Differential Signs of Verbal Phraseological Units of the Belarusian Language with the Meanings of Activity and Relationship

Abstract

This article deals with the formal and semantic properties of verbal phraseological units with the meanings of activity and relationship in the Belarusian language. The key research method applied here is descriptive, followed by the comparative and analytical methods. The author established that the subject of verbal units with the meaning of activity can only be a person (a group of people), an active doer of a certain activity who consciously and purposefully carries out this activity. In verbal phraseological units with the meaning of relationship, the subject and object are participants in an interaction (they can be a person, an inanimate object or an abstract concept). Changes in the subject-object environment can lead to the transformation of meaning and the development of polysemy of verbal phraseological units. As a rule, the object of verbal phraseological units with the meaning of specific activity is a product of an activity; however, many units are objectless. Verbal phraseological units with the meaning of abstract activity reflect the mental and speech activity of the person subject (human) and are mostly objectless. The subject of verbal phraseological units with the meaning of relationship is not an active doer of an action aimed to create (or destroy) an object (product of activity), but is characterized, first and foremost, by a relationship to a person or an object. The author has established that the phraseological units with the meaning of relationship can be divided into four groups: 1) interpersonal (interaction between people or groups of people), 2) person–object (relationship of a person to an object) 3) object–person (an object’s influence on a person) and 4) interobject (certain dependencies between objects). In the Belarusian language, рhraseological units with the meaning of interpersonal relatioship prevail. The results obtained can be implemented in the practice of teaching phraseology in higher education institutions and schools as well as in the theory and practice of phraseography.