ONOMASIOLOGICAL

APPROACH:
PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
WITH SPECIAL ELEMENTS
English PUs with black:
 negative or evil: the black
sheep (of the family),
 Illegal: black market,
 morally disgraceful: be in sb’s
black books,
 anger: look as black as
thunder.
English PUs with white:
 positive connotations: a white hope;
 mitigating effect: a white lie;
 innocence or purity: white wedding BUT ALSO
 negative or evil: show the white feather;
show the white flag;
 social implication → race: the white
man’s burden.
English PUs with blue:
 sadness and depression: I’m feeling blue
→ a whole type of music, i.e., blues.
 different other meanings:
blue film (= a film containing obscene
material);
sb’s/the blue-eyed boy (= favourite);
a blue funk (= state of great fear);
out of the blue (= unexpectedly).
Figurative meanings:
 head: lose one’s head;
 ear: shut/close one’s ears to sth.

Different languages → structural & semantic peculiarities:

Chinese: heart ‘place of emotions’, ‘source of thought’,

Literal equivalents in European languages → from Latin:

Four eyes see more than two;
What you haven’t got in your head, you have in your feet.

The most frequent body part terms: hand(s), head(s), eye(s),

heart, foot/feet, ear(s), finger(s), nose, neck, back, mouth,
heel.
The onymic element:
 toponyms (= geographical names),
 anthroponyms (= first names & family names).
Origin:
 historical events: cross/pass the Rubicon;
 Greek mythology & ancient literature: a/the
sword of Damocles; Achilles’ heel;
 rivalries between countries:
take French leave → French soldiers’ lack of
courage (French: filer (s’en aller) à l’anglaise
’take English leave‘)
Dutch courage go Dutch be (all) Greek to sb
Common, prototypical example of a person or
object:
any/every Tom, Dick and Harry ‘the ordinary
people’

Jack (from the children’s nursery rhyme Jack and

Jill):
a Jack/jack of all trades (and master of none)
I’m all right, Jack
Jack is as good as his master
every man Jack/jack
All work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy)
keeping up with the Joneses
Origin: New York Globe cartoonist Arthur R.
Momand, in 1913 as the title of his comic
strip. Momand‘s personal letter: “At first I
thought of calling it Keeping up with the
Smiths, but finally decided on Keeping up
with the Joneses as being more
euphonious.”
 PUs with proper names or colour
terms: send sb to Coventry; be green
with envy
 winged words → history or literature:
read (sb) the Riot Act
a catch-22 situation

→ TYPICALLY ENGLISH
International:
 identical expressions in many languages → loan
translation;
 common sources (Bible or Greek mythology);
 language contact.
‘do sth that is completely unnecessary’ →
‘transport sth to a place where there is plenty
of it already’:
carry/take coals to Newcastle
culture-dependent
Russian:‘go to Tula with one’s own samovar’
Images created by different
cultures for the same content in
PUs:
 evidence of universal features &
regularities in human cognition;
 people’s extralinguistic
associations & collective
experience.