Re-evaluation of Idioms

Peculiar use of set expressions can also be named stylistic phraseology or phraseological stylistics, as it studies phraseological units in their no ordinary application in a text (the term phraseology was suggested by Soviet scholars, after a Swiss linguist Chales Bally who introduced the term «phraseologie» in the meaning of «a branch of Stylistics dealing with coherent word-combinations»). In Western linguistic schools the corresponding term idiomacity is used instead.

All kinds of set phrases (phraseological units) generally possess the property of expressiveness. The field of phraseology or idiomacity in any language is so varied and fascinating that one could spend an entire lifetime analyzing it and looking at it from various viewpoints. In linguistics, phraseology describes the context in which a word is used. This often includes typical usages/sequences, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and multi-word units.

Phraseological unit or idiom is a ready-made combination of words reproduced in speech as a unity. The constant characteristic features are:

· Linguistic stability

· Semantic unity

· Intact syntactical structure

In other words, phraseological unit is a fixed word-combination in which the meaning if the whole doesn’t depend on the meaning of its components.

1) The cliché. A cliché is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. It is generally used in a negative context and expressed by idioms.

«Cliché» applies also to almost any situation, subject, characterization, figure of speech, or object – in short, any sign – that has become overly familiar or commonplace. Because the novelty or frequency of an expression's use varies across different times and places, whether or not it is a cliché depends largely on who uses it, the context in which it is used, and who is making the judgment.

E.g. times are changing, as easy as a piece of cake, as wet as blood, as clear as day. You can find plenty of them on www.clichésite.com.

The examples above also represent a special kind of simile – equatives (comparative structures of an equal degree of the quality involved).

The meaning of a particular cliché may shift over time, often leading to confusion or misuse.

2) Proverbs and sayings.

A proverb (from the Latin proverbium) is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical experience of mankind. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim. If a proverb is distinguished by particularly good style, it may be known as an aphorism.

Proverbs are often borrowed from different languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to the present through more than one language. Both the Bible and medieval Latin have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs across Western Europe and even further.

The study of proverbs is called paremiology (from Greek paremia = proverb) and can be dated back as far as Aristotle. Paremiography, on the other hand, is the collection of proverbs. Currently, the foremost proverb scholar in the United States is Wolfgang Mieder, who defines the term proverb as follows:

«A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.» (Mieder 1985:119)

Typical stylistic features of proverbs (as Shirley Arora points out in The Perception of Proverbiality (1984)) are:

· alliteration (Forgive and forget)

· parallelism (Nothing ventured, nothing gained)

· rhyme (When the cat is away, the mice will play)

· ellipsis (Once bitten, twice shy)

Internal features that can be found quite frequently include:

· hyperbole (All is fair in love and war)

· paradox (The longest way around is the shortest way home)

· personification (Hunger is the best cook)

To make the respective statement more general most proverbs are based on a metaphor. Further typical features of the proverb are its shortness (average: seven words), and the fact that its author is generally unknown (otherwise it would be a quotation).

A saying/a trite saying/expression is something that is said, notable in one respect or another.

E.g. willy-nilly, thumbs up/thumbs down, ugly duckling. More of them on www.users.tinyonline.co.uk.

3) An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. They are among the best examples of the power of poetry to compress insight and wit.

Epigram is in origin a Greek word, 'epigramma' – «written upon» – and the Western tradition of epigram ultimately looks back to Greek literary models. As the name indicates, though, epigram began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuaries – including statues of athletes – and on funerary monuments («Go tell it to the Spartans, passer-by...»). These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period.

In early English literature the short couplet poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and proverb. Since 1600, two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other, known as a couplet featured as a part of the longer sonnet form, most notably in William Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet number 76 is an excellent example. The two line poetic form as a closed couplet was also used by William Blake in his poem Auguries of Innocence and later by Byron (Don Juan XIII); John Gay (Fables); Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man).

In the early part of the 20th century a short image form of the Poetic epigrams was created by Adelaide Crapsey whereby she codified this Couplet form into a two line rhymed verse of ten syllables per line.

What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole;

Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.

But Money gives me pleasure all the time.

— Hilaire Belloc