ФІЛОЛОГІЯ XXI СТОЛІТТЯ: ТЕОРІЯ, ПРАКТИКА, ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ

Голюк С. В.
Національний університет «Львівська політехніка»
CONTRASTIV ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS OF THE SEMANTIC FIELD “TO WORK
– NOT TO WORK” IN GERMAN, ENGLISH AND
UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES
Contrastive analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages
with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities.
Words may be classified according to the concepts underlying their
meaning. This classification is closely connected with the theory of
semantic field. Semantic field is a closely knit sector of vocabulary
characterized by a common concept. When examining the word it is
seen that its meaning though closely connected with the underlying
concept or concepts is not identical with them. Concept is a category
of human cognition. Concept is the thought of the object that singles
out its essential features. Our concepts abstract and reflect the most
common and typical features of the different objects and phenomena
of the world.
For example in the semantic field of “work” we find nouns (toil,
service, drudgery, slog, trade, occupation, achievement, accomplishment);
verbs (labour, toil, slave, practice, operate, run); adjectives
(working, laboring, busy). The members of the semantic field are
not synonymous but all of them are joined together by some common
semantic component. This semantic component common to
all the members of the field is sometimes described as the common
denominator of meaning, like the concept of kinship, concept of colour,
parts of human body and so on. The basis of grouping in this
case is not linguistic but also extra-linguistic: the words are associated,
because the things they name occur together and are closely
connected in reality.
All members of the field are semantically interdependent as each
member helps to delimit and determine the meaning of its neighbours
and is semantically delimited and determined by them. It follows that
the word meaning is to a great extent determined by the place it occupies
in its semantic field. Phraseologocal units, or idioms, represent
what can probably be described as the most picturesque, colorful and
expressive part of the language’s vocabulary. Phraseology is a kind
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