Stylistic semasiology

Patterns of decomposition of phraseological units
1. Insertive:
e.g. Butter wouldn't melt in their democratic mouths.
The new French Government was sticking its collective nose into the business...
2. Implied:
e.g. People that build glass houses must have enough money to buy curtains. (He that hath a house of glass must not throw stones at another.)
3. Prolonged (zeugmatic):
e.g. It was raining cats and dogs and two kittens and puppy landed on my windows.
4. Replaced:
e.g. Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of them­selves. (Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.)
5. Curtailed:
e.g. "Come!", he said, "milk's spilt".
(There is no use crying over spilt milk.)
6. Resemantized:
e.g. "Then he stood at a safe distance from her and folded his arms in order to be able to keep his head — which shows how strange the English language is" (M.RRinehart);
If Cassandra really believes this nonsense he himself is in no danger of being brainwashed. He has no brains to wash.
Epigram. Epigram is a deliberate coinage of a phrase, a sentence which resembles a proverb both in its linguistic its logical features, expressing a peculiar wide ingenuous turn of thought. Epigram is always referred to some author:
e.g. "The human heart is the tomb of many feelings" (J. Galsworthy).
What is an Epigram?
A dwarfish whole,
Its body — brevity,
And wit — its sole.
(Coleridge)
Sometimes gradually the coiner is forgotten.
No thorns — no throne,
No gall — no glory.
(W.Penn)
Epigrams become nonce-phraseological units. Epigrams are mostly used in publicistic style (essays). Instead of logical proofs epigrams serve as a kind of substitute for proof:
e.g. In politics where there is silence there is despair but where there is talk there is hope.
But there are poets and writers who use these elements as one of their sty­listic feature. The abundance of epigrams in S.Maugham's works is conspicuous:
e.g. "The tragedy of love is indifference". "Failure is the foundation place of success and success is the lurking place of failure". "Passion is de­structive. And if it doesn't destroy it dies."
The exposition of ideas is given in epigrammatic style. Epigram can be taken out of the context and still retain its meaning. There is always a ten­dency in the minds of writers to generalize. There are special dictionaries of quotations which in fact are mostly dictionaries of epigrams.