Idioms with the Vehicle Component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish Languages

LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY

JOLANTA LIUBKEVIČ-BEDULSKAJA

IDIOMS WITH THE VEHICLE COMPONENT IN THE ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN AND POLISH LANGUAGES

MA THESIS

Academic advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daiva Verikaitė-Gaigalienė

Vilnius, 2016 LIETUVOS EDUKOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS FILOLOGIJOS FAKULTETAS ANGLŲ FILOLOGIJOS KATEDRA

IDIOMOS SU TRANSPORTO KOMPONENTU ANGLŲ, LIETUVIŲ IR LENKŲ KALBOSE

Magistro darbas

Magistro darbo autorė Jolanta Liubkevič-Bedulskaja Patvirtinu, kad darbas atliktas savarankiškai, naudojant tik darbe nurodytus šaltinius ______(Parašas, data)

Vadovas doc. dr. Daiva Verikaitė-Gaigalienė ______(Parašas, data)

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... 4

INTRODUCTION ...... 5

1. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TOWARDS IDIOMS ...... 9

1.1 Traditional approaches ...... 9

1.2 Approaches in applied linguistics ...... 11

2. IDIOMS AND CULTURE ...... 14

3. ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF IDIOMS ...... 16

3.1 Borrowed idioms ...... 17

3.2 Idioms from folklore ...... 18

4. CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL INISGHTS ...... 20

4.1 History of the Modern United Kingdom ...... 20

4.2 History of the Modern Lithuania ...... 22

4.3 History of the Modern Poland ...... 23

5. IDIOMS WITH THE VEHICLE COMPONENT IN ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN AND POLISH ...... 25

5.1. Methodology ...... 25

5.2 The vehicle component ...... 26

5.2 Semantic areas of the idioms ...... 33

5.3 Analysis of the equivalent idioms ...... 41

5.4 Cultural insights of the language specific idioms ...... 48

CONCLUSIONS ...... 55

SUMMARY ...... 57

Idiomos su transporto komponentu anglų, lietuvių ir lenkų kalbose ...... 57

REFERENCES ...... 59

SOURCES ...... 63

APPENDICES ...... 64

ABSTRACT

The current research aims at investigating comparatively semantic and etymologic peculiarities of vehicle idioms in the three languages: English, Lithuanian and Polish. It deals with 159 idioms collected manually from the dictionaries. The English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms containing vehicle component are analyzed in terms of origin and semantic characteristics applying quantitative method in order to retrieve the quantitative data to serve as the basis for comparative analysis of the equivalent idioms, components and semantic areas of the idioms containing vehicle component in the three languages. The research as well deals with the comparative analysis of the origin and semantic characteristics of idioms containing vehicle component in the analyzed languages and discusses the reasons behind the semantic transformations of idioms containing vehicle component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages.

INTRODUCTION

The term idiom dates back to Ancient Greece and depending on the linguistic school is substituted by other terms, such as phraseologism, phraseological unit, or idiomatic expression. The field of idiomaticity is broad and is researched in the main fields of linguistic studies, such as semantics, syntax, morphology and lexicology. Despite that, there is no universal definition of idiomaticity. Linguists attempt to define the term idiom so that it would agree with their research field, therefore different fields of linguistics and applied linguistics would ascribe different characteristics of the idiom as the most important. The most common characteristics of the idiom include fixedness, compositionality, motivation, institutionalization and figurativeness. The complexity of the idioms enables linguists to use different methods and approaches in order to investigate them. The use of the variety of methods and approaches provides a full picture of the phenomenon. The development of applied linguistics in the last decades broadened the understanding of the idiomaticity and contributed to the existing knowledge about idioms. Comparison and contrast of the idioms became a valuable source of sociolinguistic knowledge, as “phraseology is a domain of linguistic study which to high degree illustrates the correlation between language and culture” (Teliya et al., 1998, 55). The rapport between culture and language is highlighted in the meanings of the idioms, their components, and the areas of their use. The sociolinguistic approach considers an idiom as influential factor of the culture. As suggested by Casas (1995), there are two levels of the society reflection in the idioms – micro level, where an idiom reflects the individual and macro level, where an idiom reflects the society as a whole. The current research deals with the phenomenon of an idiom as the mirror of society and individuals. Origin of the idiom is one of the ways of reflecting the society. Idioms come to language not only from the culture and folklore of the country where the language is spoken, but also from international sources. Therefore, the research concerning more than one language presents the similarities and differences between the languages and cultures and provides the network of the points of contact of the different societies. The points of contact might originate from religion, literature or history. Bible is one of the worldwide sources for figurative expressions, e.g. to wash your hands in the English language, nusiplauti rankas in the Lithuanian language and umywać ręce in the Polish language. Greek mythology has also influenced many languages in terms of idioms. Greek idioms have been translated to

numerous languages and such expressions as Achilles’ heel can be found not only in English (Achilo kulnas in Lithuanian, Pięta Achilesa in Polish, etc.). Not only Greek, but also other internationally appreciated literature has imprinted in different languages. Such idioms as to fight the windmills and waiting for Godot came from different works of fiction. Another source of idioms is history. Historical events may have united or separated countries throughout ages, but they have made the ground for internationally recognized and worldwide used idioms, such as to cross the Rubicon. Some of the idioms coming from Latin are used in their original form, e.g. persona non grata (Antrushina et al. 1985). This research takes an insight into how the idioms came into the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. The countries chosen for the analysis are the United Kingdom, as it is the motherland of Standard English, Lithuania and Poland as these are the countries where the Lithuanian and Polish languages are official languages. The investigation deals with both international idioms and idioms that come from folklore. International idioms reveal the points of contact of the three cultures. The idioms that come from folklore indicate the uniqueness of the culture, therefore the analysis of the folklore idioms is necessary in order to provide the distinctive cultural features of the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland. Folklore idioms as well reveal language patterns, e.g. different sentence structures, use of slang, etc. Idioms might also account for the development of the language which is the basis for any linguistic study of this kind. The cultural aspect of the society is considered as important factor influencing occurrence and use of idioms. Cultures of the three countries under investigation differ in their historical background. The history of the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland have several points of contact, however the paths chosen by politicians and societies separate the countries. The geographical position may have an impact on the historical, social, or cultural development of a country. The history and geographical position are reflected in the development of transportation in every country. Preferences of a vehicle are marked by possibilities. Possibilities are dictated by the historical events, geography, economy and many other factors, therefore transportation is considered not only as a tool to commute but also as a cultural heritage. As any other country, the three countries under analysis have different systems of transportation with different preferences of using different means of transport.

The research question

The English, Lithuanian and Polish languages belong to different language families as well as have different cultural backgrounds. The backbone knowledge of the history, geography and language background suggests the differences in culture. Taking into account these differences between the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland the following research question was raised: to what extent does historical, cultural and social background of the country influence the concept of the vehicle in the idioms with the vehicle component in English, Lithuanian and Polish?

The aims and objectives

The research aim of the present study was to investigate comparatively semantic and etymological characteristics of idioms with vehicle component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. In order to achieve the aim of the research, the following objectives were set:

• To analyze comparatively English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms containing vehicle component in terms of their origin and semantic characteristics; • To present the results of quantitative analysis of the analyzed idioms; • To discuss the reasons behind the semantic transformations of idioms containing the vehicle component in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages.

The scope of the research and research methods

The core interest in this research is given to idioms containing the vehicle component. The data was obtained from the two English dictionaries of idioms: Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms (Sinclair, 2002) with the definitions translated to the Lithuanian language (Katiliūtė, Stasiulevičiūtė, 2009) and Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English ( Parkinson, 2006), Lithuanian Dictionary of Idioms: Frazeologijos Žodynas ( Paulauskas et al. 2001), and Polish dictionaries of idioms: Słownik Idiomów Polskich PWN (Drabik et al. 2006) and Słownik wyrazów obcych, synonimów, frazeologiczny (Bernacka 2012). The corpus of 159 idioms was collected manually from the five dictionaries. The data embraced 40 English idioms, 86 Lithuanian idioms and 32 Polish idioms. The data was 7

processed and investigated applying quantitative and qualitative methods. Results of the quantitative analysis disclosed the most frequent components and the most frequent semantic areas. The quantitative method was adopted as the supplementary approach in the comparative study to provide quantitative basis for the insights. Qualitative approach was chosen to reveal the semantic characteristics of the idioms in order to disclose the relationship between the origin of an idiom and cultural aspects of a particular language. Comparison was employed in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the idioms under analysis in the three languages, to determine equivalent idioms as well as to define the points of contact of the three languages and to draw the conclusions about the cultural and linguistic insights revealed by idioms.

Relevance and significance of the research

The current research is carried out in order to extend the existing knowledge in the field of idiomaticity and add to the comparative studies of the English, Lithuanian, and Polish languages. It can be useful for deepening the understanding of idiomaticity in the three languages. The results also present and highlight cultural aspects of the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and Poland that might raise the interest of those working in the fields of sociolinguistics and social sciences. The research might as well be useful in teaching and learning a target language, in interpretation and translation.

1. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TOWARDS IDIOMS

The term idiom has been used from antiquity and its etymology can be traced back to Ancient Greece. Despite its long existence, many scholars agree that idiomatic studies are one of the most under-explored aspects of linguistics (Wienreich 1969, Nuneberg et.al. 1994, Fernando 1996, Teliya et.al. 1998, Boers et.al. 2004). Wenreich (1969) claims that idiomaticity is essential as it is numerous in every language (Weinreich 1969, cited in Fernando 1996,1). Therefore, understanding the importance of the idiomatic studies, linguists attempt to carry out researches of idiomaticity in the main fields of lingusitics, i.e. semantics, syntax, morphology, etc. With the development of applied linguistics, i.e. cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics, the field of the idiomatic study has broadened. The view of an idiom not only as a linguistic unit but also as a cultural phenomenon has been developed. It added to the development of linguistic understanding of an idiom as well as to study of idiomaticity by non-native speakers of a language. No universality in the term of idiomaticity or idiom exists. Linguists in each field of linguistics and applied liguistics attempt to define the phenomenon in agreement with their field of research; however three main characteristics of the term are to be discussed in any study. The three criteria which are common to all idioms are institutionalization, non- compositionality, and fixedness (Bjornson 2010, 12). The term institutionalization refers to the ability of recognition of an expression by a particular group of people, i.e. there are many English speaking countries, but some expressions might be common to only one of the language variations, or to all of them at once – in both cases there are smaller or bigger groups of people understanding the meaning of an expression. Non-compositionality is a general term referring to inability of deduction of the meaning of the whole expression from its constituent parts. Finally, fixedness means the stability of words within the expression.

