Have you ever noticed how stable combinations like "beat your thumbs" or "cry crocodile tears" slip through your speech? But have you thought about what it is, how they appeared? These combinations are called phraseological units. More about what it is, you will learn a little later. Probably everyone at least once in his life heard the phrase "like a cat with a dog." But have you thought about what it means to "live like a cat and a dog"?
In this article you can find out how this idiom appeared and what it actually means. The learning process is quite complex. This article will make this task easier for you.
What are phraseological units
In order to get acquainted with the meaning of the phraseological unit "live like a cat and a dog", you must firstfind out what it really is. So, phraseologism is a stable combination of words that has a figurative meaning. It is noteworthy that such a combination, no matter how many words it consists of, is always an integral linguistic unit, since it is the whole phrase that has its own semantics and performs a single syntactic function. When considering each word separately, the meaning of the whole phrase is lost. If you think about it, phraseologism is an idiom in Russian vocabulary. These combinations of words are historically determined.
They give emotionality and expressiveness to human speech. Make the language more expressive. They are characteristic of both oral and book speech, you can often find them in works of fiction.
What are there?
They can be conditionally divided into several groups.
Among phraseological combinations, two bright groups can be distinguished:
- book;
- colloquial.
Bookish have a tinge of solemnity (singing praises, breathing incense, smoking incense, first violin), while conversational ones can sound very rude and slangy (give bream, cry crocodile tears).
In terms of semantic indivisibility, phraseological units can be divided into three groups:
- combinations;
- unity;
- fusions.
So, the first is a kind of stable combinations in which non-free phraseological meanings are realized. An example would be the expression "take your eyes off". So it is possiblesay: "Anna could not take her eyes off the beautiful sunset," but if you change the control, then there will be a phraseological unity "take your eyes off" (to someone) with the meaning "to confuse, deceive."
Second - stable word combinations of words that are characterized by semantic duality: these expressions can be understood both literally and figuratively - as a single semantic unit with its own meaning. Examples of such unities: "to wash dirty linen in public", "what the hell is not joking", "soap your neck". Two examples of the use of the phrase "soap your neck":
- With a direct meaning: "When you wash, do not forget to lather your neck well."
- With a figurative meaning: "Wow, I'll soap this scoundrel's neck!"
The third is a stable phrase, the main feature of which is complete semantic indivisibility. The fusion is a semantic unit, homogeneous with the word, devoid of form inside. They are called idioms. It is noteworthy that they do not allow literal understanding. The following phraseological units can serve as examples of fusions: "to sharpen the laces", "to beat the bucks", "on your own mind", "to live like a cat with a dog". The meaning of the latter is presented in the article.
How did phraseological units based on comparison with animals arise?
For a very long time, people began to compare human traits and personal characteristics of different animals. For example, an untidy person can be called a pig, a clumsy one can easily becalled a bear, and stupid people have long been called donkeys. However, one should not forget that these comparisons did not appear because of some good meaning, on the contrary, the ancient people believed that animals are people turned into animals by the gods for their faults. So comparing a person to an animal is akin to calling him a scoundrel.
It was precisely by ridiculing human vices that they created allegories in which animals appear in place of people. These substitutions formed the basis of fables, fairy tales and many phraseological units. Examples of phraseological units based on comparison with animals: a dark horse, look like a ram at a new gate, a bearish corner, even a wolf howl, like a cat and a dog, like a mouse on grits, a no-brainer, monkey labor, pompous turkey, bear service, chain dog, on bird rights, back to our sheep, veal tenderness and others.
What does it mean to live like a cat and a dog?
So, having figured out what phraseologisms are, you can move on. What does it mean to "live like a cat and a dog"? In fact, everything is very simple. Phraseologism characterizes this bad, hostile relationship. To live like a cat and a dog means to live, constantly quarreling, conflicting.
This phraseological unit has a bright expressive coloring and is colloquial, so you should avoid it in official conversations. It is used as an adverbial group. Synonymous phraseological units are the following phrases: to live at odds, to bite, to squabble, to be in conflict, to break off relations.
How did this idiom come about?
The relationship between dogs and cats has always been very strange, controversial and funny. They often fight, dogs are incredibly fond of chasing cats, cats do not remain in debt and easily respond to the attacks of dogs.
Yes, sometimes it happens that warm relations appear between cats and dogs, but it was the negative description of their interactions that formed the basis of the phraseological unit. Because, as mentioned earlier, comparisons with animals initially did not have a positive connotation, this trend has continued to this day: there are categorically few comparisons with animals that do not carry a negative connotation.
Examples of the use of phraseology
This part of the article will present various examples of the use of the phraseological unit "live like a cat and a dog", namely:
- The couple always quarreled, in general, they lived like a cat with a dog.
- Despite all the efforts of the woman, her new husband and daughter could not find a common language and lived like a cat with a dog.
- Half a century has passed since they began to live together, but love still lived in their hearts, although they lived like a cat and a dog.
- Sasha and Lekha live like a cat and a dog, despite the fact that they are brothers.
- Teenagers often behave like a cat and a dog towards those they like: they still do not know how to show sympathy.
- Tanya and Galya are classmates, both study excellently, but still livelike a cat with a dog.
Conclusion
So, now that you've read the whole article, you should have no questions at all about what "live like a cat and a dog" really means and where this expression came from. You also received new interesting, and most importantly, useful knowledge about phraseological units and their types in general.
