The term idiomaticity is also understood as lack of motivation from the point of view of native speakers. As here we are concerned with the English language,, this implies that only those word-groups are to be referred to phraseology which are felt as non-motivated, at least synchronically, by English speakers, e.g. red tape, kick the bucket and the like. This approach to idiomaticity may be termed interlingual. In other words the judgment as to idiomaticity is passed within the framework of the language concerned, not from the outside. It is readily observed that classification of factual linguistic material into free word-groups and phraseological units largely depends upon the particular meaning we attach to the term idiomaticity. It will be recalled, for example, that habitual collocations are word-groups whose component member or members possess specific and limited lexical, valency, as a rule essentially different from the lexical valency of related words in the Russian language. A number of habitual collocations, e.g. heavy rain, bad mistake, take care and others, may be felt by Russian speakers as peculiarly English and therefore idiomatic, whereas they are not perceived as such by English speakers in whose mother tongue the lexical valency of member words heavy, bad, take presupposes their collocability with rain, mistake, care.

3. The criterion of stability is also criticized as not very reliable in distinguishing phraseological units from other word-groups habitually referred to as phraseology. We observe regular substitution of at least one of the lexical components. In to cast something in somebody's teeth, e.g. the verb cast may be replaced by fling; to take a decision is found alongside with to make a decision; not to care a two penny is just one of the possible variants of the phrase, whereas in others the noun two penny may be replaced by a number of other nouns, e.g. farthing, button, pin, sixpence, fig, etc.

It is also argued that stability of lexical components does not presuppose lack of motivation. The word-group shrug one's shoulders, e.g., does not allow of the substitution of either shrug or shoulders; the meaning of the word-group, however, is easily deducible from the meanings of the member-words, hence the word-group is completely motivated, though stable. Idiomatic word-groups may be variable as far as their lexical components are concerned, or stable. It was observed that, e.g., to cast something in somebody's teeth is a highly idiomatic but variable word- group as the constituent member cast may be replaced by fling or throw; the word-group red tape is both highly idiomatic and stable.

It follows that stability and idiomaticity may be regarded as two different aspects of word-groups. Stability is an essential feature of set-phrases both motivated and non-motivated. Idiomaticity is a distinguishing feature of phraseological units or idioms which comprise both stable set-phrases and variable word-groups. The two features are not mutually exclusive and may be overlapping, but are not interdependent.

Stability of word-groups may be viewed in terms of predictability of occurrence of member-words. Thus, e.g., the verb shrug predicts the occurrence of the noun shoulders and the verb clench the occurrence of either fists or teeth. The degree of predictability or probability of occurrence of member-words is different in different word-groups. We may assume, e.g., that the verb shrug predicts with a hundred per cent probability the occurrence of the noun shoulders, as no other noun can follow this particular verb. The probability of occurrence of the noun look after the verb cast is not so high because cast may be followed not only by look but also by glance, light, lots and some other nouns. Stability of the word- group in clench one's fists is higher than in cast a look, but lower than in shrug one's shoulders as the verb clench predicts the occurrence of either fists or teeth.

It is argued that the stability of all word-groups may be statistically calculated and the word-groups where stability exceeds a certain limit (say 50%) may be classified as set-phrases.

Predictability of occurrence may be calculated in relation to one or more than one constituent of the word-group. Thus, e.g., the degree of probability of occurrence of the noun bull after the verb take is very low and may practically be estimated at zero. The two member-words take the bull, however, predict the occurrence of by the horns with a very high degree of probability.

Stability viewed in terms of probability of occurrence seems a more reliable criterion in differentiating between set-phrases and variable or free word-groups, but cannot be relied upon single out phraseological units.



Chapter 2. The translation of phraseological units

2.1 Idioms and their classification

The English language is full of idioms (over 15000). Native speakers of English use idioms all the time, often without realizing that they are doing so.

This means that communication with native speakers English can be quite a confusing experience .

An idiom is a group of words which when used together, has a different meaning from the one which the individual words have.

For example:

How do you know about John's illness?

Oh,” I heard it on thegrapevine!”

Of course, the second speaker doesn't mean he heard the news about John by putting his ear to a grapevine! He is conveying the idea of information spreading around a widespread network usually similar to a grapevine.

Some collocations of the delexical verb + noun + preposition type come close to idiomatiaty, since not only is part - for - part substitution impossible but a special passive transformation shows the verb and two following elements to form a close idiomatic unit:

They took (good) care of the children.

They children were taken (good) care of.

Despite the efficacy of such tests the most familiar approach to the definition of idioms and one that linguistics as well as lexicographers have helped to popularize, focuses on the difficulty of understanding idioms in terms of the meaning of their constituents. The following definition ( from the Collins English dictionary, second edition, 1986) represents this tendency:…. a group words whose meaning of the constituent words as for example ( it was raining) cats and dogs.

