The study of any language begins with the study of writing, then learn the pronunciation of sounds and, finally, it all adds up to words. And if at first it becomes easy to memorize the rules for the formation of phrases, and, in principle, you can remember a certain pattern with the help of which parts of speech are formed in the language, then they will always remain a stumbling block - phraseological units, or, more simply, idioms that you can only learn through long cramming and nothing else.
Why do we need phraseological units
However, it is not for us, Russian-speaking people, to complain about the inability to understand set expressions in another language, since Russian people will always find such a “red word” that fully describes the current situation.
The Russian language is considered one of the most difficult to learn due to the presence of many tenses, verb conjugations, ways of forming new parts of speech, but the most deadly thing is just the same idioms, those same phraseological fusions, unities. Compete with the we alth of popular expressions Russian languagemaybe with Chinese.
Idioms are used in speech in order to decorate it, make it more interesting, less often - to give a certain emotional coloring. Even native speakers themselves do not always know where this or that expression came from, but they are always happy to use set expressions in their speech.
To understand what some expressions mean in any language, you need to get to know the mentality of this people, study their habits and habits, the rules of life. And then, perhaps, all this mess of words will become more understandable.
What are phraseological units and idioms?
The most difficult thing is to explain an illogical combination of words to children, because in their concept the world is logical and consistent, which means that phraseological units are something that falls out of the usual course of events, and we need to find an explanation for this.
First of all, we should deal with all this confusion: phraseological fusions, phraseological units and phraseological expressions - are they all the same or are there differences between them? Yes, in fact, for linguists and philologists, the differences between them are almost colossal, but for ordinary people all these are idioms. But to explain briefly, then:
- Phraseological fusion is an indivisible combination of words, because if these words are separated, then the general meaning of the whole phrase is lost. In other words, connecting with each other, the words form a completely new, figurative meaning.
- Phraseological unity - unlike the first option, in this case the words are allare used in their direct meaning, and the phrase, in principle, can be understood even if translated into another language: the allegorical image is still visible.
- Phraseological combinations or expressions are characterized by the fact that they have one constant word that can be combined with other variables. Simply put, this is a metaphorical expression of one's feelings, which is just the more understandable from all of the above.
Examples of phraseological units
With the selection of idioms, any person does not have any problems. Everyone knows the stable expressions “play the fool”, “beat the buckets”, “out of hand”, “out of the blue”, “bend into three deaths”, “pour in the first number” and so on. These fusions are indivisible in themselves; to separate these words from each other means to destroy the very canonicity of the statement. Examples of such phrases are found in everyday life so often that the use of such combinations does not hurt the Russian person at all, but it will take a very long time for a foreigner to explain who a fool is and why he should be fooled.
Everyone is familiar with the expressions "go with the flow", "nibble the granite of science", "live bait", "storm in a teacup", "tirelessly" and so on. These are already phraseological units. Examples of such expressions are even more common than idioms. And since they don't hurt the ears of native speakers, sometimes we don't even notice it.
Combinations and unity
Everything is a little more complicated with phraseological combinations, because it really takes imagination to understand a person. Russian people, for example, are very fond of"burn" from their feelings, whether it be shame, resentment or love. Or here's another: well, a foreigner cannot understand where Russians are talking nonsense or nonsense. That is, in these expressions there is a constant word that is used in a figurative sense, and a second variable word.
As can be seen from the description, phraseological units and phraseological combinations are sometimes much easier for a foreigner to understand, but there is only one way to deal with fusions: memorize them. And it is advisable not to be interested once again in a Russian what a “mite”, “baklushi” or “arshin” is - he himself, frankly, does not know.
Folklore
The view of the world in many generations is formed by the transfer of information from parents to children, and so on for many generations to come. Poems, songs, fairy tales, epics, tongue twisters, proverbs and sayings - all this is oral folk art, and each nation has its own. By studying the culture of ancestors, it is often much easier to understand how people behaved and thought about something at that time, and it is also easier to understand where the wisdom of those times found its place in modern science.
Phraseological unity is nothing but the same sayings that people used to speak before. V. I. Dal, for example, loved to travel around the villages and perpetuate such expressions, write them down and explain. And partly it is his merit that many expressions have survived to this day.
