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contradicts the leading criterion of a phraseological unit suggested
by Professor Smirnitsky: it should be idiomatic. Professor Kunin
also objects to the inclusion of such wordgroups as black art, best
man, first night in phraseology (in Professor Smirnitsky's
classification system, the two-summit phraseological units) as all
these word-groups are not characterized by a transferred meaning.
It is also pointed out that verbs withpost-positions (e. g. give up)
are included in the classification but their status as phraseological
units is not supported by any convincing argument.
The classification system of phraseological units suggested
by Professor A. V. Kunin is the latest outstanding achievement in
the Russian theory of phraseology. The classification is based on
the combined structural-semantic principle and it also considers
the quotient ['kwəu (ə)nt] часть of stability of phraseological
units. Phraseological units are subdivided into the following four
classes according to their function in communication determined
by their structural-semantic characteristics.
1. Nominative phraseological units are represented by word-
groups, including the ones with one meaningful word, and
coordinative phrases of the type wear and tear, well and good. The
first class also includes word-groups with a predicative structure,
such as as the crow flies, and, also, predicative phrases of the type
see how the land lies, ships that pass in the night.
2. Nominative-communicative phraseological units include
word-groups of the type to break the ice – the ice is broken, that is,
verbal word-groups which are transformed into a sentence when
the verb is used in the Passive Voice.
3. Phraseological units which are neither nominative nor
communicative include interjectional word-groups.
4. Communicative phraseological units are represented by
proverbs and sayings.
These four classes are divided into sub-groups according to
the type of structure of the phraseological unit. The sub-groups
include further rubrics representing types of structural-semantic

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