Branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study. Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’

According to their origins, phraseological units in Modern English may be divided into:


native, e.g. to eat the humble pie ‘to submit to humiliation’ < ME to eat umble pie (umbles ‘the internal organs of a deer’); to save for a rainy day; to beat about the bush ‘not to speak openly and directly’; to lose one’s rag ‘to lose one’s temper’ etc.;
borrowed, which, in their turn, can be either intralingual (borrowed from American English and other variants of English) or interlingual (borrowed from other languages).
Intralingual borrowings: e.g. to bite off more than one can chew; to shoot the bull ‘’to talk nonsense’ (from American English); to pull sb’s leg (from Scottish Gaelic); a knock back (from Australian English) etc.
Interlingual borrowings:
-translation loans from Latin, e.g. to take the bull by the horns, a slip of the tongue (Lat. lapsus linguae), with a grain of salt (Lat. cum grano salis), second to none (Lat. nulli secundus); from French, e.g. by heart (Fr. par coeur), that goes without saying (Fr. cela va sans dire); from Spanish, e.g. the moment of truth (Sp. el momento de la verdad), blue blood (Sp. la sagre azul) etc;
-barbarisms (non-assimilated loans), e.g. sotto voce (It.) ‘quietly, in a low voice’, la dolce vita (It.) ‘the good life full of pleasure’, al fresco (It.) ‘in the open air’, cordon bleu (Fr.) ‘high quality, esp. of cooking’.
Sources of Phraseological Units
Phraseological units based on real events:
-everyday life, e.g. to be packed like sardines; to play cat and mouse; to be wet behind the ears; to go to bed with the chickens;
professional jargon, e.g. to be in deep waters, to be in the same boat with sb (nautical sphere); to nip sth in the bud (agriculture and gardening); to keep one’s finger on the pulse (medical sphere); fair play (sports); to come up against a brick wall (building); flavour of the month (cooking) etc.;
-historic references: to throw someone to the lions (Roman entertainment of putting people in the arena with wild animals); Baker’s dozen (to guard against miscounting, bakers habitually gave thirteen loaves when selling a dozen), red tape (legal documents were bound with a red tape), white elephant (a precious gift given by a Thai King to a sub-king to ruin the latter) etc.