1.1 Traditional approaches

Bally pioneered intrasemantic classification of idioms in 1909. He distinguished two categories within the French fixed expressions: phraseological series (series phraseologiques) and phraseological unities (unites phraseologiques). Later, in the 1970s and 1980s this classification was reconsidered by Vinogradov (1947 as cited in Cowie 1998, 213) and

tripartite scheme (frazeologičeskije sraščenija, frazeologičeskije jedinstva, frazeologičeskije sočetanija) was developed. According to Cowie, this classification influenced British phraseological theory very strongly (Cowie 1998, 213). The same Vinogradov’s classification was taken by Skorupka (1950 as cited in Nowakowska 2005, 41) and adapted in the Polish language. According to Nowakowska, now it is one of the most widespread classifications of the Polish idioms (Nowakowska, 2005, 41). Kalinauskas also presents this form of classification of the idioms in the Lithuanian language as one of the most popular approaches in the USSR (Kalinauskas, 1974, 16). The tripartite scheme is based on fixedness and non-compositionality of idioms also called motivation. Motivation of idioms depends on the relationship between the components. Three levels of cohesion are derived on the basis of non-compositionality and motivation. The stronger cohesion between the components is – the less motivated an idiom is. Taking into consideration the cohesion of idioms, Vinogradov derives three types of idioms: phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological combinations. Phraseological fusions are unmotivated. It is opaque, invariable unit (Cowie 1998, 217). There is no relation between the meaning of the idiom and the meanings of its separate components. Fusions are rigid, therefore none of the components can be changed or subsitituted. The example of this category of idioms in English could be tit-for-tat which means something bad as a response to something bad. Kalinauskas claims that frazeologinės sąaugos (Lith. phraseological fusions) consist of components which are so strongly cohesive that they might be considered not as words but as morphemes of one long word (Kalinauskas 1974, 16). Phraseological unities are partially non-motivated idioms. According to Ginzburg et al. (1979, 74), ‘‘their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit”. Cowie (1998, 215).has taken the view that the boundary between fusions and unities is no clear-cut, i.e. for some speaker’s an expression can be partially non- motivated, whereas for another person it can seem entirely opaque, therefore assigning expressions to one or the other category depends on linguistic and cultural experience of each separate speaker. To this category the author prescribes such idiom as to burns one’s boats. The last type of idioms derived is phraseological combinations. Idioms of this type contain at least one component in its direct meaning, e.g. meet the demand. Cowie (1998, 215) makes an observation that in the idiom above the component meet is used in its figurative meaning, while the demand is used in its direct meaning . According to Ginzburg et

al. (1979, 75), idioms of this type are “made up of words possessing specific lexical valency which accounts for a certain degree of stability’’. Highly formal approach to idiomaticity was established by Makkai (1972). Theoretical underpinnings lying behind the classification developed by the scholar were adopted from stratificational grammar (Fernando 1996, 5). Makkai distinguished between encoding idioms and decoding idioms. Encoding idioms embrace expressions with predictable meaning, whereas decoding idioms are unmotivated to higher degree and their meaning is less predictable. Decoding idioms are further classified into lexemic and sememic. According to the scholar, lexemic idioms are phrases, which consist of more than one lexeme. Sememic idioms are the reflection of cultural information of a language, e.g. politeness and they are of more abstract linguistic level (Makkai, 1972). Fernando (1996) offers a wide range of idiomatic categorizations developed by various linguists as well as by the author herself. Among classifications based on motivation, non- compositionality and figurativeness, some of which were presented above, the author also presents a classification on the basis of figurativeness and fixedness (which in her work is called invariance/variance). According to figurativeness, the expressions are classified into pure idioms, semi-idioms, literal idioms and collocations. Numerous researches on the topic of idiomaticity ascribe the parameters of an idiom and extend the list of criteria an idiom should meet. An expression can be called an idiom if, together with institutionalization, non-compositionality and fixedness, it meets the following criteria:

 Figurativeness (Fernando 1996) – idioms are considered to be figurative ways of saying. Constituent parts of an idiom lose their direct meanings.  Motivation (Vinogradov 1947, as cited in Cowie 1998, 213) – the relationship between the meanings of the components of an idiom are extremely strong. They backbone other criteria. Depending on this relationship idiomatic expression is acquired as a set phrase with a meaning distant from the meanings of the constituent parts.

1.2 Approaches in applied linguistics

The development of the applied linguistics in the last decades has highly influenced the study of idiomaticity and has opened new fields for the researches. Comparative and

contrastive studies have become a valuable source for sociolinguistic science. In addition, studies concerning idioms in more than one language (Balfaqeeh, 2009; Guineng, 2012; Ren and Yu, 2013; Teilanyo 2014; Abel 2003) have been serving as a path for translation and pedagogical purposes. Studies in discourse linguistics and development of corpora have added to the notion of the idiom. Nascisione (2001, 8) explains that idioms are not completely frozen. The author claims, that idioms become alive in their use. The idiom might be used with purposeful stylistic changes. These changes are often neglected by traditional dictionaries; however they are vivid in corpora and corpus based dictionaries, e.g. Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms from 1995 and Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms from 1998. The idioms with stylistic changes do not lose their meaning, on the contrary, they ascribe new features in the meanings, e.g. like looking for a needle in a haystack depending on the context may undergo changes in its form. Cf.:

(1) I don’t know how to find anything in your desk, Polly. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack (PUD, 13). (2) Then of course we’ve got to find the antibody that we want... It’s really like the needle in the haystack. We’ve got to go through the haystack, straw by straw, pulling out the needle (PUD, 13).

The example (1) manifests the core form of the expression, whereas in the example (2) the expression is slightly changed (the –ing verb is removed) and developed in the last sentence. The meaning of being difficult to find is not lost; however the form appears to be not fossilized. The form of an idiom is changed for the stylistic purposes of an utterance; therefore, the meaning might also undergo certain slight changes such as widening or narrowing in particular cases. Cognitive linguistic theories have also contributed to the study of idioms. After the wide acceptance of the theories developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) where the interest was taken in cognitive metaphors, linguists started researching whether idioms can as well be cognitive, i.e. do they conceptualize the reality in a similiar way as cognitive metaphors do. The researches performed so far do not present agreement on this subject. Keysar and Bly (1999) observe that meanings of the idioms may only seem to manifest themselves in conceptual strategies. In fact, the knowledge of the meaning of an idiom misleads about the effect of non-existing conceptual structure. Dobrovol‘skij and Piirainen (2005) made an 12

attempt to apply the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor to the analysis of idioms and they concluded with the assumption that some idioms reveal certain levels of conceptualization and traits that are characteristic of cognitive metaphors. An attempt to explain underlying concepts in idioms by Langlotz (2006) resulted in a broad and deep analysis of cognitive mechanisms underlying an idiom and introduced numerous processes shaping an idiomatic expression and proofs that idioms are conceptually motivated as they arise from various metaphors and metonymies. He accounts for lower and higher levels of motivation as for different stages of tracing difficulties. Cognitive view on idioms adds to traditional approaches as well as to the overall explanation of learning, teaching, using and adopting idioms. Vega-Moreno (2003, 303-323) offers a view on the construction of idiomatic meaning. She claims that idioms balance between their figurativeness and literalness due to the cognition. In the process of understanding idioms different levels of decoding result in the understanding of a certain idiom. The suggestion is made, that the pragmatic situation and the effort level in the processing of the information results in the productivity of the use of an idiom. The sociolinguistic approach towards idioms claims that idioms show the influence of the culture on the language. Casas (1995, 48) states that idioms can reflect the society on two levels – microlevel (an individual) and macrolevel (a society). Idioms reflect popular customs, traditions, history and overall cultural heritage of the country. The view of idioms as the mirror of society is to be adopted in the current research as the backbone of the study.

2. IDIOMS AND CULTURE

Language used by a speech community conveys the culture they live in (Rizq 2015, 15). Language and culture are in a tight relation, as language is a part of cultural heritage. Idioms, as a part of language are likely to reflect the culture more frequently than single words because of their figurativeness and the information coded in them. Idioms differ from language to language as culture does. According to Boers et al. (2004), the differences occur with respect to different source domains, i.e. historical origin of idiomatic expressions. The more salient a source domain in a language is, the more idioms of this domain may occur in a language. Despite the differences, Feldman (2006, as cited in Teilanyo 2014, 2) also notices that one or another idiomatic expression may be found in many languages because of the human brains and their ability to categorize in a similar way. An idiom can account for its cultural environment in different ways, i.e. in its meaning, semantic structure or both. Cultural heritage coded in the idiom may be mirrored in its constituent parts, i.e. the vocabulary used in the idiom might refer to culture specifics. Teliya et al. (1998, 57) explain that the term culture used in relation to idioms refers to ‘‘the ability of members of a speech community to orientate themselves with respect to social, moral, political, and so on values in their empirical and mental experience”. It is claimed that the way a community creates categories, e.g. Good and Evil is a concern of habits, mythology, stereotypes, rituals, etc. Differences in categorization account for the differences in idiomaticity. Teliya et al. (1998) also suggest five channels of culture percolation to language. The cultural data can be derived from cultural semes, cultural concepts, cultural connotations, cultural background, and discourse stereotypes.