What is the difference between sayings and proverbs?
Those that, as a rule, carry a certain instructive morality,contained in one sentence. That is, the sentence can be rephrased, replaced or omitted some words, while retaining the meaning - it is not a single whole, unlike sayings, the words in which are unchanged. It was sayings that often described situations, expressed emotions, and simply communicated in Russia.
Where wings come from
Most of the idioms and set expressions have been known since the times when Russia was Rus, and Kyiv was the mother of Russian cities, but it cannot be denied that classical writers, whose catchphrases people loved so much, also have a strong influence on the vocabulary.
The most famous Russian work, from which many expressions are borrowed, is Griboedov's Woe from Wit. Everyone knows the phrases: “fresh tradition”, or the exclamation “Carriage to me, carriage!”, Or “I don’t come here anymore”. But few people know that all this is taken from the great Russian work. Often the very title of the play is used as an idiom.
Expressions from the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Bulgakov and many other classics are so tightly incorporated into speech that they have already lost their roots. That's why it's a classic, because it's familiar to everyone.
Speaking of catchphrases, it is impossible not to mention the Soviet cinema, when many books were also filmed. Suffice it to recall the "Golden Calf"! “Money in the morning - chairs in the evening,” a Russian person can say and smile maliciously, and will not even think about how phraseological units of this kind are perceived.foreigners. This may seem impudent to some, but we will understand the reference to Ostap Bender and even laugh together.
Phraseology in everyday life
Many of us do not even think about why we use certain expressions and where the legs grow from these statements. Phraseological units, examples of which any Russian person will immediately remember, actually reflect the mentality, customs and thinking of the people.
For example, consider the difference between two stable phrases in Russian and in English: "Do or die!" - say the English. At the same time, a Russian person will say the opposite: “Die, but do it,” which means fearlessness before death.
Or another expression: "to give the last shirt", which refers to the habit of sacrificing everything for the well-being of other people.
Russian heart
Deserve attention and phraseological units in which the heart is affected. “Heartbreak”, “with all my heart / with all my soul”, “heart stops”, “heart bleeds”, and so on. The fact is that in the Russian mentality much attention is paid to the inner world of a person. It has long been believed that the soul lives in the chest, all feelings and the most intimate are accumulated in the heart.
The phraseological unity "in all honesty" arose because of the custom of putting a hand on the chest when someone speaks sincerely. This gesture indicates that a person literally opens his heart to another and thus confirms the truth of his words. Remember the custom of taking an oathThe Bible, while they lay a hand on it. But what if there is no book at hand? Put your hand on something that is sacred to a person in the same way as the said book. That's why he puts his hand on his heart.
Phraseologisms in English
Not only the Russian language sometimes introduces into cognitive dissonance a combination of incongruous - phraseological units in the English language are also present. Some of them are connected with history, others with the mentality and habits of the British.
The most common English expression is perhaps "Every cloud has a silver lining". As in the case of Russian, translating it verbatim is not even worth trying. It’s worth remembering that this expression sounds like an encouragement, they say, “it can’t be that bad.”
English people love to eat words. They say exactly that: "To eat one's words", which is very similar in meaning to the Russian "take the words back". Many expressions in English often have analogues in Russian, and vice versa, so it is easy for both Russians and English to understand some phraseological units.
Chinese phraseological units
Only the Chinese language can compete with the Russian language in terms of the number of different expressions. As you know, it contains about a thousand hieroglyphs and many times more words. In one thing, the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire are absolutely similar to Russians: to this day, expressions invented in past centuries by distant ancestors have been preserved in their native language. The Chinese areto the history of their people very carefully, and therefore allied phraseological units in the Chinese language, despite the fact that the grammar has changed significantly since then, have been preserved to this day.
A distinctive feature of capacious sayings in Chinese is that such phrases there, as a rule, consist of two parts: the first is the figurative expression itself, the second part is an explanation of what is meant. For example: 守株待兔 - "to wait for the weather by the sea", "to hope for fate". For Chinese translators, it is especially interesting to translate such phraseological units, since they were formed back when even the script was different.
