Peculiar Use of Set Expressions.

In language studies there are two very clearly-marked tendencies that they should not be lost of sight, particularly when dealing with word-combinations:

1) the analytical tendency, which seeks to dissever one component from
another;

2) The synthetic tendency which seeks to integrate the parts of the
combination into a stable unit.

3) These two tendencies are treated in different ways in lexicology and stylistics. In lexicology the parts of a stable lexical unit may be separated in order to make a scientific investigation of the character of the combination and to analyze the components. In stylistics we analyze the component parts in order to get some communicative effect sought by the writer.

The Cliche.

A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. A cliche strives after originality, whereas it has lost the aesthetic generating power it once had. There is always a contradiction between what is aimed at and what is actually attained.

Examples: "rosy dreams of youth", "The patter of little feet", "deceptively simple".

The fact is that most of the widely recognized word-combinations which have been adopted by the language are unjustly classified as cliches. The aversion for cliches has gone so far that most of the lexical units based on simile are branded as cliches.

Proverbs and Sayings

Proverbs and Sayings are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. The typical features of them are rhythm and/ or alliteration and sometimes rhyme. But what is the most important is that their characteristic feature lies not in its formal linguistic expression, but in the content-form of the utterance and the utterance is characterized by its brevity. A proverb presupposes a simultaneous application of two meanings: the face-value of the primary meaning, and an extended meaning drawn from the context, but bridled by the face-value meaning. In other words, the proverb itself becomes a vessel into which new context is poured.

The main feature distinguishing proverbs and sayings from ordinary utterances remains their semantic aspect. Their literal meaning is suppressed by what may be termed their transferred meaning. In other words, one meaning (literal) is the form for another meaning (transferred) which contains the idea.

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