ON THE USE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TEXTS

Transcription

1 ON THE USE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TEXTS Anastasia GNATIUC, IRIM Recenzenţi: Zinaida CAMENEV, doctor în filologie, conferenţiar universitar Alexei CHIRDEACHIN, doctor în filologie Studierea frazeologismelor utilizate în articolele politice şi economice din presa contemporană reprezintă o problemă actuală în lingvistică. Scopul lucrării este de a evidenţia frecvenţa folosirii frazeologismelor, precum şi a clasele lor după principiul clasificării sintactice. De asemenea, s-a intenţionat analiza transformărilor frazeologismelor în sursele studiate şi propunerea de noi divizări pe categorii. În prezentul articol se analizează diversele clasificări ale unităţilor frazeologice, principiile lor fundamentale şi tipurile în care ele se subdivizează. Pentru investigaţia dată s-au analizat unităţile frazeologice în articolele din diferite publicaţii, astfel s-a constatat că cele mai întrebuinţate sunt tipul verbal şi adverbial, în timp ce tipurile adjectival, interjecţional şi conjuncţional n-au fost utilizate deloc. Ca rezultat s-a demonstrat nivelul nu prea înalt de întrebuinţare a frazeologismelor în articolele pe teme politice şi economice. De asemenea, au fost cercetate transformările frazeologismelor în articolele studiate. Numărul mare de transformări interesante ale unităţilor frazeologice în presă demonstrează, încă o dată, crearea şi popularizarea stereotipurilor noi de către mass media. The given article investigates the problem of functioning of phraseological units (PU) in modern English and American political and economic articles. The volume of an article does not allow us to study and compare all possible types of PU in the press; therefore, we decided to focus on the syntactical classification of phraseological units in political and economic articles. We are interested to investigate to what extent the authors of serious articles on politics and economics can be emotional and humorous. In this article we aim to analyze the frequency of PU in such articles in general, discover the most preferable structural type, and to study the transformations the РU undergo in such articles. English and American scientific literature has a scarce number of books on the theory of phraseology, as it is not treated as a separate discipline. Most of the problems are investigated in the works on semantics, grammar and in the appendices to phraseological or idiomatic dictionaries. These were mostly Russian linguists who dedicated numerous works to the study of PU and described these units as non-motivated word-groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units [1, p.74]. Classification Types of PU. In the course of the last fifty years there have made numerous attempts to classify PU. Linguists interested in this problem suggested different classifications according to various criteria. A great contribution to the development of such discipline as phraseology was made by the Russian scientist V.V.Vinogradov, whose semantic classification is based upon the motivation of the unit, i.e. the relationship existing between the meaning of the whole and the meaning of its component parts. [2, p.155] He subdivided PU into three categories: phraseological fusions, phraseological unities, and phraseological combina- 327