Cultural semes refer to idiom components denoting either material or social and historical idioethnic realia, e.g. Russian word kolkhoz refers directly to the Russian collective farms, Lithuanian word klumpės refers to the kind of wooden footwear worn in Lithuania in the past. Cultural seme can usually be recognized in the dictionary as an entry with etymological and cultural commentary.

Cultural concepts account for the way of conceptualization of the world in different cultures and the verbal manifestation of these concepts. This type of cultural data refers rather to cognition than to semantics. Cultural concepts can be subdivided into concepts proper and

subconcepts. Concepts proper distinguish between categories, i.e. Good and Evil, Time and Space etc. They are similar in all European languages as the similarity of cultures, religion, and beliefs allows speech communities to categorize realia in a similar way. On the contrary, subconcepts are different to every language as they are verbalized fragments of concepts proper. Subconcepts are usually concrete nouns, which pertain the meaning given by a society, e.g. Russian word baba which is colloquially used to refer to women with particular traits in the past was used to refer to a peasant woman. This word is a part of the concept proper of femininity. The notion of cultural connotations stands for the relation between the linguistic signs (words, expressions) and non-verbal cultural symbols coded in the linguistic signs. Cultural connotations can arise from cultural semes and allusion to cultural realia. In such case, because of a certain cultural background, words are given a connotation understandable and related to the people aware of the cultural background. Cultural connotations may as well arise from cultural concepts and subconcepts. Cultural background is reduced ideological discourse, i.e. a hidden string between the expression and the feeling that expression evokes in the hearer of it. Teliya et al. (1998, 62) exemplify this notion with a Russian expression russkaja berezka meaning a Russian birch tree, which for a Russian person symbolizes motherland. The last notion, discourse stereotypes is explained as the prior source of an expression which can be easily traced back by the language speaker aware of the discourse. This includes any type of the discourse, such as religious discourse, philosophical discourse, political discourse, literary discourse and other. Guineng (2012, 108) has made an observation that it is inappropriate to study only differences in a cultural research. Cultures have much in common; therefore both similarities and differences should be considered. The original source domain of idioms allows us to relate and separate idioms among several languages. The current research focuses on both commonalities and differences in the English, Lithuanian and Polish language in order to understand which idiomatic expression relates to an individual culture, which relates to several cultures.

3. ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF IDIOMS

Linguistic studies concerning idioms conclude that idioms are fossilized groups of words that arise from phrases, proverb, colloquialisms, two-part common expressions etc. (Ren and Yu, 2013, 78). As idioms are part of the language, they are created for particular purposes retaining their literal meanings and only after some time they are started to be used in wider context undergoing changes in the meaning. According to Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English (2006, S2) “an idiom usually begins as a phrase with literal meaning which then starts to be used in a figurative or idiomatic way”, e.g. you reap what you sow, be in the saddle, go off the rails, be in the driving seat. These examples emerged from different historical changes in the way people lived as necessary to describe one or another phenomenon and later were started to be used in their idiomatic meaning. You reap what you sow originates in farming, i.e. harvesting crops, while now it means that one has to deal with the results of what they started. Be in the saddle, go off the rails and be in the driving seat emerged as the result of transportation changes. Be in the saddle comes from horsing, in its idiomatic meaning means be in the leading position in a company/ organisation. Be in the driving seat has very similar idiomatic meaning, it means to be in control/ in charge of a company/ organisation; however this idiom originally was used to speak about a driver of a car. Go off the rails literally is used to describe a train’s way, while now it is used speaking about one’s path of life, i.e. idiomatic meaning of this expression is to start behaving in unusual way that upsets other people. According to Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English (2006, S2), other sources of idioms might be sports, entertainment, games, fables, etc. Taking into account the relation between an idiomatic expression and phrases with direct meaning, idiomatic expressions can be classified into metaphoric and metonymic, i.e. idiomatic expressions are fossilized metaphors and metonymies (Jakaitienė, 2009, 289). The structure identical to metaphors is preserved in metaphoric idioms. Idioms of this type represent a comparison of two related situations. The relation does not necessarily have to be obvious or direct – it might be an association between the two compared situations. Metonymic idioms originate from any type of metonymic relation, e.g. synecdoche, product for process, etc. According to Jakaitienė (2009, 291), synecdoche is more likely to fossilize and become idioms than any other kind of metonymy. The author also concludes that it is not always easy to distinguish between metaphoric and metonymic idioms as they might be strongly related.

According to Antrushina et al. (1985, 187), the oldest principle for classifying idioms is based on etymology. Kalinauskas (1974, 5) touches upon the notion of etymology and suggests that idioms may originate from two sources. The author states that part of the idioms emerge from folklore of the native language speakers, whereas another part of idioms arrive to language from international sources. The origin of idioms is similar in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. All the languages contain both folk and borrowed idioms.

3.1 Borrowed idioms

Borrowed idioms come to one language from other languages. The biggest amount of idioms of this type are international, e.g. the golden middle in Lithuanian is aukso vidurys, in Polish - złoty środek, in German – die golden Mitte, and in Russian - золотая середина (Jakaitienė, 2009, 296). As the example shows, idioms can be translated to different languages; however some idioms can remain in their primary form and language. Non-translated idioms preserve their form, pronunciation, and spelling. Jakaitienė (2009, 297) claims that idioms of this type are barely vivid as they are included into different types of terminology. Non-translated idioms originate in different languages, e.g. alter ego – Latin, tête-à-tête – French, salto mortale – Italian. Polish and Lithuanian also contain non- translated idioms from the English language, e.g. second hand. The structure of translated idioms is usually adapted to set of rules of a language, e.g. lion’s share in Lithuanian is liūto dalis, while in Russian - львинная доля (Jakaitienė, 2009, 296). There are several most common sources of translated idioms. Idioms of these types can be found in all the three languages under analysis:

1) Bible: English - to wash your hands, Lithuanian – nusiplauti rankas, Polish – umywać ręce. 2) Greek mythology and antique literature: English – Achilles’ heel, Lithuanian – Achilo kulnas, Polish – pięta Achilesa. 3) Internationally appreciated literature: English – to fight the windmills, Lithuanian – kovoti su vėjo malūnais, Polish – walczyć z wiatrakami (an idiom originates in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s opus Don Quixote (1605)). 4) Historical facts: English – to cross the Rubicon, Lithuanian - peržengti Rubikoną, Polish – przekroczyć Rubikon (an idiom originates in The Great Roman Civil War 49-45 BC).

5) Science, journalism: English – honeymoon (journalism), Lithuanian – medaus mėnuo, Polish – miodowy miesiąc.

As it was mentioned earlier and can be seen from the examples above, international idioms do retain the structure of the language they come to; however not all the idioms of similar meaning or structure are necessarily translated. Idioms may emerge from common associations, thinking processes or life situations, e.g. look through one’s fingers can be found not only in English or Lithuanian (pro pirštus žiūrėti) but also in Latvian - skatīties caur pirkstiem, German – durch die Finger sehen, and Russian - смотреть сквозь пальцы (Palionis, 1999, 221).

3.2 Idioms from folklore

Folklore idioms mirror the culture of a country (Jakaitienė, 2009, 294). This type of idioms manifests in non-verbal reality of a society, its religion, fables, and history. It is difficult to define what the exact source domain of one or another non-motivated folklore idiom is, as their roots are far in the past (Jakaitienė, 2009, 295). The source domain of motivated idioms is less difficult to trace as they are treated as stable metaphors. Motivated idioms are based on more obvious life situations. Folklore idioms express culture specific meaning and language specific construction. They are difficult to translate to other languages because of their grammatical and semantic forms. Idioms of this type might contain archaic words or words from different dialects, e.g. English - whys and wherefores (means for what purpose), Lithuanian – aitais eiti (means to become irrelevant, unimportant) and Polish – kopnąć w kalendarz (meaning to die) (Adapted from Jakaitienė, 2009, 295; Parkinson, 2006, S6; Smaza and Bernacka, 2012, 626). Aside from the above mentioned specifics, idioms in the English language can also originate in rhyming slang. Rhyming slang emerged in the East End of London. It means using the word which rhymes with the meaning of the phrase, e.g. tell pork pies means to tell lies instead of expressing oneself directly. The idiom which developed from this phrase is to tell porkies (Parkinson, 2006, S7). The Lithuanian language specificity manifests itself in structure of some idioms. Jakaitienė (2009, 296) suggests that the most typical Lithuanian idioms are the ones that begin with the genitive case (e.g. šimtų šimtai), verbal combinations (e.g. sakyk nesakęs), curses and

wishes in the imperative form (e.g. tegul tave skradžiai), idioms including conjunction nors (e.g. nors tu verk), and combinations with onomatopoeic interjections (e.g. nei šypt nei krypt). Dialectic idioms are very common in the Polish language. Karaś (2009) distinguished two main types of dialectic idioms: idioms that exist in both dialect and standard Polish and idioms that exist in the dialect only. It can be further divided into five subtypes: idioms that are absolutely the same in the dialect and in the standard language, idioms that contain a keyword different from standard language, idioms that have additional dialectic word to the common meaning, idioms that have same form but different meaning, idioms that do not exist in the standard Polish language. Both folklore and borrowed idioms of any type reveal certain cultural aspects. The difference between them is in that borrowed idioms show global aspects, while folklore idioms are very specific. Folklore idioms not only present the culture but also the language features that separate it from other languages. Etymological analysis of idioms requires wide understanding of history, culture, geography, sociology, semantics and grammar as well as deep knowledge of language specifics such as dialects or slang. This research is concerned with the prior source of idiomatic expressions and its type in order to elicit any equivalents and to draw any strings that create a rapport between three cultures and three languages.

4. CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL INISGHTS

The development of transportation in every country differs due to its unique geographical position and unique history. Transportation is not only a tool but also cultural heritage of a society. Like any other country, the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland have their unique history and transportation systems.

