CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 I. Theoretical background of the problem of phraseological units, their classification (semantical, structural, syntacti

Every phraseological unit can be judged from different point of view, and from the approach the author uses. Moreover we in the contemporary American press we can come across idiomic expression, from our list they are as follows: Uncle Tom Cobley and all, Adam's ale an Aladdin's cave, Christian Carol Christmas, etc. Political expressions: fat cat, back woodsman, fishing expedition, ginger group, etc. So the problem of defining the phraseological units is rather complicated and complex, and it’s for author to decide which approach to chose. ...

CONTENTS



INTRODUCTION 3
I. Theoretical background of the problem of phraseological units, their classification (semantical, structural, syntactical, according to the way of formation)

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II. Lexico-Stylistical peculiarities of newspaper style. 9
III Phraseological units of frequent use in contemporary American press.
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IV. Analysis of phraseological units in contemporary American press according to their classifications

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CONCLUSION
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REFERENCES
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APPENDIX (the list of phraseological units chosen from contemporary press)
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English is the main language of popular music, advertising, home computers and video games. Most of the scientific, technological and academic information in the world is expressed in English. International communication expends very fast. People have to communicate with each other. It is very important for them to understand foreigners and be understood by them. In this case the English language comes to be one but very serious problem. A word comes to be a very powerful means of communication but also can be a cause of a great misunderstanding if it is not clearly understood by one of the speakers.

Having understood the meaning of praseological units, their characteristic features, their functions in the language, we came to the conclusion that such language phenomena can be found in different spheres of person’s life. They are a follows: 1. Social sphere (usage of phraseological units determining the way of living and mentality)2. Scientific sphere (phraseological units, which can be used in articles, some kind of idiomatic expressions)3. Literature (the author uses phraseological units in order to stress the emotional component of the utterance or to bring some irony into his story, etc.)4. Mass media sphere (usage of phraseological units in press, TV programs, radio broadcasting, etc.)The usage of phraseological units in the very last sphere, especially in the sphere of press is rather interesting and reasonable. That is why before examining the range of phraseological units’ circulation in press, we consider it to be legally to start with reviewing the lexico-stylistical peculiarities of newspaper style and American press. [8]The modern newspaper articles carry material of an extremely diverse character. On the pages of a newspaper one finds not only news and comments on it, press reports and articles, advertisements and announcements, but also stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems and the like. It is newspaper printed matter that performs the function of informing the reader and providing him with evaluation of the information published. In fact, all kinds of newspaper writing are to a greater or lesser degree both informative and evaluative.The general aim of the texts of modern newspaper articles is to exert influence on public opinion, to convince the reader that the interpretation given by the writer is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the article not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal as well.This brainwashing function is most effective in press. Due to its characteristic combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal, the publicistic style of the texts of modern newspaper discourse has features in common with the style of scientific prose or official documents, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. It’s coherent and logical syntactic structure, with an expanded system of connectives and its careful paragraphing, makes it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose. The newspaper discourse also has some elements of emotionally coloured colloquial style as the author has no need to make their speech impersonal (as in scientific or official style), but, on the contrary, he or she tries to approximate the text to lively communication, as though they were talking to people in direct contact. Describing the peculiarities of newspaper style I. R. Galperin says that it was the last of all styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. He defines newspaper style as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader. Moreover he advocates that the information in the English newspaper is conveyed through the medium of: - brief news items, - press reports, - articles purely informational in character, - advertisements and announcements. He points out that the language