PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE COMPONENT-METEONYMS «FOG», «MIST», «HAZE», «RAIN»
IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE K.L. Fedorova / К.Л. Фёдорова
The given scientific research concerns the problems of study of phraseologisms with the component-meteonyms. The term «a component-meteonym» is invented and worked out by the author of the article to show how the components, denoting weather changes, accomplish metaphorical sense in the English phraseology. We analyze the phraseological units with the component-meteonyms «fog», «mist», «haze», «rain» according to semantic and grammatical classes of A.M. Chepasova, professor from Chelyabinsk, Russia. The article is recommended and may be useful to linguists, persons who is enrolled into postgraduate education, students receiving the linguistic profession and all the people, interested in the language and culture of Great Britain.
The subject-matter of our scientific research are the phraseological units with the component-meteonyms «fog», «mist», «haze», «rain» in English. We define the given component as a part of the meteonym group – those components, which denote weather changes and its elements: cloudiness, precipitation, humidity, solar illumination, temperature, wind, pressure, electrical conditions, etc. Among meteonyms (from the Greek word «meteo» – the first composite part of compound words, whose lexical meaning corresponds to another word «meteorological», and from the Latin word «nomen» – name, designation) we single out rain, fog, mist, haze, wind, snow, thunder, thunderstorm, ice, hoarfrost, slush, lightning and so on. It is obvious that today linguists and philologists more and more pay attention to the problems of phraseological study. More often such phraseologisms are united by a common component. The interest to the phraseological stock of a language as a mirror of national self-consciousness of lingvocultural communities witnesses the currency of the theme.
Weather is considered to be the most discussed topic on the British islands. That is why an American journalist and writer-humourist Kin Hubbard said about the British people: «Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while» [www.velikobritaniya.org].
A. Fog, mist, haze
Fog is a climatic peculiarity of Great Britain. It is conditioned by the geographical situation of the country. The climate of Foggy Albion due to the influence of warm sea current Gulf Stream is moderate oceanic, humid, with soft winter and cool summer, strong wind blasts and fogs. In autumn and winter in Southeast, Western and Central England there are 50 foggy days as a rule, on the sea cost of English Channel – about 80 days with fog, in most ports there are from 15 up to 30 foggy days annually. In the morning mist and haze rise from the ground, usually they are not registrated by weather forecasters. Another distinctive feature of Great Britain is smog. Factory chimneys and fireplaces produce it. The steam floating in the air mixes with smoke and soot. White fog turns to black – «smoky fog» or grows brown – «pea soup». «Smoky fog» and especially «pea soup» paralyze flow of traffic. These facts could not but accomplish in day-to-day life, medical, trade and economic spheres, as well as in phraseology. We singled out in English four phraseological units with the component «fog», five phraseological units with the component «mist» and two phraseologisms with the component «haze», belonging to different semantic and grammatical classes of A.M. Chepasova, professor from Chelyabinsk, Russia [Chepasova; 2006].
1. Fog
The phraseological units with the given component-meteonym are notable for high picturesqueness: «a pea-soup fog» col. means thick yellowish fog; «(all) in fog» – to be puzzled, to be confused; «to be in a fog» – to be embarrassed, when a person has not clear vision of the situation; «to be befogged» – to be puzzled, to be confused. The base of the English phraseological unit «a pea-soup fog» is the association with colour and soup density. The phraseologism «(all) in fog» denotes poor visibility; being embarrassed; mysteriousness. The phraseological units «to be in a fog» and «to be befogged» express the state of embarrassment, lack of a clear goal and data, when a person is puzzled. According to Chepasova’s classification the phraseologisms «to be in a fog» and «to be befogged» belong to procedural phraseological units, «a pea-soup fog» is considered to be object, «(all) in fog» – qualitative-adverbial.
Besides above-mentioned there are many proverbs and sayings with the component-meteonym «fog» in the English language: a fog cannot be dispelled with a fan – one cannot bump off a big problem with the help of tiny outfit, which is not meant for that; a fog from the sea brings corn to the mills – something absurd. A Scottish proverb «a rowing stane gathers nae fog» means a good result when a person does not give in. Scholar A.V. Kunin identifies proverbs and sayings as «a communicative class» of phraseological units [Kunin; 1986]. But we do not refer them to phraseologisms at all, displaying them in the article just to show the importance of these weather and climatic facts for the linguistic world picture of the British people.
2. Mist
The range of phraseological units with the component-meteonym «mist» belongs to various semantic and grammatical classes. «A mist before one’s eyes» – somebody has not a clear vision of the situation as if a mist prevents somebody to see clear; «Scotch mist» – a) dense fog; b) drizzle, dribble, little chilly rain. We consider these two units being object. «To see something through a mist» (somebody has not a clear vision of the situation) – qualitative-adverbial; «to see the red mist» and «to let the red mist descend» (to fly into a rage, to blow one's top/ stack, to infuriate, to become furious) belong to procedural phraseological units.
3. Haze
In this phraseological group we point out two units with negative connotation. «A haze before one’s eyes» stands for lack of information about the situation, when a person is embarrassed or shows inability to solve the problem. «Somebody’s mind is in haze» means light-headed actions and thoughts. As it seems to us the first phraseologism is object, the second phraseological unit belongs to the characteristic group (by Chepasova).
So we have analyzed the phraseological units with the component-meteonyms «fog», «mist», «haze» in the English language according to semantic and grammatical classes of Chepasova. The most of the phraseologisms are metaphorical.
B. Rain
The people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland sometimes joke that there are three variants of weather in their country: «When it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or when it rains all day long». We single out three English phraseologisms, denoting rain intensity: «the rain comes down in torrents (streets)»; «it rains cats and dogs»; «it is raining pitchforks». We see an exaggeration here: in the first phraseological unit a high degree of precipitation intensity is shown, in the second unit it becomes higher, a zoomorphic metaphor is used, the third one is of the highest degree. Analyzing the phraseological units with the component-meteonym «rain» according to semantic and grammatical classification, we found out the prevalence of qualitative-adverbial phraseologisms (3): to rain cats and dogs; for a rainy day; (as) right as rain.
In the English language there are many proverbs and sayings with the given component-meteonym: to buy for a song, to save money for a rainy day; small rain allays a great wind; it never rains but it pours; rain before seven, fine before eleven, etc. Actually we do not refer them to phraseological units, displaying them just to show the importance of this weather and climatic fact for the linguistic world picture.
Thus, in the article we have analyzed the phraseological units with the component-meteonyms «fog», «mist», «haze», «rain» in English according to semantic and grammatical classes of A.M. Chepasova. The most of the phraseologisms become metaphorical, when two objects are taken from different logical classes and are identified on base of common features.
Bibliographical list
1. Birikh A.K., Mokienko V.M., Stepanova L.I. Russian phraseological dictionary. Historical and Etymological references. – St. Peterburg, 2001.
2. Kunin A.V. Course on the phraseology of the modern English language. – Мoscow, 1986.
3. Chepasova А.М. Semantic and grammatical classes of Russian phraseologisms. – Chelyabinsk, 2006.
4. Siefring Judith. Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. – Oxford, 2004.
5. [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.velikobritaniya.org.
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