4.1 History of the Modern United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is a country in the north-west coast of Europe consisting of an island named Great Britain, numerous small islands and the north-eastern area of an island called Ireland (O’Driscoll, 2009, 8). As the country is surrounded by water, historically the only way to reach it was by water transport. The geographical position of the country did not prevent it from invaders and cultural influence of other communities. The history of the United Kingdom dates back to the Iron Age Celtic society. Celts were first visited by the future invaders Romans in 55 BCE when Julius Caesar arrived to examine the lands and after a victorious fight left the islands. The Romans come back in 43 CE and stayed for more than three hundred years imposing their lifestyle and language on the inhabitants of modern England and Wales. Celt tribes from another parts of the islands, namely Scotland and Ireland, have opposed the Romans, which, according to O’Driscoll (2009, 16), might have resulted in the development of two separate branches of the Celtic group of languages. Celtic languages and culture is preserved in present day Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. The rest of the island was highly influenced by the invaders from the fifth century – the Anglo-Saxons. Their lifestyle and culture has led to the development of villages as they introduced new farming methods. The Germanic tongue used by Anglo-Saxons has entrenched as the invasions from the mainland of Europe continued in the eight century, bringing Danes way of life and Germanic tongue varieties which only strengthened the culture of Anglo – Saxons as the two cultures had only minor differences (O’Driscoll 2009, 16). The mainstream European culture was brought to the islands by Normans in 1066. Normans imposed feudalism and the French language. This period has initiated the class

system as the landlords and barons were French speakers, while the peasants were English speakers. As the result of this period the English language has adopted many French words. The eighteenth century has exalted Britain with the Industrial Revolution which led to the growth of technical and transport development as well as modernization and urbanization of the islands. The Industrial Revolution resulted from the evolvement of trade among the islands and its colonies in the Americas, west coast of Africa and India. The nineteenth century has been the century of fame to the islands, as the British Empire which started developing in the fourteenth century has gained the power and has become the greatest empire in the world embracing about 20% of the population of the world (Rogers, 2011). The historical growth and development of the modern United Kingdom has led to many diverse means of transport. Beginning with boats and ships to travel to the European mainland, kingdom now has not only the possibility to reach the mainland by plane, but also by ground transport owing to the Channel Tunnel, which was built under water and made it possible to travel from the UK to France by train. Inter-city travelling includes trains, buses and private transport. Private transport is of a great importance in the United Kingdom as more than 80% of all journeys in the UK are made by private road transport (O‘Driscoll, 2009, 161). Inter-city journeys by bus are cheaper than by train but the length of the bus travel is more extensive. Public transport in the United Kingdom is well known for its double-decker buses which are not common in other European countries. According to O‘Driscoll (2009, 163), the capital city of the UK has also distinctive symbols related to transport such as black taxi and the Underground also known as tube. Due to the trust society gives to rail transport, trams, which have been removed from use in 1950s and 1960s are used as a mean of transport again at present. In the previous centuries the profession of watermen was well-known all over the kingdom, as British people made great use of their waterways. People used to travel by rivers, e.g. Thames. Although the profession and the transport itself have almost disappeared in present, several barges still cross London by the Thames. Due to its history, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland possesses a vast variety of public and private transport. The traditional and initial transport such as ships and boats is still not completely overtaken by road and air transport.

4.2 History of the Modern Lithuania

The history of Lithuania dates back to 3 000 BCE when Aistians settled on the shore of the Baltic Sea. There is no evidence of other communities on these lands (Šapoka, 1936, 18). Modern country named Lithuania is situated in the middle of Europe on the shore of the Baltic Sea and was founded by the communities of Balts. The thirteenth century was of great importance to the Baltic tribes as they were united under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and were governed by Dukes. Geographically, the Duchy spread along the Baltic Sea and the boarders were as far as the modern Ukraine and Belarus. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania existed for three centuries. The Duchy had a class system, with the noblemen and clerics on top of it. Other classes were peasants, townspeople, Jewish and Tatars. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the language of noblemen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already influenced by the Polish language (Šapoka, 1936, 248). Other classes used Gudi written language from the fourteenth century. The influence of the Polish language and culture enhanced in 1569 as soon as the Union of Lublin was signed. The Union proclaimed the development of a new, united country named the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth existed until 1795. The main language in the Commonwealth was Polish. The Lithuanian language survived because of the Catholic - Protestant fights. Catholic Church used the Lithuanian language as a tool of proclamation of Catholicism and in the sixteenth century published books in Lithuanian. Another culture that had a significant influence on the Lithuanian one was Russian. The Imperial Russia banned Lithuanian press and the Lithuanian language in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and imposed the Russian language culture and traditions. The russification process was stopped by the World War I; however it renewed with the Soviet Occupation. The modern Lithuania was a part of the Soviet Union to 1990 (Eidintas et al., 2013, 98). Modern Germany also left a footprint in the Lithuanian history. Lithuania was occupied by Nazi during the World War II. The modern Lithuania started its formation in 1990. It changed its domestic policy as well as its foreign policy. The main means of transport in the past Lithuania was a horse. People used to ride horses or to use carriages. The first car with four seats appeared in Lithuania in 1896 (Ambrazevičius, 2008, 42). The only rail transport in Lithuania was a train. In 1997 Lithuania had more than 300 trains (Ambrazevičius, 2008, 49). Due to its geographical position, i.e. the

Baltic shore, Lithuania also possesses ships, boats and ferryboats and the biggest Lithuanian cities also have airports.

4.3 History of the Modern Poland

As it was mentioned in the previous subchapter, Poland was in a Union with Lithuania in 1569-1795. The Polish language was used as the official language of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Poland was a prosperous country which highly influenced the surrounding lands. The early history of Poland begins with the settlement of Slavs; therefore the modern Polish language belongs to the Slavic branch of languages. Boarders and lands of the country grew bigger and smaller depending on the governing kings and wars. Modern Poland lies on the Baltic shore and has a boarder with Lithuania. Poland was not a sovereign country, it has been changing its name and boarders, e.g. Boleslaw III divided Poland among his children in 1138 (Baczkowski et al.1995, 56); however it remained independent until the eighteenth century and Napoleonic wars which resulted in the French influence on culture of the Polish people. Poland went through division, called Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1790 and 1795. The country was shared among Russians, the Kingdom of Prussia and Austrians (Baczkowski et al.1995, 522-525). As a result, the Polish nationalism emerged in the nation which was undergoing russification and germanization. There was no peace and longer periods of independence until 1989 when the modern country proclaimed its independence and escaped from the influence of communism. Polish people spread all over the world, the community of those people is called Polonia (Czekańska and Przystasz, 1984, 236). Polish people live in France, the USA, Germany, Austria, Canada, New Zealand and other countries. Poland has transportation system very similar to the United Kingdom. Poland has the underground system, trams, trains and water transport, with several well developed ports. It has air transport and a vast variety of ground transport such as cars, buses, and trolleybuses. According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the use of different transport means depends on the region of the country. The data retrieved from the Central Statistical Office of Poland shows that the number of airways and land roads is growing, while the number of railways in use is declining (Alke et al. 2015, 75-79). All the three countries currently are members of the European Union and NATO. The development of the Union has influenced the currency change in Lithuania – it has changed 23

its currency to Euro. The European Union is influencing the development of the transport systems in the countries because of its policies and laws. The members of the EU receive money from the Union for the building and development of the existing roads, rails, airports.

5. IDIOMS WITH THE VEHICLE COMPONENT IN ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN AND POLISH

5.1. Methodology

The corpus for the data analysis was compiled manually from five different sources. In the framework of this research all the idioms containing the vehicle component were selected, i.e. the vehicle component in the idiom may not necessarily be the headword of the idiom. The English data was collected from Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms by Sinclair (2002) with the definitions translated to the Lithuanian language (Alma littera 2009) and Oxford Idioms Dictionary for learners of English (Oxford University Press 2006). It comprised 40 distinct dictionary entries where closely synonymous entries were considered as one, e.g. ride two horses at the same time and ride two horses at once. The Lithuanian idioms were taken from Frazeologijos Žodynas by Paulauskas et.al. (Lietuvių Kalbos Institutas 2001). The data embraced 86 dictionary entries. The Polish idioms were collected from Słownik Idiomów Polskich PWN by Drabik et.al. (PWN SA 2006) and Słownik wyrazów obcych, synonimów, frazeologiczny by Bernacka (Buchmann 2012). The number of Polish idioms analyzed in the present study was 32. The number of the idioms under analysis from all the three languages is 159. The performance of the research required several procedural steps to be taken:

 First, data from the English, Lithuanian and Polish dictionaries of idioms were collected;  The frequency of the occurrence of idioms with different vehicle component in the three languages was calculated;  Idioms were classified into different semantic fields in order to determine their semantic characteristics in the three analyzed languages;  The origin of the equivalent idioms was determined;  The points of contact of the three languages was attempted to be determined.

In order to achieve the aim of the current research, the quantitative, qualitative and comparative approaches were employed. Every part of the research required different approaches to be applied; therefore the use of approaches varied depending on the idiomatic feature analyzed. The quantitative analysis was employed in the investigation of the vehicle component of idioms under analysis. The quantitative approach was applied in order to reveal the distribution of the different vehicle components in the English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms. In addition, the comparative approach was employed in order to highlight similar and distinct features of these idioms. The investigation of the semantic areas required qualitative approach to be applied. Quantitative approach was also used as a supplementary tool in the discussion of the semantic areas of the idioms with vehicle component. The idioms were grouped according to their meanings and compared in terms of the area of the meaning as well as the similarities and differences of the meanings expressed by the English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms. Qualitative and comparative approaches were applied for the investigation of equivalent idioms in the three languages. In order to perform the analysis, the idioms in the three languages are compared to elicit similar and same idioms. For the purpose of the research two types of equivalents are distinguished – partial equivalent and full equivalent. Idioms, having similar meaning and structure are considered to be partial equivalents, while idioms of the same structure and meaning are considered full equivalents.