peculiarities of English newspaper style circles in the following newspaper features: 1. Brief news items, 2. Advertisements and announcements, 3. The headline, 4. The editorial. [2]Following him other Russian and foreign investigators of the language of newspapers point out a number of lexical features that must be taken into account. Prof. V.G. Kostomarov stresses two opposite trends that are active in newspapers, on the one hand – the expressiveness and on the other hand – repetitiveness of language means used. [5]So we can examine the features of American press from two points of view, firstly from lexical, secondly from stylistic. The lexical point of view of American newspapers is based on following features:1. Stylistically marked vocabulary. Lexical units tend to change lexical meaning. For example one of the key notions of American mentality is connected with privacy – (the desirable state) of being away from other people so that they cannot see or hear what one is doing, interest themselves in others’ affairs. From English the word privacy is translated уединение, уединенность; личное (частное) дело, секретность, but in press it can get rather new meaning. Moreover usage of non-literary words and phrases, e.g. мент – cop, ranger, показуха – show-off, window-dressing2. Shortenings, abbreviations, clippings. In newspapers we can came across universal shortenings which are well-known outside a particular country are translated by their well-established TL correspondences, e.g. GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) – ГАТТ (transliteration), IMF (International Monetary Fund) – МВФ (loan translation), VAT (Value Added Tax) – НДС (loan translation); nationally specific shortenings which are restricted in use may be translated by loans with comment or by ready analogues combined with explanation, cf. ГКО (государственные краткосрочные облигации) – short-term Government bonds (treasury bills, government securities with a fixed interest rate); ГИБДД – State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate (see more examples in [Чанышева, Дьяконова 2007: Чанышева 2000]); highly frequent shortenings may not be translated at all and used in their SL form, e.g. SWIFT (Society for World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications), CD-ROM (compact disc with read-only memory).3. Neologisms. Which are of following groups: 1) neologisms formed after productive patterns of Russian (чернобылец, лимитчик, яблочник, челночить); 2) neologisms borrowed from other languages, таймшер (time-share), оффшор (off-shore), опцион (option), фьючерсы (futures)); 3) neologisms described as inner borrowings as they result from penetration into official language of stylistically low units like jargonisms, colloquialisms, slang, etc (развлекуха, отмазывать, откат).4. Euphemisms. It is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one. This lexical mean can be found in political and public speeches. E.g humanitarian/armed intervention – интервенция (вооруженная, культурная)5. Special political and economic terms; e. g. socialism, constitution, president, apartheid, by-election. 6. Newspaper clichés. It is a stereotyped familiar to reader, e.g. vital issue, pressing problem, informed source, danger of war, etc. Clichés more than anything else reflect the traditional manner of expression in newspaper writing. 7. Loan translation that is the word by word translation, e.g. самиздат – samisdat, префект – prefect (head of a district in Moscow). [9]From the stylistic point of view newspaper lexis both in English and Russian is rich in stylistic devices and expressive means. Among them we can enumerate: hyperbole, epithets, repetition on lexical and syntactical levels. A translator is required to resort to stylistic compensation, both local and non-local, in order to retain a stylistic effect, the similarity in form is not so important as the desirable impression may be created by another stylistic device in TL, e.g. He is soaring into his world of fantasy, because in the real world his policies are getting such a lashing from the working people. – Но он предпочитает летать в облаках, потому что на земле его политика встречает резкий отпор со стороны трудящихся (the difference in the images created in the two utterances, the replacement of the members creating antithesis in SLT and TLT).When translating from Russian into English great problems arise when rendering the meanings of lingo-cultural concepts. According to prof. S.G.Vorkachev a lingua-cultural concept is defined as a unit of collective consciousness which has a verbal expression and is marked by ethnocultural specificity [Воркачев 2004: 51]. Such concepts possess a number of semantic parameters including notional, imagery, evaluative, etymological and cultural components, that means that they denote phenomena which are relevant in this particular community. The investigation of these features shows that they are deeply rooted in the life experience of the people, reflecting peculiar features of world view and mentality of the people. The English dictionaries of the new generation include special sections in dictionary entries which deal with cultural information [12]. Having considered the lexico-stylistic peculiarities of American press, we consider it to be possible to examine the role of headliners in articles. From the functional point of view the