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ЯЗЫКОЗНАНИЕ
УДК 811.111:811.112.2:811.113.6:[81'373.72 DOI: 10.17223/19996195/34/1
ISOMORPHIC MODELS IN SOMATIC PHRASEOLOGY BASED ON SYNECDOCHE IN ENGLISH, GERMAN AND SWEDISH
T.N. Fedulenkova
Abstract. The paper is targeted at contrastive analysis of English, German and Swedish phraseological units based on synecdoche, which is considered, alongside metaphor and metonymy, to be one of the most frequent types of semantic transformation of the genetic prototype of idioms and other phraseological units. I shall keep to the term a phraseological unit as an umbrella one, because of the ambiguity and lack of distinctiveness of the term idiom. Com-ponential-semantic analysis is based on the method of phraseological identification suggested by A.V. Kunin. The object of analysis is restricted to the phraseological units including a somatic component. The paper results in singling out a number of isomorphic structural-semantic phraseological models in the three Germanic languages under stydy: English, German and Swedish. Keywords: English; German; Swedish; phraseological units; semantic transformation; isomorphic models.
Introduction
To begin with, the contrastive approach is a comparatively new one in the field of phraseology. It is not even mentioned in the set of other approaches - semantic approaches, lexicalist approaches, syntactic approaches, functional approaches, lexicographical approaches - in the recent Rosalind Moon's book on fixed expressions and idioms based on her doctoral thesis [1. P. 9-18].
In the late forties of XX century the term isomorphism was introduced into linguistics by J. Kurilowicz, who borrowed it from mathematics, and in the past five decades its application has proved to be productive in contras-tive studies of different language units, idioms as well as other phraseological units inclusive. In respect to the comparative study of the Russian and English languages, the idea of isomorphism was appealed to by Vladimir D. Arakin [2. P. 25] in the late seventies and early eighties. V.D. Arakin maintained that one of the aims of typological analysis is to find out systematic instances of isomorphism of different languages, i.e. to find out the likeness of not only their micro-systems but also of their subsystems and the whole systems. The idea of allomorphism was developed by V.D. Arakin [3] with the view of his programme of methodical prediction taking into consid-
eration the phenomena of discrepancy between grammatical categories in English and in Russian, which is supposed to be helpful in avoiding mistakes in the foreign language acquisition.
Methods of research
A set of methods is used in the paper to achieve the target of the research. First of all I appeal to the method of phraseological identification, that was suggested by the father of English theoretical phraseology Alexander V. Kunin [4] in the middle sixties, and is still relevant (a) in the selection of phraseological material for a research of not only Enlglish phraseology but German and Swedish phraseology as well, and (b) in sorting out phraseological units of a continuum of stable word combinations and set expression of non-phraseological character. Secondly, I appeal to the method of comparative and typological studies of languages developed by the outstanding linguist Vladimir D. Arakin whose ideas appear to be highly efficient in the way of comparison of the structure and semantics of Germanic phraseology and in finding out some isomorphic features in it [5. P. 1-38]. A number of accompanying methods is also employed, among them there are the following: the method of phraseological analysis, the method of phraseological description [6. P. 41] and the method of typological study of phraseology developed by Dmitry Dobrovolskiy [7].
Items of Analysis
Semantic transformations based on synecdoche are characterized by transference of meaning of the fragment of some object or phenomenon to the whole object or phenomenon, or vice versa, the nomination of the whole is applied to its part. The nuclear components of such phraseological units are often presented by somatic lexemes hand - Hand - hand, eye - Auge -öga, ear - Ohr - öra, nose - Nase - näsa, and more seldom by the lexeme tongue - Zunge - tunga in English, German and Swedish correspondingly.
The universal character of the association 'the part of the body ^ the subject' is confirmed by the existence of a number of phraseological units based on synecdoche in the three Germanic languages, cf.:
(e.g. 1) English: ...stood... a man in grey who, to an educated eye, looked not quite unlike the man who had been sweeping St. Edmund Street (K. Amis. The Alteration. P. 173).