5.2 The vehicle component

The vehicle component analysis reflected different aspects of the societies and languages analyzed. The components reflect the influence of various factors on the relevance and presence of one or the other type of vehicle in the idioms of a particular language. The investigation revealed the linguistic influence, .i.e. the characteristics of an idiom as a linguistic unit that have an impact on the presence of certain vehicle types. Furthermore, the characteristic of a country where the language is spoken are mirrored in the idioms by the vehicle component. In particular, the geographical position has a considerable impact on the variety of the components in one or the other language. Due to the geographical position of the countries speaking the chosen languages, the types of vehicle reflected in the components

of the idioms are different. The components were divided into two types: surface vehicle (e.g. a bicycle, a bus, a horse) and water transport (e.g. a boat, a ship). The types of vehicle presented in the idioms suggest that the English language idioms vary in this aspect the most. The results are presented in Figure 1.

Fig.1 The frequency of components in relation to the type of vehicle in the English idioms.

As Figure 1 suggests, both distinguished transport types are reflected in the English idioms. The highest number of components is related to the surface transport. The components in this category include: horse, cart, bike, donkey, pony and wagon. Less than a half of the idioms in the English language contain water transport vehicle components. The components identified in this category are: canoe, boat, ship. Although the surface transport prevails in the English idioms, the presence of different types of vehicle mirrors the social awareness towards the variety of the transportation means. The components of the Lithuanian idioms, similarly to the English language reflect both categories. 86 components share the categories of surface transport and water transport. For the frequency of the occurrence of the components in relation to the type of vehicle in Lithuanian, see Figure 2.

Figure 2. The frequency of components in relation to the type of vehicle in the Lithuanian idioms

According to the calculations, 85 out of 86 components reflect the surface transport. The components in this category are: arklys, žirgas, vežimas, rogės, asilas. The only component that reflects the sea transport is laivas. The difference in the geographical position of the United Kingdom and Lithuania explains the significantly lower number of water transport components, as Lithuania has smaller water shore and less ports. The number of the surface-related components can be explained by the smaller distances between the living areas in Lithuania resulting in preference of road transport such as buses or cars to commute to other districts. The investigation of the 32 Polish components presents the results which differ from both English and Lithuanian idioms. The components from the Polish data reflect only surface transport. No components related to water transport were found. The results of the investigation indicate the attachment of the society to the surface transport, despite the fact, that Poland has well developed water transport and ports. The analysis of the components in the 159 idioms suggests that the surface transport prevails in the idioms of all the three languages. None of the languages indicates any air transport. This can be explained by the novelty of the air travels. The availability of the planes, helicopters or other air transport for the wide private and public use is the most current of all the transport types. As the idioms are defined as stable phrases, the presence of the air transport vehicle component is unlikely. Regardless the fact, that the idioms containing the air transport components may be present in the contemporary English, Lithuanian or Polish, time

is required for the idioms to be included into the dictionaries of idioms and to be considered as idioms. Each transportation type embraces various components. The components represent separate means of transport in each of the types. All the components collected for this research are identified and calculated. The number of distinct components differs in each of the three languages. 40 English idioms comprise 9 distinct components: horse, bike, boat, donkey, ship, wagon, canoe, cart, pony. 86 Lithuanian idioms present 6 different components: arklys (Eng. a horse), asilas (Eng. a donkey), laivas (Eng. a ship), rogės (Eng. sleigh), vežimas (Eng. a carriage), žirgas (Eng. a racehorse). The means of transport represented in the 32 Polish idioms are the following 4: koń (Eng. a horse), wóz (Eng. a cart), wół (Eng. an ox), and kareta (Eng. a carriage). The number of idioms with each of the components is diverse. It differs in all of the three languages. The distribution of the English components is presented in Figure 3. It presents the number of idioms containing each of the components. The calculations are made taking into consideration all 40 idioms and all 9 components, regardless the fact, that some of them are used only once.

Figure 3. The distribution of the components in the English language

As the figure suggests, the most frequent component in the English idioms is horse. It is used in 17 idioms. The second and the third components according to frequency are ship and boat (6 and 7 idioms respectively). Three components can be found in single idioms. The components are bike, canoe, and cart. The findings of the investigation suggest that half of the idioms (21) contain animal-powered transport and one more idiom contains a harnessed means of transport. The idioms of this type have components such as horse, pony and donkey. The prevalence of the animal-related components can be explained by the early development 29

of farming and taming the animals. Animals can be considered one of the first means of transport in humanity. Idioms come to language from all the stages of language development; therefore it is explicable to have higher number of animal-related components as the time the animal are a part of everyday life is longer than all other means of transport. Water-related components as well form a considerable number of the vehicle idioms in the English language. According to O’Driscoll (2009), British people used to commute by rivers. Because of that, the idioms related not only to sea transport, but also to river transport can be identified in the English language (e.g. canoe). The historical preferences of the travelling of the British people are mirrored in the vehicle components identified in the idioms.

The Lithuanian idioms comprise 6 different components corresponding to both distinguished types of transportation. The components are distributed among 86 idioms in unequal parts. In comparison to the results of the English data, there is only one component in the Lithuanian data which is used in only one idiom. This is the component laivas (Eng. a ship), which is as well the only component representing water transport in the Lithuanian data. 5 other components share 79 idioms unequally, however more than one idiom contains each of the 5 components. The results of the components distribution in the Lithuanian language are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The distribution of the components in the Lithuanian language

As can be seen from Figure 4, the most common component in the Lithuanian language is arklys (Eng. a horse). Furthermore, another component žirgas (Eng. a racehorse) is identified in 12 idioms. This component represents the same animal, but carries positive connotation. According to Šukytė (2009), žirgas carries a meaning of a beautiful, excellent 30

horse, while arklys refers to the animal which you work with. Another most frequent component vežimas (Eng. a cart) is as well close to arklys and žirgas as in order for it to become a vehicle it has to be attached to an animal, usually a horse. As it was mentioned before, the least frequent component is laivas (Eng. a ship). It is as well the only sea type of transport. Furthermore, this is the only component which does not refer to animal or animal- powered vehicles. Except for this component, all the other means of transport used in the Lithuanian idioms are animal-related. In addition to already mentioned components, the word rogės (Eng. sleigh), which in Lithuania are typically attached to horses, is found in 7 idioms. The component asilas (Eng. a donkey) is used in 5 idioms. Animals as a mean of transport were to high degree important in Lithuania not so far in the past. According to Driskius et al. (2005), the first cars in Lithuania appeared only in 1896-1914 and by year 1913 there were only 16 cars for private use in Vilnius and the nearby area. The late appearance of the mechanic vehicle means in Lithuania explains social affection to animal-related vehicles. No significant difference in the distribution of the animal-related components in the English and Lithuanian languages was determined. The variety of the Polish components is lower. A majority of idioms has the same component koń (Eng. a horse) and there are 2 out of 4 components which can be found in one idiom each. These are wół (Eng. an ox) and kareta (Eng. a carriage). The two other components are identified in the rest of the idioms with unequal distribution. The distribution of the Polish components found in the idioms is presented in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The distribution of the components in the Polish language

According to the Figure 5, all the idioms in the Polish language are reflected by animal- related components. Similarly to the English and Lithuanian idioms, the most frequent 31

component is also animal-related. In fact, the most frequent vehicle component is common to all the three languages. The reason behind the prevalence of the animal-related vehicle component in the three languages is the same – the span of the presence of this type of vehicle is longer than other types of vehicle in all the three countries. One vehicle component that is absent in the English and Lithuanian idioms is identified in the Polish idioms. The animal wół (Eng. and ox) is not present neither in the English nor in Lithuanian idioms, however the animal donkey which is characteristic to both English and Lithuanian is absent in the Polish idioms. The results of the component analysis demonstrated that the most frequent type of vehicle used as a component in the idioms in all the three languages is surface transport. Furthermore, the most frequent component in all the three languages coincides and it is the component horse. Animals and animal-powered vehicles prevail in the three languages. The analysis also revealed several coinciding components in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. Table 1 presents all the corresponding components in the three languages.

Table 1. Corresponding components in the three languages

English Lithuanian Polish horse arklys koń ship laivas - wagon - kareta cart vežimas wóz donkey asilas -

As the Table 1 suggests, along with the most frequent component horse, there is one more component common to the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. The component cart is an animal-powered vehicle and usually the horses are harnessed with carts, therefore the two components that coincide in all the three languages are animal-related. The investigation revealed that the English and Lithuanian languages have more components in common, as in addition to horse and cart; two other components (donkey and ship) coincide in the two languages. On the other hand, English and Polish have only one more coinciding component wagon. Nevertheless, the similarities revealed by the investigation of the components externalize the social similarities in the three countries. 32

The results of the investigation have highlighted similar and distinct cultural aspects of the British, Lithuanian and Polish societies. The social attachment to the animals and animal- powered vehicles in all the three societies was proved by the investigation of the vehicle component. As well, the investigation revealed lack of idioms related to other means of transport such as rail or air transport. The reason behind the absence of these kinds of transportation is explained by the features of idioms, namely the stability which is determined by long and persistent use of a phrase in order for it to become an idiom.

