VIEWS ON THE SEMANTIC MEANING OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

In linguistics, phraseology is the study of ready-made or fixed expressions consisting of idioms, phrasal verbs, and other multi-word lexical units. These expressions convey a meaning that is clearer or different from the combined meanings of their parts when used separately, and this meaning cannot be predicted in advance. For example, the phrase 'Dutch auction' consists of the words Dutch and auction (a public sale where goods are sold to the highest bidder), but its meaning is not 'a sale taking place in the Netherlands where goods are sold to the highest bidder.' Instead, this phrase refers to any auction where prices decrease rather than increase. Therefore, sometimes phraseological units or idioms convey an opposite meaning, known as a transformed meaning.