(e.g. 2) German: ... dies Wort Stalins... war ein für deutsche Ohren tröstliches, ermutigendes Wort (W. Bredel. Die Enkel. S. 592).
(e.g. 3) Swedish: ...det var naturligtvis inte sä svärt för elak tunga... (B. Runeborg, De bländade. S. 257).
In the course of the research, I find out the fact that the majority of the phraseological units under analysis have a two-topmost structure (for the
term see A.I. Smirnitskiy [8. P. 211-219]), namely: a verbal-substantive, adjectival-substantive and numeral-substantive one.
The verbal-substantive phraseological units are PUs with one-literal nominative constant-variant-changeable meaning (for the term see A.V. Kunin [9. P. 331-332]): (a) see with one's own eyes, mit eigene Augen sehen, se med egna ögon; (b) hear with one 's own ears, mit (seinen) eigenen Ohren hören, höra med sina egna öron; (c) do with/ by one's own hand(s), mit eigener Hand machen, göra med egen hand.
It is obvious that all these phraseological units are characterized by isomorphic structural and semantic organization. Firstly, they are all built according to the identical grammatical pattern V + Prep + (9's) + Adj + + Nsom, where the changeable component (the symbol 9's is mine [10. P. 131]), or the alternant, as Alexander V. Kunin puts it [11. P. 169] is an obligatory element of the structure in English PUs and an optional one in German and Swedish PUs. Secondly, they demonstrate common semantics, which is based on transformation of meaning in the PU prototype according to the identical semantic pattern: 'adequate-for-the-organ-of-the-sense action + somatic lexeme ^ to perform the action by oneself. Thus, it is possible to state that there exists an interlingual phraseological model, which reveals a certain inner interdependence of the complex of grammatical constants and of the complex of semantic constants.
The intensification of the semantic constant, which expresses independence of action, is due to the structural character of the pattern and, first of all, due to the changeable component expressed by a possessive pronoun. This tendency is the weakest in Swedish where the changeable component sina is an optional one, which makes higher the degree of stability of the phraseological units in the language, cf.:
(e.g. 4) Med egna ögon hoppades han träffa pä det grovt rubbade (L. Ahlin. Fromma mord. S. 18).
(e.g. 5) Jag hör nu med mina egna öron, att du är den besta spel-mannen i Värmland, sade hon (S. Lagerlöf. En saga om en saga. S. 120).
(e.g. 6) ...han hade med egen hand stöttat up narcisserna... (A. Strindberg. I varbrytningen. S. 83).
There has been found a group of phraseological units under study that is comprised by the PUs of the type: Eng. change hands with the meaning of - to obtain a new master, join hands - to unite efforts, force smb's hands - to strengthen smb's power, Germ. die Hände mit etw beschmutzen - to become involved into something dishonest, die Hände weglassen - to leave smb alone, j-m in die Hände geraten - to become smb's victim, Swed. binda nägons händer - to deprive smb of the ability to act freely, räka i händerna pä nägon - to get under smb's power, etc. The peculiarity of the phraseological units lies in the fact that semantic-structural coherence of their components is accompanied by a synecdo-cheal shift of the meaning in the somatic component and by a metaphorical
transformation in the non-somatic component. For instance, in the interlingual morphological variants Germ. seinen Augen nicht trauen, Swed. inte tro sina ögon and their English lexico-morphologo-quantitative variant not to believe one's own eyes the somatic component Augen - ögon - eyes, undergoes meaning change due to synecdoche, and as a result, denotes the whole (namely: a person's state of mind), the part of which it presents. The transference of meaning here is intensified by the metaphoric shift of the component trauen - tro - believe, cf.:
(e.g. 7) Eng. Am I to believe my own eyes or not? (B. Shaw. The Man of Destiny. P. 712).
(e.g. 8) Germ. Und Maud sah - sie traute ihren Augen nicht - daß ein zerlumptes Weib mit zerfetztem Kittel und vor Wut schielenden Augen einen Stein aufhob (B. Kellerman. Der Tunnel. S. 195).