5.2 Semantic areas of the idioms

Second part of the research deals with meanings expressed by the analysed idioms. The figurative meanings expressed in idiomatic units may vary. A previous research of weather idioms in the English and Lithuanian languages (Liubkevič-Bedulskaja 2014) revealed that idioms denote not only meanings directly related to any of the words in the idiom but also meanings that have no relation to any of the words used in the idiom. The investigation revealed that some semantic areas vary in every language; however there are semantic areas that are either common or similar to different languages. The meanings of the idioms are primarily grouped into idioms with meaning related to one of the components (phraseological combinations) and idioms with meaning not related to any of the components (phraseological unities and phraseological fusions). The analysis of the data revealed 8 phraseological combinations. Three phraseological combinations were found in the English data. Another four combinations were found in the Polish data. The investigation of the Lithuanian idioms elucidated only one phraseological combination, i.e. meaning of one idiom is directly related to the components in the idiom. The investigated phraseological combinations have different disclosing components, i.e. not all the disclosing components are related to vehicles. Phraseological combinations in the English language are not disclosed by vehicle components, the meanings of the idioms are disclosed in other components of the idiom:

1. A Dog and Pony Show. This idiom refers to a showy event organized to impress other people, therefore the disclosing component is show. 2. Do the Donkey Work. This phraseological combination means to do all the worst part of the job. The disclosing component is work. 33

3. Eat like a horse. This idiom means to eat a lot, therefore the word eat is used in its direct meaning and is a disclosing component.

Phraseological combinations in the Polish language comprise three idioms with a disclosing component related to vehicle and one idiom with a disclosing component not related to vehicle:

1. Koń pod wierzch (Eng. hack). The meaning of this phraseological combination is disclosed through the component koń (Eng. a horse). 2. Wspiąć konia (Eng. to mount a horse). The disclosing component in this phraseological combination is koń (Eng. a horse). 3. Zedrzeć konia (Eng. horsemanship). The meaning of this component is disclosed by the component koń (Eng. a horse). 4. Ktoś zjadłby konia z kopytami (Eng. to be able to eat a horse with hooves – to be very hungry). This phraseological combination has a disclosing component zjadłby (Eng. would/could eat).

The Lithuanian phraseological combination has meaning related to vehicle, i.e. the meaning relates to the component horse. The idiom is: arklio uodega nenutrūks (Eng. the horse’s tail will not fall off). The meaning of the idiom is “it is not difficult to give a lift”. Phraseological combinations, forming 5% of the data can be equally divided into 4 idioms with disclosing vehicle component and 4 idioms with disclosing not vehicle component. All the English phraseological combinations have not transport-related, while 3 Polish and 1 Lithuanian idiom have transport-related disclosing component. One Polish phraseological combination also has not transport-related disclosing component. The distribution of the phraseological combinations with respect to other types of idioms is presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6. The distribution of different types of idioms

Phraseological combinations constituted only 5% of all the idioms collected for the research. Other semantic types of idioms, i.e. phraseological unities and phraseological fusions comprised 95% of the analysed data. Although phraseological unities and fusions are not equal, for the purpose of the investigation they are treated as one and classified according to the semantic areas their meanings belong to. For full lists of idioms with the semantic areas they belong to, see Appendix 1. The research of the semantic areas of the idioms under analysis, which are considered to be either idiomatic unities or idiomatic fusions, revealed 11 semantic areas, i.e. semantic area of success and luck, semantic area of situation and place, semantic area of politics, semantic area of business and work, semantic area of actions, semantic area of building relationships, semantic area of attitude and behaviour, semantic area of making a choice, semantic area of human, semantic area of nature, semantic area of quantity with more than 3 idioms ascribed to each. 7 more semantic areas comprising less than three idioms were distinguished. These are the semantic area of time and duration, semantic area of communication, semantic area of betrayal, semantic area of physiology, semantic area of curses, semantic area of indifference, and semantic area of love and romance. Therefore, 151 idioms out of 159 are considered to have meaning not disclosed by any of the components and can be ascribed to 18 semantic areas. English phraseological unities and fusions form a semantic area of success and luck. The idioms that are considered to belong to this area have meanings related to making attempts to become successful (e.g. hitch your wagon to a star), dreams about success (e.g. when your ship comes in), benefit (e.g. a rising tide lifts all boats) etc. The category comprises 6 distinct idioms. The same area is revealed in the Polish data. Two idioms are

attached to this category. The idioms have meanings of unexpected winner (czarny koń) and a promise of reward (dać (komuś) konia z rzędem temu, kto...). Lithuanian phraseological unities and fusion form a similar area; however the area comprises not only success, but also failure, i.e. the area of success and failure. Idioms in this area have meanings of death (roges užriesti), moral decline (nuo gero žirgo kristi), good luck and success (kaip ant arklio joja), etc. There are 8 idioms attached to this area. There is one idiom in the English and no idioms in the Polish language related to bad luck, failure and lack of success. The presence of the idioms with negative meanings indicates that Lithuanian society is aware of the possible misfortunes and is more willing to express them with the help of figurative language means. This does not indicate any social unawareness in the English and Polish societies; however it points certain unwillingness to create and use figurative phrases for negative purposes. Another area distinguished in the English data is the area of situation and place. It comprises 6 phraseological unities and fusions that refer to a particular situation or a place, e.g. in the same boat. No similar category is found in the Lithuanian and Polish languages. None of the single in these languages could refer to this area. One more area which is typical to the English language only is the area of politics. Three idioms represent their subjection to this area. Two of the idioms relate to elections: to back the wrong horse and a one-horse race. Both of the idioms are related to race and winning and the elections are considered to be a race. The third idiom in this area is a stalking horse. This idiom as well as the other two can have meaning not related to politics, however the dictionary itself gives the definition of the political idioms together with other definitions: ‘a stalking horse - In politics, a stalking horse is someone who stands against the leader of a party to test the strength of any opposition to the leader. They then withdraw in favour of a stronger challenge, if it looks likely that the leader can be defeated’ (Sinclair, 2002). An area which is similar to political is the area of organizations, business and work. Four English idioms are ascribed to this area. Three of the four idioms have negative meanings, e.g. shape up or ship out. One idiom has positive meaning: run a tight ship. All four idioms have component ship. This suggests that British people tend to conceptualize businesses and organizations as ships. One Polish idiom is also ascribed to this area: wół roboczy (Eng. a working ox) which means hard worker. The idiom has component different from the English one. Although it is impossible to drive any results from one idiom, it suggests that a working person might be conceptualized as an animal among the Polish. An area that can be found in the English and Lithuanian language is an area of actions. Idioms that are ascribed to this area denote different kinds of actions, e.g. lipniaus arklį 36

paikinti (Eng. to take a risk), be (like) ships that pass in the night (to meet for a short time), etc. The area comprises 8 English idioms and 8 Lithuanian idioms. There are no relations between the idioms in the two languages in this area. A similar area of taking actions exists within the Polish idioms as well; however the idioms ascribed to this area in the Polish language have similar meanings. The all have meanings related to building relationships, therefore the area was narrowed from actions to building relationships. Three Polish idioms are ascribed to this area. Two idioms have negative meanings and one has positive meaning. The area which is tightly related to the area of relationships is the area of attitude and behaviour. The area comprises 5 English idioms as well as 4 Polish idioms. The idioms carry meanings representing attitude towards a situation or a person. The extent of the relations between the meanings and the area varies. Four English idioms ascribed to this area carry negative meanings, e.g. come down off your high horse. One Polish idiom (koń by się uśmiał) means criticism and carries negative meaning. One idiom (float someone's boat) carries positive meaning. Other idioms carry meanings which depend on context, i.e. it is impossible to decide if the meaning is positive or negative without context. The last semantic area that is possible to form from the meanings of the English idioms is the area of making a choice. Two of the idioms carry meanings denoting choice. Both of them have component horse: horses for courses, ride two horses at the same time. Idioms that could be included into the area of choice are also found in the Polish language. Three idioms from the Polish data contribute to this area. Each of the idioms carries different meaning of choice: wóz albo przewóz carries a meaning of any choice, postawić na złego konia carries a meaning of bad choice, and postawić na dobrego konia carries a meaning of good choice. English idioms do not denote choice; they denote making a choice rather than a choice itself. Another area comprises Lithuanian and Polish idioms. This is the area of human. The area is very broad and the idioms ascribed to this area have different meanings; however all the meanings are related to human body, appearance, knowledge, etc. The area consists of 34 Lithuanian idioms as well as 10 Polish idioms. The idioms ascribed to the area of human could be further subdivided into the subarea of health, e.g. koński organizm, emotional states, e.g. kaip ant devynių arklių išsėsti, work e.g. kaip juodas arklys, knowledge, e.g. asilo galva, and appearance, e.g. końska szczęka. Idioms in this area do not represent any particular features of a language or of the mentality of the language speakers. Lithuanian idioms comprise another broad area of nature. Idioms in this area carry meaning related to nature and natural phenomena, e.g. alijošius važinėja su ketvertu arklių 37

which means a thunder. The area comprises 9 idioms. 4 idioms in this area have the same meaning – a dragonfly, e.g. velnio arklys, žydo arklys. 3 idioms denote weather conditions, e.g. laivo rykštė, perkūno vežimas. The number of the idioms denoting a dragonfly suggests that people in Lithuania have an interest in nature, animals and insects. They tend to conceptualize less frequent insects to well-known animals such as horse. The following broad area comprising both Lithuanian and Polish idioms is the area of quantity. The area comprises 16 Lithuanian and 1 Polish idiom. 16 of 17 idioms in this area denote big amounts of something. All of them have components horse and cart. It suggests that people understand horse as an animal relatively bigger than the human, as well as the cart being a big vehicle. One of the idioms does not denote big amount, it has meaning of a measurement: arklio jėga (Eng. horse power) as the measurement of a car performance possibilities. The broadest semantic area comprising 46 idioms is the area of human as it encompasses idioms denoting anything that is related to human. Only the semantic area of success and luck embraces idioms from all the three languages, other semantic areas comprise idioms from one or two languages. The English idioms and Polish idioms vary in meaning more than Lithuanian – they are found in 10 different areas, while Lithuanian idioms are ascribed to 8 semantic areas. Both English and Lithuanian idioms are ascribed to semantic area characteristic to the idioms of one language only – English idioms form areas of situation and place and politics, while Lithuanian idioms form the area of nature. One Lithuanian idiom (rogutėlės po velniui) is difficult to ascribe to any of the areas as its meaning is highly dependent on the context and it is impossible to derive one area that could generalise the meaning of the idiom. Some of the idioms were not ascribed to any of the presented areas. These idioms have meanings which do not coincide with any of the semantic areas. As the meanings of all of the idioms were different, each of the idioms should have been ascribed to different semantic area. These idioms are presented in tables together with suggestions of possible semantic areas they could be ascribed to. Three English idioms were not ascribed to any of the areas discussed. They are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. English idioms and suggested semantic areas.