But this formulation (and definition could be called from a range of dictionaries now in print) is open to serious challenge.

As cruse clearly demonstrates, such definitions are circular since: “meanings of the constituent words” must be understood to imply meanings of the constituents words have in other, non-idiomatic contexts, one finds that to apply the definition one must already be able to distinguish between idiomatic and non-idiomatic expressions. Fortunately, idioms can be defined without circularity by applying procedures such as those demonstrated earlier. Since idioms in the strict sense are semantic units they should resist replacement of their components by words which are themselves semantic units. Compare in this respect:

“Blow the gaff”

“Puff the gaff and kick the bucket, kick the pail”, where the effect of substitution is to produce nonsense or non-idiom. A second weakness of the traditional definition, with its stress on the semantic opequeness of combinations, is its exclusiveness. It leaves out of account a large class of expressions which have figurative meaning but which also keep a current literal interpretation. Examples of such figurative idioms are close ranks, do a U-turn and die a natural death. There are also marginal cases, such as run off the rails and reach the end of the line, where interpretation may or may not benefit from knowledge of an original technical sense. The semantic evidence suggests a gradation and this is underlines by the possibility of lexical or pronominal substitutions in individual cases. Consider, for instance: a closed / sealed book ;a dry/dummy rum and I had a close shave but Bill had an even closer one.

Idioms in the narrow sense are clearly related to figurative idioms and the looser more transparent collocations along a cline or continuim. True idioms were taken up in the 1960's and 1970's by generative grammarians, who were concerned with the theoretical difficulties of accounting for their interpretation and syntactic properties in terms of a transformational-generative grammar. Fraser (1970) used a battery of transformations as a means of establishing degrees of idiomaticity judging as most frozen those items which were resistant to most transformations.

The difficulty with such an approach is that specific restriction do not apply evenly to idioms of a given structural type (idiomacity having been established on independent semantic groups) and may affect some collocations as well.

Thus while “spill the beans” (true idiom) can be passivized, “mark time”(figurative idiom) cannot, and neither can “foot the bill” ( restricted collocations). Perhaps the most useful approach is to accept that while no transformations will prove diagnostically reliable in every case some types of transformation are more indicative of idiomaticity than others. For instance grammatical process whose function is to highlight a specific clause element will often not be applicable if that element also forms part of idiom.

Semantically idioms are divided into three classes:

Pure idioms

Semi idioms

Literal idioms

Pure idioms are those which can't be translated word by word, they are non-literal. For example: “spill the beans” has nothing to do with real beans.

Semi-idioms have one or more literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal subsense, usually special to that cooccurance relation no other:

Catch has the meaning at their constituents. For example: “on foot Merry Christmas and happy New Year”. Besides idioms can undergo substitution for their parts the near synonyms. And the idioms which are flexible to some degree to such substitution are called idioms of restricted variance. For example: happy (merry) Christmas. The idioms which are inflexible to such change at all are called invariant and fixed idioms. For example: on the contrary; Happy New Year. If we connect these two classifications we shall get the following tasks:

Pure - idioms - invariant, non-literal:

Devil-may-care, backlash ching wag red herring make of with, pick and span, smell a rat, the coast is clear, etc.

Restricted variance, non-literal; pitter-patter (pit-a-pat), take/have forty winks, seize/grasp the nettle, get/have cold feet, etc.

Semi-literal idioms, invariant; drop names, catch fire, hitch the kin, foothe bill, fat change you've got, etc. restricted variance: chequered career/history, blue film/story/joke/comedian,good morning/ day etc.

Literal idioms - in variant; on foot, one day, in sum, im the meantime, on the contrary arm in arm, very important person ( VIP ), potato chips: tall, darkand handsome; waste not, want not, happy New Year, etc. and set down.

Form irregular, meaning unclear, as in be at large, go great guns, be at daggers drawn.

Functional types of idioms:

Idioms - ideational. Ideational idioms are convey impressionalistic representation of the physical, social and emotional words of a language community. They either signify message content, experiential phenomenia including the sensory the effective, and the evaluative or they characterize the nature of message. Message content actions: tear down mess about with, twist somebody's arm.

Events: turning point, the straw that breaks the camel's back, out of the mouth of babies. Situations: be in Queer street , be in a pichle. People and things; a - back - seat driver, a man about town, a scarlet woman.

Attributes: cut and dried, matter of fact, lily - white, as green as grass.

Evolution: turn back the clock, it is a pity, as a matter of fact.

Emotions: green with envy, heart in one's mouth, a lump in one's characterizing the message. Specific information; to be exact/precise.