(e.g. 9) Swed. Att hon säg er hand i handpä Djurgarden i somras, när jag var kvar i Bretagne. Hon trodde inte sina ögon (B. Bergström. Det gat-fulla barnet. S. 189).
The interlingual phraseological variants with the somatic component ear - Ohr - öra, such as Ger. seinen Ohren nicht trauen, Swed. inte tro sina öron and their interlinqual lexico-morphological variant Eng. not to believe ones ears, are built according to the same phraseological model, i.e. their complex of grammatical constants is presented by the structure Prtc + V + + 9's + Nsom and their complex of semantic constants is presented by the semantic pattern 'negation of confidence / credibility gap + somatic lexeme ^ to be amazed by smth', cf.:
(e.g. 10) Eng. ...she couldnt believe her ears... it was the end... (L.R. Banks. Children at the gate. P. 243).
(e.g. 11) Germ. Diewen start sie an, als traue er seinen Ohren nicht und wolle sich nun mit den Augen überzeugen (W. Bredel. Dein Unbekannter Bruder. S. 237).
(e.g. 12) Swed. Nä, sä bär vi ut eländet dä, sa han och Harry trodde inte sina öron (L. Ahlin. Egen Spis. S. 222).
The contextual illustrations given above (e.g. 10-12) show that the image base of the correlated PUs is the character of comprehension of information which comes to the sense organ denoted by the somatic lexemes eye - Auge - öga and ear - Ohr - öra.
In the interlingual lexico-morphologo-quantitative variants Eng. reach / come to smb's ears and Swed. komma till nägons öron and in the correlated German morphologo-syntactic variant j-m zu Ohren kommen the image base is the mere fact of coming / non-coming of such information. Nevertheless, the binary character of semantic transformations -the metaphorization of the verbal PU component and the synecdocheal shift in the meaning of the somatic component - is also evident in this case, cf.:
(e.g. 13) Eng. ...and their shouts were muffled before they reached Lizas ears (W.S. Maugham. Liza of Lambeth. P. 24).
(e.g. 14) Germ. Es wird auch Ihnen vielleicht schon zu Ohren gekommen sein, daß wir Krieg führen... (W. Bredel. Die Enkel. S. 513).
(e.g. 15) Swed. Dä kom det till hans öron att man kallade honom för Frimärket (L. Ahlin. Natt i marknadstälten. S. 194).
Evidently, the analogy is observed in the formation of the image base as well as in the semantic transformations of components in the set of phraseological units with the somatic component eyes - Augen - ögon, where Engl. come to one 's eyes and Swed. komma för nägons ögon are interlingual lexico-morphological variants and their German correlation j-m vor Augen kommen is a morphologo-syntactic variant as related to the Swedish PU and a lexico-morphologo-syntactic variant as related to the English PU, cf.:
(e.g. 16) Eng. ..she took pains that nothing too flaunting should come to his eyes... (W.S. Maugham. The Merry-go-round. P. 46).
(e.g. 17) Germ. ...und er überschlug im Geist rasch die Bildseiten der illustrierten Blätter, die ihm in den letzten Wochen vor Augen gekommen waren (H. Fallada. Wolf unter Wölfen. S. 715).
(e.g. 18) Swed. Mä den aldrig mer komma för mina ögon! (S. Lagerlöf. Antikrists mirakler. S. 171).
The two PU sets under study present in themselves a series of language units built around the verb come - kommen - komma and their phraseological model is characterized by the complex of grammatical constants V + Prep + 9's + Nsom and by the complex of semantic constants 'verb of movement + somatic lexeme ^ to be received as information'.
The functional purposefulness of the image is also characteristic of the group of somatic phraseological units with the component hand - Hand -hand. The same category-essential quality (i.e. the same part-of-speech meaning) of the semantically leading component, the identity of structural constants of the compared PUs testify to the fact that these phraseological units form series in every of the three languages with synonymic and anto-nymic paradigms within the frames of the series:
Eng. fall into bad hands, fall into worthless hands, fall into good hands, fall into smb's hands, pass into smb's hands, pass through many hands;
Germ. in schlechte Hände geraten, in gute Hände geben, in zuverlässige Hände fallen, durch jemandes Hände gehen;
Swed. komma i däliga händer, komma i goda händer, komma i säkera händer, komma under nägons händer, lämna nägot i goda händer.