Idiom Suggested semantic area Donkey's year time, duration From the horse's mouth communication, information A Trojan horse betrayal

As the Table 2 presents, some idioms could be ascribed to more than one area, e.g. the idiom donkey’s year means a long period of time, long duration of something, and therefore the suggested areas are of time and duration. As the table suggest each of the three idioms has different meanings that are not related to any of the broader areas distinguished for this research. There are 7 Lithuanian idioms that do not relate to any of the discussed areas. Two of them have exactly the same meaning. In the case of Lithuanian idioms, some of the idioms are used as sayings. They refer to a particular situation. All the 5 idioms are presented in Table 3. The idioms referring to a particular situation are italicized.

Table 3. Lithuanian idioms and suggested semantic areas.

Idiom Suggested semantic area arklius pagirdyti physiology arklių pažiūrėti physiology asilo koja curses rogutėlės po velniui - keršais žirgais jodinėti disbelief keršu žirgu joja disbelief ne (kieno) rogės ne (kieno) ratai indifference

According to the Table 3, the first two idioms are used as sayings; they are also of the exactly the same meaning – to urinate. The idioms are used only in this particular situation. The idioms keršais žirgais jodinėti and keršu žirgu joja are used as sayings to express

disbelief in a promise, therefore they are ascribed to the area of disbelief. One of the idioms is not ascribed to any of the areas, because it comprises many different meanings. The idiom rogutėlės po velniui means that everyone gets what he deserves, so it could be ascribed to the area of reward. It also means that everyone gets what suits them, so it can be ascribed to the area of suitability. As in the case of this idiom what can be received is anything, so depending on the context of the use of this idiom it can be ascribed to any semantic area. As presented in the table, there is an idiom used as curse. It does not reflect any particular meaning – it is a saying used instead of bad words. Four Polish idioms are not included to any of the discussed areas. Similarly to the English and Lithuanian idioms, Polish idioms have different meanings. They are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Polish idioms and suggested semantic areas.

Idiom Suggested semantic area (ktoś) dosiadać, dosiąść swego konia communication koń trojański deception, betrayal końskie zaloty love, romance końska kuracja methods

As it is indicated in the table, two idioms ((ktoś) dosiadać, dosiąść swego konia and koń trojański) have the semantic areas that coincide with the English ones and two idioms are ascribed to the semantic areas which do not appear any earlier. Each of the idioms may be ascribed to broader or narrower semantic area depending on the context of its use. The study of the meanings of the idioms and ascribing them to the semantic areas has also revealed certain aspects of the societies and their worldview. It is noted that Lithuanian idioms with vehicle components denote not only success, but also failure, death, moral decline and lack of success, whereas English and Polish idioms denote only success. Another notable aspect is related to the English and Lithuanian idioms and concerns both the meaning of the idiom and the component donkey. The analysis revealed that English and Lithuanian people perceive this animal in different way. There are two idioms in the English language containing the component donkey as well as five Lithuanian idioms with this component. It is

noticed that English idioms represent the perception of the donkey as of a hard-working animal: do the donkey work means to complete all the physical and tiring part of the job and donkey's year means a long period of time. On the other hand, five idioms found in the Lithuanian language have meanings related to stupidity: asilo brolis (Eng. donkey’s brother) and asilo galva (Eng. donkey’s head) both mean stupid, paskutinis asilas (Eng. a total donkey) means absolutely stupid, Buridano asilas (Eng. Buridan’s donkey) is used to refer to a person who is unable of making a choice and asilo koja (Eng. donkey’s leg) is used as a curse. The meanings indicate that Lithuanians associate the donkey with stupidity, while the English see this animal as a hardworking creature. It reflects that the perception of the same animal in two cultures is not the same and differs to a high extent. There is no component donkey in the Polish idioms. Despite the differences, the analysis uncovered several similarities. One of the similarities between the English and Polish idioms is observed in the meaning of the idioms. Four semantic areas derived from the idioms in the English and Polish languages (the semantic area of attitude, the semantic area of choice, the semantic area of betrayal, and the semantic area of business and work) do not include any Lithuanian idiom, while only one area (the semantic area of actions) comprises solely English and Lithuanian idioms. The results highlight that English and Polish idioms with the vehicle component have more common aspects of meaning that the English and Lithuanian idioms. The analysis of the Polish idioms as well revealed similarities with the Lithuanian idioms, i.e. two semantic areas (the semantic area of quantity and the semantic area of human) comprise Polish and Lithuanian idioms. The analysis disclosed that Polish idioms vary in meaning more than Lithuanian and English idioms as the number of the idioms taken for the analysis is the lowest; however the number of the areas where the idioms are ascribed is the highest. The analysis revealed both similarities and differences relevant in understanding language and society; however, it is necessary to mention that all the semantic areas distinguished for this research are only suggestions. Each of the idioms could as well be ascribed to many other broader or narrower semantic areas. The area depends not only on the meaning of the particular idiom but also on the context of use.

5.3 Analysis of the equivalent idioms

Equivalent idioms with vehicle component reveal similarities and differences of

conceptualization, traditions and interests of the three countries. In addition, the investigation provided with linguistic aspects, such as synonymic and antonymic pairs. Idioms representing certain level of equivalence were grouped. 15 idioms that display any level of equivalence were distinguished. As a result, 6 equivalent groups were revealed. Three groups consist of English, Lithuanian and Polish idioms, while another three groups consist of equivalents found in two languages. Primarily, the groups containing idioms from all the three languages were analyzed. Three formed groups comprise 9 idioms. Two of the synonymous Lithuanian idioms are both ascribed to two groups, as the form of these idioms represents equivalence with one group and their meaning represents equivalence with another group. The first group of idioms consists of four idioms. They are presented in Table 5.

Table 5. Idioms with equivalent meanings

Idiom do the donkey work už juodą arklį kaip juodas wół roboczy (Eng. instead arklys (Eng. (Eng. a working of the black like a black ox) horse) horse) Meaning do the most tiring to work hard, do the most a workhorse physical work tiring physical work Level of partial equivalent partial equivalents partial equivalent equivalence

As the table indicates, the group consists of 4 idioms. Two Lithuanian idioms are closely synonymous – they differ in one word and have exactly the same meaning. The idioms in the three languages are partial equivalents as they have similar meanings, i.e. all of the idioms indicate hard work. From the morphological point of view, meanings represented in these idioms belong to different parts of speech. Do the donkey work carries verbal meaning “to work”, už juodą arklį and kaip juodas arklys express adverbial meanings “hard”, while wół roboczy represents the nominal meaning “a worker”. The partial equivalents differ not only from the point of view of morphology, but they contain different components – the English idiom has component donkey, the Lithuanian idiom has component arklys and the Polish idiom has component wół. All the components are animal-related. The idiom donkey 42

work is traced back to 1915-1920; however the source of the idiom is not retrieved. The source and origin of the Lithuanian idioms is also not retrieved. The word workhorse is the translation of wół roboczy suggested by the dictionary. The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that workhorse is a word of English origin, formed in 1540s and started to be used figuratively in 1949, therefore the assumption is made, that the Polish wół roboczy can be of an English origin; however a more thorough investigation of this aspect is necessary. Second group of the equivalent idioms is as well formed from 4 idioms. It comprises the same two Lithuanian idioms. The idioms and their level of equivalence are presented in Table 6.

Table 6. Idioms with equivalent form and partially equivalent meanings

Idiom a dark horse už juodą arklį kaip juodas czarny koń (Eng. instead arklys (Eng. (Eng. A black horse) of the black like a black horse) horse) Meaning a person, who to work hard, do the an unexpected you know very most tiring physical work winner, who can be little about, but very influential who have recently had a success or is about to have success Level of partial partial equivalent partial equivalence equivalent equivalent

The partial equivalents displayed in Table 6 have the same component and a very similar structure and constituents, and however, they differ in meaning. From the morphological point of view, the meanings expressed by both English and Polish idioms are nominal, i.e. “a person/ a winner”. On the other hand, the meaning expressed by Lithuanian idiom is adverbial, i.e. “hard”. If winning is considered as success, the English and Polish idioms may be treated as being closer in meaning than the Lithuanian ones. From the point of view of etymology, a dark horse originates in politics, where dark is used in the figurative 43

meaning of “unknown” and is traced back to 1842. According to other sources, a dark horse and czarny koń originate in horse racing, where horses were intentionally dyed dark in order to hide their abilities as it was thought that light horses are faster. The primary source of the idiom is not retrieved. It is not identified in which language the idiom occurred as the exact date of the first usage of the idiom czarny koń cannot be traced. The next group of idioms consists of three idioms – one from each of the analysed languages. The idioms are presented in Table7.