For example: that is the question is Non - specific information; kind of/ sort of, or something, such and such, and so on.

Interpersonal idioms. This type of idioms occur in discourse in pragmatic function: greetings, farewells warnings, disclaims.

Interpersonal idioms fulfill either a characterize the nature of the message. In their interpersonal function they initiate, maintain and close and exchange and closely associated with politeness routines:

Interactional strategies:

Greeting and farewells;

Good morning, how are you?

Directives;

Let's face it, tell you what, say no more.

Agreement;

That's true, you are telling me

“Feels” eliciting opinions;

What do you think? How do you feel?

Rejections;

You're kidding/ joking come off it/Get out of here/Get away from me

Characterizing the message:

News worthness:

Guess what, what do you know, what you ask.

Sincerity:

Quite, seriously, believe you me, a matter of fact/

Call s for brevity:

Cut the cackle, get to the point.

Uncertainty:

Daresay; mind you; etc.

Relational idioms. Relational is a general form for an attribute characterizing a diverse number of language forms all of which have a cohesive function in a discourse. Relational or textual idioms can accordingly be grouped along with conjunctions, for example “and but”, “or”, “and so because” “it then” etc, as having a textual function. They may be characterized into those which sequence information integrative.

Adversative: on the contrary, far from, etc.

Comparison: on one hand…., on the other, etc.

Casual: so that, when, the more, no wonder, etc.

Concessive: at the same time, etc.

Addition: in addition to, what is more, etc.

Sequencing or chaining information. Sequencing meta-discoursal information, for example, in the first place, last but not least.

Sequencing temporal information, for example one day, a long time ago, up to now, etc.

What has to be drawn, at this juncture to the student's attention is the need to understand that idiom should, by no means, be used in all contexts and discourses. When correctly used, idioms provide one with a native like ability to communicate at a more advanced level and in situations that are more complex. When used inadvertently at random where more formal and literary diction is retined, they prose a great danger to the in expect user who consequently, runs the risk of sounding uneducated and vulgar. Idioms are meant to be used metaphorically and only in conversing with people with whom they share experiences, socio-cultural background, and even religious beliefs.

English language is only a part of or rather “embodiment” of English culture and history, which, by and large, are at variance with those of Greece. Therefore any attempt to view things and notions from the English perspective without first mastering any other language features and components, i.e. advanced grammar constructions, more elevated vocabulary, etc. but with the sole aid of idioms, is if not futile, certainly rather painstaking and unrewarding. Idioms are meant to give the language a more lively hue, not to substitute for standart English completely. If one already acquainted with literary forms and expressions, there is no other way of “grasping” idioms but through contenting oneself with magazines and tabloids, the informal register of which allows of the use of innumerable idiomatic expressions. By the same taken, whoever wishes to learn English or any other language should not limit themselves to reading books taught at school, but also acquize a taste for classical and modern literature, religious and philosophical books, newspaper, etc.



2.2 Phraseological problems of translation

Translating a phraseological unit is not an easy matter as it depends on several factors: different combinability of words, homonymy, synonymy, polysemy of phraseological units and presence of falsely identical units, which makes it necessary to take into account of the context. Besides, a large number of phraseolgical units have a stylistic-expressive component in meaning, which usually has a specific national feature. The afore-cited determines the necessity to get acquainted with the main principles of the general theory of phraseology.

The following types of phraseological units may be observed: phrasemes and idioms. A unit of constant context consisting of a dependent and a constant indicators may be called a phraseme. An idiom is a unit of constant context which is characterized by an integral meaning of the whole and by weakened meanings of the components, and in which the dependant and the indicating elements are identical and equal to the whole lexical structure of the phrase.

Any type of phraseological units can be presented as a definite micro-system. In the process of translating phraseological units functional linguistic are selected by comparing two specific linguistic principles. These principles reveal elements of likeness and distinction. Certain parts of these systems may correspond in form and content (completely or partially) or have no adequancy.

The main types of phraseological conformities are as follows:

Complete conformities.

Partial conformities.

Absence of conformities.

Complete conformities. Complete coincidence of form and content in phraseological units are rarely met with.

“Black frost” сильный мороз

“To bring oil to fire” - подлить масло в огонь.

“To lose one's head”- потерять голову.

Partial conformities of phraseological units in two languageges assume lexical grammatical and lexico-grammatical different with identity of meaning and style i.e. their figuratively close, but fifer in lexical composition morphological number and syntactic arrangement of the order words. One may find:

Partial lexic conformities by lexic parameters “lexical composition”.

To get out of bed on the wrong foot (idiom) - встать с левой ноги.

To have one's heart in one's boots. (idiom) -душа в пятки ушла.

To lose one's temper -выйти из себя,потерять терпение.

