FEATURES ENHANCING UNITY AND STABILITY OF SET EXPRESSIONS

Set expressions have their own specific features, which enhance their stability and cohesion. These are their euphonic, imaginative and connotative qualities. It has been often pointed out that many set expressions are distinctly rhythmical, contain alliteration, rhyme, imagery, contrast, are based on puns, etc. These features have always been treated from the point of view of style and expressiveness. Their cementing function is perhaps no less important. All these qualities ensure the strongest possible contact between the elements, give them their peculiar muscular feel, so that in pronouncing something like stuff and nonsense the speaker can enjoy some release of pent-up nervous tension. Consider the following sentence: Tommy would come back to her safe and sound (O'Flaherty). Safe and sound is somehow more reassuring than the synonymous word uninjured, which could have been used.

These euphonic and connotative qualities also prevent substitution for another purely linguistic, though not semantic, reason ? any substitution would destroy the euphonic effect. Consider, for instance, the result of synonymic substitution in the above alliterative pair safe and sound. Secure and uninjured has the same denotational meaning but sounds so dull and trivial that the phrase may be considered destroyed and one is justified in saying that safe and sound admits no substitution.

Rhythmic qualities are characteristic of almost all set expressions. They are especially marked in such pairs as far and wide, far and near ?many places both near and distant?; by fits and starts ?irregularly?; heart and soul ?with complete devotion to a cause?. Rhythm is combined with reiteration in the following well-known phrases: more and more, on and on, one by one, through and through. Alliteration occurs in many cases: part and parcel ?an essential and necessary part?; with might and main ?with all one?s powers?; rack and ruin ?a state of neglect and collapse?; then and there ?at once and on the spot?; from pillar to post?, in for a penny, in for a pound?, head over heels; without rhyme or reason?, pick of the pops?, a bee in one?s bonnet?, the why and wherefore. It is interesting to note that alliterative phrases often contain obsolete elements, not used elsewhere. In the above expressions these are main, an obsolete synonym to might, and rack, probably a variant of wreck.

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As one of the elements becomes obsolete and falls out of the language, demotivation may set in, and this, paradoxical though it may seem, also tends to increase the stability and constancy of a set expression. The process is complicated, because the preservation of obsolete elements in set expressions is in its turn assisted by all the features mentioned above. Some more examples of set expressions containing obsolete elements are: hue and cry ?a loud clamour about something? (a synonymic pair with the obsolete word hue); leave in the lurch ?to leave in a helpless position? (with the obsolete noun lurch meaning ?ambush?); not a whit ?not at all? (with the obsolete word whit ? a variant of wight ?creature?, ?thing? ?not used outside this expression and meaning ?the smallest thing imaginable?).

Rhyme is also characteristic of set expressions: fair and square ?honest?; by hook or by crook ?by any method, right or wrong? (its elements are not only rhymed but synonymous). Out and about ?able to go out? is used about a convalescent person. High and dry was originally used about ships, meaning ?out of the water?, ?aground?; at present it is mostly used figuratively in several metaphorical meanings: ?isolated?, ?left without help?, ?out of date?. This capacity of developing an integer (undivided) transferred meaning is one more feature that makes set expressions similar to words.

Semantic stylistic features contracting set expressions into units of fixed context are simile, contrast, metaphor and synonymy. For example: as like as two peas, as old as the hills and older than the hills (simile); from beginning to end, for love or money, more or less, sooner or later (contrast); a lame duck, a pack of lies, arms race, to swallow the pill, in a nutshell (metaphor); by leaps and bounds, proud and haughty (synonymy). A few more combinations of different features in the same phrase are: as good as gold, as pleased as Punch, as fit as a fiddle (alliteration, simile); now or never, to kill or cure (alliteration and contrast). More rarely there is an intentional pun: as cross as two sticks means ?very angry?. This play upon words makes the phrase jocular. The comic effect is created by the absurdity of the combination making use of two different meanings of the word cross a and n.

To a linguistically conscious mind most set expressions tend to keep their history. It remains in them as an intricate force, and the awareness of their history can yield rewarding pleasure in using or hearing them. Very many examples of metaphors connected with the sea can be quoted: be on the rocks, rest on the oars, sail close to the wind, smooth sailing, weather the storm. Those connected with agriculture are no less expressive and therefore easily remembered: plough the sand, plough a lonely furrow, reap a rich harvest, thrash (a subject) out.

For all practical purposes the boundary between set expressions and free phrases is vague. The point that is to be kept in mind is that there are also some structural features of a set expression correlated with its invariability.

There are, of course, other cases when set expressions lose their metaphorical picturesqueness, having preserved some fossilised words and

phrases, the meaning of which is no longer correctly understood. For instance, the expression buy a pig in a poke may be still used, although poke ?bag? (cf . pouch, pocket) does not occur in other contexts. Expressions taken from obsolete sports and occupations may survive in their new figurative meaning. In these cases the euphonic qualities of the expression are even more important. A muscular and irreducible phrase is also memorable. The muscular feeling is of special importance in slogans and battle cries. Saint George and the Dragon for Merrie England, the medieval battle cry, was a rhythmic unit to which a man on a horse could swing his sword. The modern Scholarships not battleships] can be conveniently scanned by a marching crowd.

To sum up, the memorableness of a set expression, as well as its unity, is assisted by various factors within the expression such as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, imagery and even the muscular feeling one gets> when pronouncing them.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 87