What does it mean?
What does the phraseological unit to have too many irons in the fire mean?
To take on too many tasks at once; to be overcommitted.
Origin: housewives heated multiple irons in the fireplace and couldn't manage them all.
The PU open sesame comes from a famous story. Name the story and the collection it belongs to.
'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' from A Thousand and One Nights (Arabic literature). 'Open Sesame' were the magic words that opened the door to the cave.
Complete the PU: A drop in the ___.
What does it mean?
A drop in the BUCKET.
It means a very small and insufficient amount compared to what is needed. (Biblical origin.)
Achilles' heel / Pandora's box / the lion's share.
Achilles' heel - ахиллесова пята (a critical weak point);
Pandora's box - ящик Пандоры (a source of many unforeseen troubles);
the lion's share - львиная доля (the largest part of something).
The PU black frost according to Amossova, is this a phraseme or an idiom? Briefly explain why.
It is a PHRASEME. The word 'frost' retains its meaning, but needs 'black' as its specific indicator to actualize the precise meaning (frost without snow). The meaning is still partially transparent.
What does tell it to the marines mean? Use it in a sentence of your own.
It means 'I don't believe you' / expressing disbelief.
The expression to get the sack comes from the early Machine Age. Describe the original scene that gave birth to this idiom.
Employers gave no advance notice before firing workers. They would hand the dismissed worker a sack containing their tools and pay them their wages, hence 'to get the sack.'
Fill in the blank: To be tied to someone's ___ strings. What does it mean and where does it come from?
APRON strings. 'Tied to someone's apron strings' means being unconventionally dependent on a wife or mother.
Comes from old land laws about a husband's property rights linked to his wife.
Give the Russian equivalent of the PU a fly in the ointment.
Ложка дёгтя в бочке мёда (a spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey).
Meaning: a small flaw that spoils something otherwise good.
Classify sell like hot cakes and feel like a million dollars by their borrowing type. What makes their American origin hard to detect?
Both are intralinguistic borrowings (Americanisms). Their American origin is hard to detect because they contain NO purely American vocabulary, the words are all common English. Their origin is established only through lexicographic data and historical source analysis.
Explain the meaning of to grease someone's palm. Is it positive or negative in connotation?
To bribe someone. Negative connotation: it refers to corrupt or dishonest payment to gain a favour.
The idiom a crow to pick has a rather unpleasant origin. What did Norman-era peasants actually do, and why?
After the Norman Conquest, peasants were forbidden from hunting deer and wild boar, so they hunted crows. Plucking a crow was dirty, messy work: if you left the mess, your neighbours had to clean it up. This gave rise to 'having a crow to pick' with someone.
Complete the PU and give its meaning: To bark up the wrong ___.
TREE. Means to pursue the wrong course of action, make a false assumption, or address the wrong person. From American hunting: a dog barking at a tree with no prey.
The PU in deep water comes from sailors' speech. Give its Russian equivalent and use it in an English sentence.
В беде / в трудном положении.
Is appetite comes with eating an interlingual or intralinguistic borrowing? Name its original author and the work it was first recorded in.
Interlingual borrowing (from French). First found in 'On Causes' (1515) by Jerome d'Angers, Bishop of Le Mans; popularised by François Rabelais in 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'.
What does to draw the line mean? Give a real-life context where you would use it.
To set a limit; to decide what is and isn't acceptable.
Where does to pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire come from? Name the author, the work, and the two animal characters.
From La Fontaine's fable 'The Monkey and the Cat'. The monkey Bertrand tricks the cat Raton into pulling chestnuts from the fire, Raton does the risky work while Bertrand eats the chestnuts.
Fill in the blank with the correct word: Time is ___ (B. Franklin, 1748).
Now use it naturally in a sentence about student life.
MONEY. ('Time is money.')
Translate into English using a PU from the lecture: «Посеять ветер и пожать бурю». Identify its source.
To sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
Biblical origin: reckless actions lead to serious consequences.
Look at these two PUs: to swim with the stream and to twiddle one's thumbs. Using Vinogradov's classification, assign each to its correct type and explain your reasoning.
'To swim with the stream' = phraseological UNITY - the meaning (to follow the crowd) is motivated: you can imagine swimming along with the current. / 'To twiddle one's thumbs' = phraseological FUSION - the meaning (to be idle/do nothing) cannot be guessed from the words; it is non-motivated.
Explain both the literal and figurative meaning of to throw cold water on something. Why does the literal image produce that figurative meaning?
Literal: to pour cold water on someone.
Figurative: to discourage enthusiasm or dampen someone's excitement.
The image works because cold water physically shocks and stops movement, just as discouragement stops plans.
Trace the full etymology of to go the whole hog as described in the lecture. What was its original literal meaning, and how did it shift to its current figurative one?
Originally a shepherding term: 'lamb taken from its mother before first shearing', the wool was short and hard to shear, requiring great care. Wool producers used 'go the whole hog' to mean doing something thoroughly and carefully. Today it means 'to do something completely, without holding back.'
Complete both blanks in this PU from Aesop: To blow ___ and ___.
Describe the fable scene and explain what the idiom means today.
HOT and COLD.
In Aesop's fable a traveller blew on his cold fingers to warm them, then blew on his hot soup to cool it. Today it means to be inconsistent, to say contradictory things, or to take a double-sided position.
Give the English PU that matches «Горбатого могила исправит» and name its literary source. Then explain why the English and Russian versions use completely different images to convey the same idea.
Can the leopard change his spots? - Biblical.
The Russian proverb uses a hunchback (physical deformity); the English version uses a leopard's spots (natural markings). Both convey that fundamental character cannot change, but each culture chose an image from its own experience and storytelling tradition.
A student says: 'Red tape' is a phraseological unity because red tape is a real object used in offices.' Correct this student's error in full, citing the right classification and the correct reasoning.
The student is wrong. 'Red tape' is a phraseological FUSION (Vinogradov) / an IDIOM (Amossova). Its meaning (bureaucracy and excessive official procedure) is entirely non-motivated: knowing that 'red tape' was literally used to bind documents does NOT allow you to deduce the figurative meaning. The meaning is opaque and indivisible, which is precisely what defines a fusion/idiom.