headline is closely connected to the whole article, it gives a brief idea about the information given in the article.Semantically, many words in the headline and in the article are synonymous, though there are conspicuous differences between them, namely, in the publicist discourse the words tend to be longer (cf. bid – protest, ban – prohibition) and more narrow and concrete in meaning. Through repeated use short headline units become clichés which are easily recognizable. At the same time they preserve their emotional force in a headline: being fuzzy in their nature such units are capable of implying a greater amount of information. Besides headline vocabulary may serve as a basis for creating various stylistic devices. We can give such examples of stylistic devices in the headliners: Car-makers drive up profits (pun), Crash scene like a battlefield (simile), Ministers read the riot act by PM (metaphor). So as we see headline plats an important role in understanding the whole problem of how should we render the American press.Moreover, the translator has to be aware of a number of restrictions which are still active in American newspapers. The formal (grammatical) demands of translation of newspaper articles are observed:1) arrange the content of the article according to the following pattern:who?- (did) what? (how?) where? when?-why?,this pattern is known in English Grammar books as the 6-Wh- rule and it helps to structure information in a sentence. In Russian a typical pattern is different:when?- where? – (did) what? – who?,such pattern is typical communicative structure of a Russian sentence with its rheumatic position at the end, thematic elements opening a sentence.In view of this difference a translator has to apply the grammatical transformation , such as restructuring the sentence structure, changing the word order, e.g. Вчера во время встречи президента Франции Николя Саркози и президента России Дмитрия Медведева было подписано новое Соглашение о сроках вывода российских миротворческих сил из Грузии. – French President Nicolas Sarcozy and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met yesterday to agree on a new timetable for withdrawing Russian peacekeeping troops from Georgia. .2) Refer to sources of information in English using the patterns: M (message) – S (source) instead of the Russian pattern: S (source) – M (message). Alongside changes in word order apply other grammatical transformations:как заявил X ---- X said / X is reported as sayingкак сообщается из X --- it is reported from Xкак сообщают из X ---- it is reported from Xсогласно заявлению X ---- according to XE.g. Как сообщает источник в министерстве внутренних дел Ингушетии, в среду в крупнейшем городе республики Назране был застрелен кузен президента республики. – A cousin of the Ingush President was shot dead in the republic’s largest city Nazran on Wednesday, a source in the republic’s Interior Ministry said.3) Change adverbial modifiers in Russian dirheumatic utterances into a grammatical subject of an English sentence, e.g. В совместном заявлении подчёркнуто, что стороны согласны расширять обмены в области культуры и образования. – The joint statement stresses that both sides have agreed to step up cultural and educational contacts and exchanges.4) Refuse from redundant information from a Russian sentence for the sake of compressing information in an English utterance, e.g. Согласно данным ВОЗ, главным фактором смертности являются сердечно-сосудистые заболевания. – According to the WHO statistics, cardio-vascular diseases are the No. 1 killer.Furthermore, while translating from English into Russian a translator has to resort to the lexico-grammatical transformation of addition in keeping with the norms of the newspaper writing in Russian, e.g. The settlement may be considered to be of primary importance to a number of home industries. – Можно считать, что заключение этого соглашения будет иметь решающее значение для ряда отраслей отечественной промышленности.The example shows that there is a syntactic change in the type of sentence (simple sentence > complex sentence) and a greater number of notional words compared to functional words in the Russian sentence (12 units against 3) while in the English sentence the correlation of notional and functional words is opposite (8 to 8). [5]Coming to the conclusion we now understand that American press is structured differently from a Russian one. The most striking feature is the leading role of headings in rendering the American articles. The lexical peculiarities of American press can be described in usage of such lexical means as stylistically marked vocabulary, shortenings, abbreviations, clippings, neologisms, euphemisms, special political and economic terms, newspaper clichés and loan translation. From the stylistic point of view newspaper lexis both in English and Russian is rich in such stylistic devices and expressive means as: hyperbole, epithets, repetition on lexical and syntactical levels. So lexico-stylistical peculiarities of newspaper style include the usage of original literary level of vocabulary mixed with stylistically marked one, and stylistic devices which help to expose the author’s main idea and reasons for the article is written.III. Phraseological units of frequent use in contemporary American press.Having disclosed the peculiarities of newspaper style we came to the