The inrterlingual correlates of the phraseological units under study represent lexical-morphological variants owing to the variation of verbal and adjectival components and to differences in their morphological forms.
By means of structural-semantic analysis one more PU group based on synecdoche is found out, i.e. group embracing adjectival-substantive phrase-
ological units which are characterized by full transference of meaning. They have the following complex of grammatical constants: (d) + Adj + Nsom and their complex of semantic constants is formulated as follows: 'nomination of the quality + somatic lexeme ^ qualitative characteristic of the subject'. Thus, structural-semantic modelling is characteristic of them:
Eng. a cool hand, a loose hand, a numb hand, an odd hand, a heavy hand, a high hand;
Germ. eine glückliche Hand, eine lange Hand, eine leichte Hand, eine lockere Hand, eine lose Hand, eine schwere Hand;
Swed. en full hand, en hjälpsam hand, en ren hand, en säker hand. Nevertheless, full interlingual correlates are not numerous among them, which testifies to a high degree of independence in molding this PU group in every language under study, cf.:
(e.g. 19) Eng. ...his secretary was his right hand (Urdang. Longman Dictionary of English Idioms. P. 145).
(e.g. 20) Germ. Vierzehn Mitglieder der Bande wurden festgenommen, unter ihnen der "Lange ", ein Deutscher, die rechte Hand des Bandenführers (W. Bredel. Ein Neues Kapitel. S. 231).
(e.g. 21) Swed. Nej! Du skall bli min högra hand (Informant). One more PU group based on synecdoche is found out, embracing numerical-substantive phraseological units that are characterized by partial transference of meaning:
Eng. at first hand, at second hand, at third hand, etc.; Germ. aus erster Hand, aus zweiter Hand, aus dritter Hand, etc.; Swed. ur första hand, ur andra hand, ur tredje hand, etc. They have the following complex of grammatical constants: Prep + Num + Nsom and their complex of semantic constants is defined as follows: 'nomination of the order + somatic lexeme ^ qualitative characteristic of the source (of getting smth)'. Thus, structural-semantic modelling is characteristic of those phraseological units, cf.:
(e.g. 22) Eng. He understood that it was hard at second hand to make men realize the state of things in that distant land (W.S. Maugham. The Explorer. P. 55).
(e.g. 23) Germ. Was sind das alles für Reden, Genossen, was für Vermutungen aus zweiter Hand, wo ich selbst von der Zentrale komme (F. Wolf. Floridsdorf. S. 50).
(e.g. 24) Swed. ...och medjämna mellanrum erhöll erunderrättelser ur andra hand... (S. Arner. Tvärbalk. S. 279).
In German and Swedish there is another identical numerical-substantive PU model with the semantic constant 'involoving two people who are together in the same place': Germ. unter vier Augen, Swed. mellan fyra ögon. Their functional peculiarity consists in that those phraseological units are mainly used with the verbs denoting speech acts:
(e.g. 25) Germ. ...und unter vier Augen mit Ihnen zu sprechen... (Th. Mann. Lotta in Weimer. S. 122-123).
(e.g. 26) Swed. Hon gjorde nägot med händerna som antagligen avsäg att päminna mig om vad hon hade sagt mellan fyra ögon (L. Ahlin. Stora glömskan. S. 223).
A number of PU based on synecdoche embraces one-topmost prepositional-substantive phraseological units having the structural constant Prep + Nsom and the semantic constants (a) 'by means of: by hand, an jemandes Hand, för hand and (b) 'in somebody's opinion': in one's eyes, in seinen Augen, i nägons ögon, cf.:
(e.g. 27) Eng. In her eyes Alec had everything; he was the right age for me, he had 'position', character, good looks... (L.R. Banks. Children at the Gate. P. 60).