To dance to somebody's pipe. (idiom) - плясать под чью-то дудку.

Partial conformities by the grammatical parameters

Differing as to morphological arrangement (number).

To fish in troubled waters. (idiom) - ловить рыбу в мутной воде .

From head to foot (idiom) -с головы до ног.

To agree like cats and dogs (phraseme) - жить как кошка с собакой .

To keep one's head (idiom) - сохранять спокойствие духа

Differing as to syntactical arrangement

Strike while the iron is hot - куй железо, пока горячо.

Egyptian darkness - тьма кромешная.

Armed to teeth - вооруженные до зубов

All not gold that glitters - Не все золото, что блестит

Absence of conformities. Many English phraseological units have no phraseological conformities in Russian. In the first instance this concerns phraseological units based realiae. When translating units of this kind it is advisable to us the following types of translation:

A verbatim word for word-translation

Translation by analogy

Descriptive translation,

A verbatim translation is possible when way of thinking (in the phraseological unit) does not bear a specific national feature.

To call things by their true names (idiom) - называть все вещи своими именами

The arms race (phraseme) - гонка вооружений

Cold war (idiom) - холодная война

To pull somebody's leg (idiom) - одурачить кого-либо.

Descriptive translation.

Descriptive translation i.e. translating phraseological units by a free combination of words is possible when the phraseological unit has a particular national feature and has no anologue in the language it is to be translated into.

To enter the house (phraseme) - стать членом парламента

2.To cross the floor of the house. (idiom) - перейти с одной партии в другую



Conclusion

The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the process of speech; they exist in the language as ready-made units.

They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units «idioms». We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith «Words and Idioms», V.Collins «А Book of English Idioms» etc In these dictionaries we can find words, peculiar in their semantics (idiomatic), side by side with word-groups and sentences. In these dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule, into different semantic groups.

Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning, according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.

A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming phraseological units.

By the classification of Academician V.Vinogradov phraseological units are divided into three groups: phraseological combinations, phraseological unities and phraseological fusions.

The English language is full of idioms (over 15000). Native speakers of English use idioms all the time, often without realizing that they are doing so. Semantically idioms are divided into three classes:

Pure idioms

Semi idioms

Literal idioms

Pure idioms are those which can't be translated word by word, they are non-literal. For example: “spill the beans” has nothing to do with real beans.

Semi-idioms have one or more literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal subsense, usually special to that cooccurance relation no other. Catch has the meaning at their constituents. For example: “on foot Merry Christmas and happy New Year”. Besides idioms can undergo substitution for their parts the near synonyms. And the idioms which are flexible to some degree to such substitution are called idioms of restricted variance. For example: happy (merry) Christmas. The idioms which are inflexible to such change at all are called invariant and fixed idioms. For example: on the contrary; Happy New Year.

Literal idioms - in variant; on foot, one day, in sum, im the meantime, on the contrary arm in arm, very important person ( VIP ), potato chips: tall, darkand handsome; waste not, want not, happy New Year, etc. and set down.

Form irregular, meaning unclear, as in be at large, go great guns, be at daggers drawn.

Functional types of idioms:

Interpersonal idioms. This type of idioms occur in discourse in pragmatic function: greetings, farewells warnings, disclaims.

Relational idioms. Relational is a general form for an attribute characterizing a diverse number of language forms all of which have a cohesive function in a discourse. Relational or textual idioms can accordingly be grouped along with conjunctions, for example “and but”, “or”, “and so because” “it then” etc, as having a textual function. They may be characterized into those which sequence information integrative.

Translation has played a role throughout history any time there has been an intersection of two cultures and languages. And each time one culture has produced a written text, translators serve as the bridge that allows literate members of one culture to be exposed to the written material the other has produced. A lot of scholars and translators made their contribution in the progress and developing of translation, however, a lot of them, especially ancient translators, have often remained unknown or in the background and the credit due to them have not been acknowledged. They have done their job with painstaking efforts despite many violent conflicts that have dotted throughout history. Because of skilled translators and their ability to bridge two languages, today we have access to texts as varied as the richly detailed novels of Walter Scott, Victor Hugo and of others great writers, scholarly articles, instruction manuals, and pamphlets for non-native Romanian or other languages speakers about health resources. Each of these examples is made possible because of the craft of translation whose history dates back to the first intersection of two cultures with written texts. To sum up, translation history is rich in inventions and theories. Each era is characterized by the appearance of new theorists and fields of research in translation. It is true that the western history of translation is larger and rich in proportion to that of the Arabs, but we should not deny that the translation history of the latter started to develop year by year, especially with the great efforts of Arabic academia in the domain. So, translators have made important contribution over the centuries in dissemination of ideas and information to a larger audience, in shaping of cultures and in a sense helped unite the world.



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