Page 63 - 4805

eggs in one basket; don't cast pearls before swine > to cast pearls
before swine.

2. Different approaches to the classification of
phraseological units.
So, a phraseological unit is a complex phenomenon with a
number of important features, which can therefore be approached
from different points of view. Hence, there exist a considerable
number of different classifications devised by defferent scholars
and based on different principles.
Semantic approach stresses the importance of idiomaticity,
functional – syntactic inseparability, contextual – stability of
context combined with idiomaticity. The traditional and oldest
principle for classifying phraseological units is based on their
original content and might be alluded to as thematic (although the
term is not universally accepted). The approach is widely used in
numerous English and American guides to idiom, phrase books,
etc. On this principle, idioms are classified according to their
sources of origin, "source" referring to the particular sphere of
human activity, of life of nature, of natural phenomena, etc. So, L.
P. Smith gives in his classification groups of idioms used by
sailors, fishermen, soldiers, hunters and associated with the realia,
phenomena and conditions of their occupations. In Smith's
classification we also find groups of idioms associated with
domestic and wild animals and birds, agriculture and cooking.
There are also numerous idioms drawn from sports, arts, etc. This
principle of classification is sometimes called etymological. The
term does not seem appropriate since we usually mean something
different when we speak of the etymology of a word or word-
group: whether the word (or word-group) is native or borrowed,
and, if the latter, what is the source of borrowing. It is true that
Smith makes a special study of idioms borrowed from other
languages, but that is only a small part of his classification system.
The general principle is not etymological. Smith points out that

62