Branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study. Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’ Lexicon

According to their origins, phraseological units in Modern English may be divided into:

native, e.g. to eat the humble pie ‘to submit to humiliation’ < ME to eat umble pie (umbles ‘the internal organs of a deer’); to save for a rainy day; to beat about the bush ‘not to speak openly and directly’; to lose one’s rag ‘to lose one’s temper’ etc.;

borrowed, which, in their turn, can be either intralingual (borrowed from American English and other variants of English) or interlingual (borrowed from other languages).

37. Polysemy, synonymy and stylistic features of phraseological units.

Semantic Aspect of Phraseological Units

Absolute synonyms (identical in meaning and stylistic connotations):

break one’s word = depart from one’s word; bring (drive) to the bay = drive (force) to the wall; like lightning = with lightning speed = like a streak of lightning;