conclusion that in American press some extra set expressions may be found. Let us discuss them and prove that they can be referred to pharaseological ones.1. Newspaper clichés. The core of newspaper lexis is constituted by standard well-established clichés. The investigators of newspaper lexis find such formulas among political and diplomatic vocabulary, sport lexis, science and technology, economic terms, etc. Some of them are international words, but the bulk of standard newspaper lexis are nationally specific, e.g. решительная борьба с местничеством – resolute drive against parochial interests производство на душу населения – per capita production развитая производственная база – well-developed production facilities мыслить по-современному – to think along modern lines - история подтверждает – history bears out.Prof. A.D. Shveitser points out two important features of newspaper clichés:a) They may be nationally and culturally specific, which can lead to misunderstanding and “cultural shock”, e.g. Проблема отцов о детей является неразрешимой и чрезвычайно острой в нашем обществе. – The generation gap is an insoluble and most dramatic problem in our community [Швейцер 1973].b) They may have peculiar connotations. E.g. silent majority (negative connotation R. Nixon) – молчаливое большинство, it may refer to people who either have no political opinions, or who do not express their political opinions, or show passive consent with things.2. Parliamentary expressions. It is the expressions which are marked by the specific traditions and definitions connected to the parliamentary activity. E.g. supercilious useless fellow, supercilious useless person, hyprocritical approach, git fellow – in the meaning of a worthless person, re-election of the ministers, the prime minister, appeal to the country, shadow cabinet, parliament frontbenchers, orders of the day, division bell, teller-fellow. 3. Political euphemisms. Political euphemism is different from others expressing physical phenomena or used in other fields such as in career because it is equipped with obvious political language characteristics. Actually, political language is neither romantic as literature nor precise as that in foreign trade, but purpose-oriented (Tian, 2002. p24). Political euphemism is an effective tool for political leaders to control the quantity and quality of information transmission, with which some disgraceful behaviors or motivations will be glorified or hidden, hence avoiding public accusal. For example, US Ex-President Nixon and his partners called their overhearing spying in Watergate Scandal as “intelligence gathering” and their lie telling as “less than truthful” and “prevaricate”. Obviously, such trivialized expression is to smooth out the bad influences they have exerted. US Government once expressed their nuclear experiment in South Pacific as “operation sunshine”. Let us bring some more examples to the matter: smoke-filled room, fishing expedition, fat cat, etc. [3]4. Time-style. It is so called set expressions which were defined by the editor of the American magazine «Time». These set expressions comprise the following parts of speech:1. Compound adjectives. They are based on Greek literature, but have colloquial meaning: rat-faced lag – крысолицый парнишка, elk-like actress –лосеподобная актрисулька, eagle-beaked radiorator – орлиноклювый политикан. As we see this set expressions have pejorative effect, and stress the negative attitude to the events.2. Rigor contraction (конрактура). It is the complex compressed nouns, in the way that the new word begins to express a new meaning. For example: parliamentary talkaphone – парламентская нудотина, Russian oilmillionaire – русские нефтемиллионеры, cinemaaddict adults – кинозависимые взрослые, internetaddict youth. – интернетозависимая молодеж.3. Jargonisms. That is the use of colloquial language, slang. E.g. to come to a crunch – дойти до ручки. [3]So time-style has negative meaning, and is more suitable for gutter press. We consider the above mentioned set expressions to be phraseological units, because any of the mentioned above conveys a single concept and its meaning is idiomatic, i.e. it is not a mere total of the meanings of their components, moreover the translation must be done according to the communicative purpose and connotative meaning it renders. They can be characterized by structural invariability (no word can be substituted for any component of a phraseological unit without destroying its sense). They are not created in speech but used as ready-made units. Unlike a word, a phraseological unit can be divided into separately structured elements and transformed syntactically. Among all this above mentioned set expressions there are more types to be used in American press. Let us examine them as well.1. Proverbs and sayings. They are a short saying embodying some general truth or moral precept which has gained permanence and often being used in the common speech. Proverbs and sayings could be an impersonal observation on life, couched in a few telling words, made more effective perhaps by rhyme, rhythm, alliteration or rhythmic balance. Proverbs and sayings are usually common to all races and nationalities. Many European proverbs, of which Spain has the greatest number, originated in the East and were preserved by Hebrew, Greek, and Roman authors, the Crusaders and the Spanish Moors.