(e.g. 28) Germ. Sie sind ein Verräter in seinen Augen, ein Defätist (A. Seghers. Die Entscheidung. S. 97).
(e.g. 29) Swed. I hennes ögon var han redan föfattare fast han ännu inte hade lyckat fä nägon bokantagen (L. Ahlin. Jungfrun i det gröna. S. 18-19).
The latter set of phraseological correlates has a variable structural constant Prep + (d) + Nsom + Prep + 9, cf.:
(e.g. 30) Eng. ... it might 'lower our prestige' in the eyes of 'all these messy foreigners' (R. Aldington. Death of a Hero. P. 330).
(e.g. 31) Germ. ...daß das nichts Gewönliches war, jedenfalls nicht in den Augen ihrer Kinder (B. Brecht. Gesammelte Werke 11. Prosa 1. S. 316).
(e.g. 32) Swed. Den store mäste framstä stor i ögon pä massans (L. Ahlin. Bark och löv. S. 321).
Conclusions. Thus, the complex structural and semantic analysis of correlated phraseological units based on synecdoche enables me to find out five isomorphic models in the somatic phraseology of the three Germanic languages under study, namely:
1) isomorphic model 1:
(a) structural constant - V + Prep + (9's) + Adj + Nsom:
(b) complex of semantic constants - 'adequate-for-the-organ-of-the-sense action + somatic lexeme ^ to perform the action by oneself;
2) isomorphic model 2:
(a) structural constant - Prtc + V + 9's + Nsom:
(b) complex of semantic constants - 'negation of confidence / credibility gap + somatic lexeme ^ to be amazed by smth';
3) isomorphic model 3:
(a) structural constant - V + Prep + 9's + Nsom:
(b) complex of semantic constants - 'verb of movement + somatic lexeme ^ to be received as information';
4) isomorphic model 4:
(a) structural constant - (d) + Adj + Nsom:
(b) complex of semantic constants - 'nomination of the quality + somatic lexeme ^ qualitative characteristic of the subject'; 5) isomorphic model 5:
(a) structural constant - Prep + Num + Nsom:
(b) complex of semantic constants - 'nomination of the order + + somatic lexeme ^ qualitative characteristic of the source (of getting smth)'.
To sum it up, the modeling of phraseological units based on synecdoche reveals their low degree of semantic coherence. It shows that their meaning is motivated as far as their inner form is transparent which may be declared as a plraseological universal.
References
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[Typology of languages and methodical problem of forecasting]. Moscow: Vysshaya shkola.
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Information about the authors:
Fedulenkova T.N., Doctor of Philology, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages of Professional Communication, Vladimir State University (Vladimir, Russia). E-mail: [email protected]
Received 24 May 2016
ИЗОМОРФНЫЕ МОДЕЛИ В СОМАТИЧЕСКОЙ ФРАЗЕОЛОГИИ, ОСНОВАННОЙ НА СИНЕКДОХЕ, В АНГЛИЙСКОМ, НЕМЕЦКОМ И ШВЕДСКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ
Федуленкова Татьяна Николаевна, доктор филологических наук, профессор кафедры иностранных языков профессиональной коммуникации Владимирского государственного университета (Владимир, Россия). Е-mail: [email protected]
Аннотация. Статья посвящена сопоставительному анализу английской, немецкой и шведской фразеологии, основанной на синекдохе, которая вместе с метафорой и метонимией принадлежит к наиболее частотным типам семантической трансформации генетического прототипа идиом и других фразеологических единиц. В качестве основного в работе используется термин фразеологическая единица вследствие неоднозначности и отсутствия четкости термина идиома. Компонентно-семантический анализ основан на методе фразеологической идентификации, предложенном А.В. Куниным. Объект исследования органичен фразеологическими единицами, включающими в свой состав соматический компонент. В результате анализа выявляется ряд изоморфных структурно-семантических фразеологических моделей в изучаемых трех германских языках: английском, немецком и шведском.
Ключевые слова: английский; немецкий; шведский; фразеологическая единица; семантическая трансформация; изоморфные модели.