2 ANUAR ŞTIINŢIFIC tions. Phraseological fusions are completely non-motivated units, such as to pass the buck, little Mary, fuss and feathers. Russian linguists equal them to idioms. Phraseological unities are clearly motivated word-groups whose meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit [Ginzburg, p.75], for example: reap one s laurels, sail under false colours, you are the doctor. And phraseological combinations (I.V.Arnold) or phraseological collocations (Ginzburg) are partially motivates word-groups, in which one of the components is used in its direct meaning, like lantern jaws, it stands to reason, meet the demand. Another classification type is structural one, based on the ability of PU to fulfill different syntactical functions in a sentence. According to this principle, PU can be subdivided into nominal phrases (a master of the situation), verbal phrases (wag one s tongue), adjectival phrases (as busy as a bee), adverbial phrases (in full blast), prepositional phrases (a matter of), conjunctional phrases (as long as), interjectional phrases (by hook or by crook). Moreover, each of these structural types has its numerous subdivisions. Professor A.V. Koonin worked out a different system based on the structural and semantic principles taken together and this time took into account the factor of stability of PU. This eminent linguist subdivided PU into: nominative, representing phrases fulfilling nominative function (Jack Frost), nominative and communicative consisting of verbal combinations (nail to the counter), interjectional (God Almighty), and communicative representing a rich variety of English proverbs and sayings (near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin). Some authors also use etymologic principle of classification of PU. The importance of this principle lies in the fact that the study of the origin of PU helps understand the culture of the nation whose language has certain phraseological units. According to this principle, English PU can be classified as truly English and borrowed. One of the most common criteria of classification of PU is thematic principle. It is the most preferable type of both Russian and Western authors (V.V. Sytel, L.P.Smith, V.H.Collins, P.P..Litvinov), who arrange phraseological units by classes, such as ones containing the names of colours, parts of human body, animals, natural phenomena, fruit and vegetables etc. Yet, this criterion disregards linguistic peculiarities of phraseologisms. The types of classifications are so numerous and various that it was hard to choose the most successful one for our research. Still, we decided to take the structural criterion as the key instrument of our investigation as the most appropriate and well-defined. PU in Newspaper Style. Nowadays articles written in English cover the whole planet and are read in all countries on the pages of newspapers, magazines, different periodicals, as well as on web pages. The volume of the printed media in English is much greater than that of any other press and the range of the topics covered is manifold and diverse. The English of the media has a rich stock of idioms and phraseological units and their use is of great importance in the press. Phraseological units add emotional colouring to the texts and in such a way a language is enriched by intuitive description of our life. If, in the near past, it was literature that dictated the rules of word usage, nowadays these are mass media that change the norms of all languages. Newspaper style is abundant in phraseological units, which, in many cases, start to live their own life, undergoing some transformations in the process of creative use by journalists. The newspaper style is characterized by such specific forms as banners, headings, subheadings, items, 328

3 columns etc. All of them represent short forms of written text, and this compels a pressman make up brilliant, memorable, and witty phrases. Therefore, news people prefer PU with negative or comic stylistic colouring to arouse certain feelings. Phraseological units often become that raw material which undergoes some creative processing. Besides using PU from belles-lettres style and informal language, reporters enjoy mixing styles and playing on words, thus, enhancing even more their expressiveness. Phraseological Units in Political and Economic Articles. In this article we intend to analyze the frequency of PU and their structural classification in political and economic articles. We examined twelve recent articles from the British magazines Economist and American Time magazines dated from Two of the articles lacked PU at all. In the rest (10 articles) we found only 34 phraseological units. We came to the conclusion that, despite the affluence of idioms in the press, English and American political and economic articles do not contain a rich variety of PU. Among the PU analyzed in the articles, we found no interjectional, conjunctional, and adjectival phraseological units. This proves the fact that the authors of political articles do not afford sounding too colloquial and do not practice using clichés or stereotypical turns of speech. The table depicting the frequency of using PU in American and British political articles is presented in the following scheme: Verbal Adverbial Nominal Prepositional Proverbs Reopen old wounds Have blood on one s hands (Hit) a winning streak Spill some beans Beat the same drum Stand a chance Turn back the clock Take hold of Pave the way Wait in the wings Cut a more reassuring figure Stand a little chance Follow in somebody s footsteps Rise from the crypt Take a dramatic turn Leave a permanent mark Close its doors Increase the size of the thorn Scatter (cash) from the sky At odds with In a row At first sight In the longer run Under a cloud On the house On the other hand In somebody s place In the short term For good Hands down Frontrunner Prime evil Uncle Ted In favour of Honesty is the best policy 329

