are to be accounted for by the inner structure of the vocabulary of the English language.
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3. Lexical valency of polysemantic words is observed in various collocations in which these words are used. Different meanings of a polysemantic word may be described through its lexical valency.
4. Grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in various grammatical structures. All words possess a certain norm of grammatical valency. Restrictions of grammatical valency are to be accounted for by the grammatical structure of the language. The range of grammatical valency of each individual word is essentially delimited by the part of speech the word belongs to and also by the specific norm of grammatical valency peculiar to individual words of Modern English.
5. The grammatical valency of a polysemantic word may be observed in the different structures in which the word is used. Individual meanings of a polysemantic word may be described through its grammatical valency.
6. Structurally, word-groups may be classified by the criterion of distribution into endocentric and exocentric.
Endocentric word-groups can be classified according to the head-word into nominal, adjectival, verbal and adverbial groups or phrases.
7. Semantically all word-groups may be classified into motivated and non-motivated. Non-motivated word-groups are usually described as phraseological units.
PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
It has been repeatedly pointed out that word-groups viewed as functionally and semantically inseparable units are traditionally regarded as the subject matter of phraseology. It should be noted, however, that no proper scientific investigation of English phraseology has been attempted until quite recently. English and American linguists as a rule confine themselves to collecting various words, word-groups and sentences presenting some interest either from the point of view of origin, style, usage, or some other feature peculiar to them. These units are habitually described as i d i o m s but no attempt has been made to investigate these idioms as a separate class of linguistic units or a specific class of word-groups.
American and English dictionaries of unconventional English, slang and idioms and other highly valuable reference-books contain a wealth of proverbs, sayings, various lexical units of all kinds, but as a rule do not seek to lay down a reliable criterion to distinguish between variable wordgroups and phraseological units. Paradoxical as it may seem the first dictionary in which theoretical principles for the selection of English phraseological units were elaborated was published in our country.1
1 It should be recalled that the first attempt to place the study of various word-groups on a scientific basis was made by the outstanding Russian linguist A. A. Shakhmatov in his world-famous book Syntax. Shakhmatov’s work was continued by Academician V. V.
Vinogradov whose approach to phraseology is discussed below. Investigation of English phraseology was initiated in our country by prof. A. V. Kunin (A. В. Kyнин. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. М., 1955). See also A. V. Kunin. English Idioms. 3d ed. M., 1967.
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The term itself p h r a s e o l o g i c a l u n i t s to denote a specific group of phrases was introduced by Soviet linguists and is generally accepted in our country.
Attempts have been made to approach the
§ 1 1 . Free Word-Groups problem of phraseology in different ways. Up Versus Set-Phrases.
Phraseological Units, Idioms, t
i l l now, however, there is a certain diver-
Word-Equivalents gence
of opinion as to the essential feature of
phraseological units as distinguished from other word-groups and the nature of phrases that can be properly termed p h r a s e o l o g i c a l u n i t s .
The complexity of the problem may be largely accounted for by the fact that the border-line between free or variable word-groups and phraseological units is not clearly defined. The so-called free word-groups are only relatively free as collocability of their member-words is fundamentally delimited by their lexical and grammatical valency which makes at least some of them very close to set-phrases. Phraseological units are comparatively stable and semantically inseparable. Between the extremes of complete motivation and variability of member-words on the one hand and lack of motivation combined with complete stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure on the other hand there are innumerable border-line ca’ses.
• However, the existing terms,1 e.g. set-phrases, idioms, word-equivalents, reflect to a certain extent the main debatable issues of phraseology which centre on the divergent views concerning the nature and essential features of phraseological units as distinguished from the so-called free word-groups. The term s e t - p h r a s e implies that the basic criterion of differentiation is stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure of word-groups. The term i d i o m s generally implies that the essential feature of the linguistic units under consideration is idiomaticity or lack cf motivation. This term habitually used by English and American linguists is very often treated as synonymous with the term p h r a s e o l o g i c a l u n i t universally accepted in our country.2
The term w o r d - e q u i v a l e n t stresses not only the semantic but also the functional inseparability of certain word-groups and their aptness to function in speech as single words.
Thus differences in terminology reflect certain differences in the main criteria used to distinguish between free word-groups and a specific type of linguistic units generally known as phraseology. These criteria and the ensuing classification are briefly discussed below.
Phraseological units are habitually defined as