4 ANUAR ŞTIINŢIFIC As the scheme shows, the news people prefer using verbal PU in their articles. The second favourite structural type of PU is adverbial, while the other types (prepositional, nominal) are sparingly used. Obviously, such preference can be accounted for by the fact that verbal PU are more easily transformed into fresh and original phrases, which will at once catch the reader s attention. Tranformations of PU in the Press. In support of our words about the changes phraseological units undergo in the press, we discovered that more half of the verbal phraseological units found in the articles represent transformed PU. The journalists use the following principles and methods: 1. The omission of one the phraseological components. Such elliptical constructions make the speech more laconic and help create vivid imagery avoiding bulky phrases: A winning streak of Zapatero. In this example the subheading of an article the PU lacks the verb hit (hit a winning streak «постоянно выигрывать»), thus there takes place the substantivization of the existent PU. So Governor Ed Rendell is turning back the clock, proposing a slew of deals with the private sector, starting with a long-term lease of the 359-mile (578 km) Pennsylvania Turnpike, which could bring the state an estimated $12 billion to $18 billion up front. The PU to turn back the clock of history is shortened, as well as it is changed and shortened in Russian «повернуть колесо истории вспять» «повернуть время вспять». 2. Grammatical transformations of a PU. The changes are slight (addition of a prefix, change of the definite article into a determiner) and do not hinder our detecting the initial PU. Known as prime evil and serving 212-year sentence at a maximum-security prison, the former policeman, famous for niceties such as bludgeoning a prisoner to death with a snooker cue, has approached the NPA, presumably to spill some beans. The PU spill the beans «выдать секрет» is transformed in order to suggest the partial character of the information disclosed by the prisoner. A court case reopens old wounds. Besides the repetition of the action already suggested by the PU, the news person added prefix re- to emphasize its frequent occurence. The PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, beat the same drum at the state-of-the-nation debate before the summer parliamentary break, but to little effect. The PU beat the drum трубить (о чём-л.), шумно рекламировать with the introduction of the adjective the same acquired the new emphasis on the subject of the action meant. 3. The introduction into a PU some additional elements (mostly attributes) to reflect the context of the article. These transformations are novel and original, and do not take too much effort on the part of the writer. A party may take a dramatic turn to an unexpected nominee also as a result of an authentic internal debate about its direct. Only Reagan reached the White House and left a permanent mark on politics. Indeed, after nearly 18 months, as Fed chief, Mr Bernanke now cuts a more reassuring figure: determined but unflashy. Hashem's motivation may have been to save the lives of his own troops, who stood little chance against U.S. military might. 330

5 4. The substitution of some elements of a PU. In this case, the new component saves the sound image of the substituted word. Yes, yes, it's John McCain, rising from the crypt, but not as a zombie. Here the PU known as rise from the dead, (grave) - восстать из мёртвых, воскреснуть is transformed by substituting one of its elements for another with a similar meaning. On July 30 th agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service scoured a home owned by Uncle Ted in Girdwood, a suburb of Anchorage. The PU Uncle Sam, which serves as a personification of the US government, undergoes a change and becomes a play on words: Ted Stevens (a senator for Alaska) and his relation to the US government. Known as prime evil and serving 212-year sentence at a maximum-security prison, the former policeman. In this example, in the PU Evil One, which means the Devil, the cardinal determiner is changed into an ordinal one. In the short term The dictionary gives only the PU in the short run ; while in many American and British articles the above-mentioned PU is frequently used. 5. The last kind of transformation requires much originality on the part of the writer who makes use of a metaphoric image for the creation of a different context. Once caricatured as Helicopter Ben for suggesting that cash scattered from the sky would cure deflation The metaphorical meaning of the PU to drop from the skies (clouds) свалиться как снег на голову serves as the basis for the recreation of the image. Second, the passage of time is only going to increase the size of the thorn in the side of what is indeed a valuable relationship with Turkey. In this case only the image of the original PU a thorn in smb s flesh источник постоянного беспокойства, бельмо на глазу is kept, while the structure is completely changed. The facts presented prove that verbal PU is the most frequent structural type in American and British political and economic articles. Besides, these are verbal phraseological units that undergo various changes in such articles, leading to the already fixed PU ( in the short term ) in the language of the press or still author s original word combinations. Thus, their study is important as extra linguistic environment creates new stereotypes. As a result, in the course of time these transformed PU may become fixed in the language due to the popularity of the press. Referinţe 1. R. S. Ginzburg, S. S. Khidekel, G. Y. Knyazeva, A. A. Sankin. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. Second Edition. М.: Высш. школа, cтр. 2. И.В. Арнольд. Лексикология современного английского языка. М: «Высшая школа», cтр. Prezentat la