Table 7. Fully equivalent idioms

Idiom A Trojan horse Trojos arklys Koń trojański (Eng. a Trojan horse) (Eng. a Trojan horse) Meaning An action or a policy Deceptive actions Someone/something that seems harmless, integrated to the field of but is likely to the opponent in order to damage or destroy win against them from the something important inside Level of full equivalent full equivalent full equivalent equivalence

Table 7 represents fully equivalent idiom in the three languages. The idiom has the same form in the English, Lithuanian and Polish languages. Morphologically, the dictionary definition presents the nominal meaning in all the three languages, although from semantic point of view they have different meanings, as in English and Lithuanian languages a Trojan horse is described as an action, but the Polish dictionary defines it as “someone or something” (see Table 7). In its primary and direct meaning, the idiom originates in classical mythology with the meaning of “a wooden horse that ensured the victory in the war against Troy”. The myth claims that Odysseus created a wooden horse which could accommodate his warriors and then sent it to Troy as a gift. When the Trojans took the horse, the warriors came out and let their fellow soldier to come in and fight against the people of Troy. A Trojan horse has two figurative meanings: “an action or a policy that seems harmless, but is likely to damage or destroy something important” and it also stands for a name of a computer virus. It is assumed, that idiom A Trojan horse came to all the languages together with the translations of the myths 44

to that language; however, no evidence was found that this idiom was borrowed by any of the three languages from under analysis, as this idiom is also present in many other languages, e.g. Spanish (caballo de Troya), Italian (cavallo di Troia), Russian (троянский конь) and other languages. The three groups of equivalent idioms (see Table 5, Table 6, and Table 7) comprise idioms from all the three languages. There is only one idiom that can be considered as being fully equivalent in the three languages. The two Lithuanian idioms (kaip juodas arklys and už juodą arklį) are equivalent in two of the groups. In one group the partial equivalence is ascribed with respect to the form of the idiom, whereas in the second – with respect to its meaning. The first group of equivalents (see Table 5) confirms that the component in the equivalent idioms does not necessarily have to be the same, as the idioms in the first group are considered as equivalents despite the different components. The following three groups are formed of the idioms characteristic to the two languages only. All the groups represent equivalent idioms in the English and Polish languages. No idioms of the similar type occurred in the Lithuanian data. The first English – Polish pair of equivalents is presented in the Table 8.

Table 8. Idioms partially equivalent in the meaning and structure

Idiom Eat like a horse ktoś zjadłby konia z kopytami (Eng. to be able to eat the horse with hooves) Meaning to have large appetite to be very hungry Level of equivalence partial equivalent partial equivalent

The idioms eat like a horse and ktoś zjadłby konia z kopytami are considered partial equivalents. The component in both of the idioms is the same – horse. Both idioms in their meaning are verbal phrases – “to have + noun” and “to be + adjective”. The English idiom denotes large appetite, which means that “the person is able to consume food in large quantity constantly”, whereas the Polish equivalent means “the state of being very hungry”. The similarity of the meanings is derived from the common understanding of food and eating. A thorough investigation of the meaning and origin of these idioms revealed a finding suggested by Bruce (2011) that the idiom to eat like a horse might have connections with the idiom to 45

work like a horse as when someone works hard they should as well have large appetites. No connections between the English and Polish idiom were found, therefore the assumption is made that the idioms resulted from the similar perception and conceptualization of the horse. Both idioms as well represent the common conceptualization of eating. In both cases a person who is able to consume big amount of food is compared to a horse. The next group of equivalents comprises three idioms – one English and two Polish idioms.

Table 9. Idioms equivalent in the meaning and structure

Idiom To back the wrong Postawić na złego Postawić na dobrego horse konia konia (Eng. to back the (Eng. to back the right wrong horse) horse) Meaning To support the wrong To support the wrong To support the right person person person Level of Full equivalent Full equivalent Partial equivalent equivalence

As the table suggests, there is a pair of fully equivalent idioms (see Table 9). The idioms coincide in form and meaning. The third idiom, postawić na dobrego konia has antonymous meaning because of the antonymic pair “wrong – right”. On the other hand, the idiom has antonymic relationship which allows distinguishing a rapport between the English and Polish idiom and is considered to be a partial equivalent to the English version of the idiom. The presence of this idiom represents the flexibility of the language and understanding of people. All the three idioms have the same component and structure. From the point of view of morphology, meanings of all the three idioms are verbal. It is assumed that the three idioms originate from the same source as the idiom dark horse (see Table 6), i.e. from the horse race and betting. According to Hasselgren (2015, 38), the idiom to back the wrong horse can be traced back to 1600s. It is assumed that the Polish idiom originates in the same source; however the transition of the idiom from English to Polish or from Polish to English was not proved. According to Skudrzyk (2002), the influence of the English language on the Polish language is a phenomenon of current centuries, therefore it is difficult to identify whether the 46

phrase from the XVII century came to the Polish language. The last group of the equivalent idioms is formed from two idioms (in the same boat and jechać na jednym wózku). The idioms are considered to be partial equivalents.

Table 10. Idioms with equivalent meaning

Idiom (to be) in the same boat jechać na jednym wózku Meaning to be in the same situation, to be in the same situation, position position Level of equivalence partial equivalent partial equivalent

. Despite the same meaning, the idioms displayed in Table 10 have different components and form. The component in the English language is “a mean of water transport”, whereas in the Polish language it is “surface, animal-related means of transport”. The English idiom came to language from ancient Greek, where it was used to refer to “the risk all the passengers took while moving together on the same boat”. As the component in the Polish language is different and not related to water transport, the assumption is made that either the Polish adapted the idiom so that it was more understandable to people who use boats less, or the similarity of the two idioms resulted in the similar perception of the world. From the point of view of grammar, both idioms reflect meanings formed as verbal phrase “to be + noun”. The analysis of the equivalent idioms revealed that not many transport-related idioms are international – only one fully equivalent idiom was revealed in all the three languages. Moreover, it does not exist in the three languages under analysis only – the idiom a Trojan horse has equivalents in other languages as well. The idiom originates in classical mythology, which is translated to many languages and therefore complicates the possibility of tracing the direction of borrowing. The investigation of the equivalents shows closer connection between the Polish and English languages. The connection can be explained from the historical point of view, as both Poland and Great Britain had been influenced by the same languages and cultures, e.g. French. French influence in Great Britain was brought by Norman invasions in year 1066 (O’Driscoll 2009). The influence of the French culture on the English and Polish languages is as well marked by the wars initiated by Napoleon Bonaparte in the XIX century (Baczkowski et.al. 1995, 771-779). The history of the Great British Racing claims that racing was brought to Great Britain by Romans, while the history of Polish racing dates back to 47

1777, when the first horse race was organized. The investigation of the equivalents does not show any close connection between the Lithuanian language and the two other languages. Although other stages of investigation revealed certain similarities.

5.4 Cultural insights of the language specific idioms

This chapter is concerned with the analysis of cultural and linguistic reflections in the idioms with vehicle component. Each of the three languages comprises idioms that are not present in other languages, therefore they represent cultural peculiarities. The investigation of the idioms revealed specific vocabulary, language forms that are typical of the particular language. The English, Lithuanian and Polish languages are discussed separately in this chapter because of the unique characteristics of each group of the idioms. The English language comprises 34 unique idioms. The English transport-related idioms reflect several linguistic aspects. Some of the idioms are partially motivated or motivated and certain constituents of these idioms can be changed by a synonymous word. One idiom has a word which is old fashioned and informal – specific to the English language. The data as well comprises 4 sayings, i.e. the idioms that have a structure of a sentence and are used inseparably to describe a particular situation. The idioms with changeable words constitute 8 pairs. Some of the idioms have the feature of antonym; therefore by changing one of the constituents, the idiom becomes antonymous to its predecessor. The antonymic idioms are: get on your high horse which means “to act in a superior way” and come down off your high horse which means “to stop behaving in a superior way”. The dictionary as well indicates that the verbs get and come down off can be substituted by other synonymous verbs (Sinclair 2002, 413). Another antonymic pair is be on the wagon and fall off the wagon. The first idiom means “to stop drinking alcohol”. When someone starts consuming alcohol again, the verb be is changed into the verb fall off which forms an antonymic idiom. Other motivated idioms do not function as antonyms. The constituents are changed by the synonymous words. Consider the following examples:

(3) Ride two horses at the same time – ride two horses at once (DOI, 415); (4) Wild horses couldn’t/wouldn’t drag someone to something – wild horses couldn’t/wouldn’t make someone do something (DOI, 415);

(5) Jump ship – abandon ship (DOI, 655); (6) Abandon a sinking ship – like a rat leaving a sinking ship (DOI, 656) ; (7) Hitch your wagon to someone – hitch your wagon to a star (DOI, 782); (8) Circle your wagons – put your wagons in a circle (DOI, 782).

The examples present the pairs of the idioms formed of synonymous words or phrases. Examples (3) and (5) display the change of one word with its synonym, while examples (4), (6) and (8) evidence the possibility of changing a form but keeping the meaning. Example (7) represents the possibility to change the last word in the idiom into any suitable noun in a particular case. The idiom hitch your wagon to someone means “to make a relationship with someone who is already successful”, therefore the word someone in a particular context is changed by the name of a successful person. Hitch your wagon to a star is another way of stating the same meaning without using the name of the person. The above discussed idioms represent the richness of the vocabulary in the English language as well as the flexibility of numerous idioms. The vocabulary used in the English idioms as well as the components are mainly clear and simple, used in everyday speech, e.g. to jump, to run, to lift, a show etc., however one idiom includes a word which is old fashioned: don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar. The word ha’p’orth means “halfpennyworth” and, according to the dictionary (Hornby 2010, 705), is informal, old fashioned and typical to the British English only. . No synonymous or equivalent idioms with a substitute for the word ha’p’orth was found. The analysis also revealed three idioms that have undergone the change of the vocabulary. The idiom don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar originally had the word sheep instead of ship and was related to shepherding. The idiom be on the wagon or fall of the wagon was initially related to water transportation and the idiom water wagon was used instead of wagon. The original meaning of the idiom was related not to drinking alcohol, but drinking water. The original version of the idiom donkey’s year was as long as donkey’s ear. The donkey’s ears are very long, so the idiom has the same meaning; however the relation to the time has reduced the original idiom to its present form (Sinclair 2002, 203, 655,782). The idiom donkey’s year can as well be considered an example of the rhyming slang which is typical to the English idioms. The words ear and year rhyme, therefore the original phrase as long as donkey’s ear is created according to the rhyming slang pattern, where the word ear is a rhyming substitute of the word year, which is the meaning of the idiom. However the reduction and change in the idiom resulted in the loss of the rhyming slang. 49

The investigation of the English idioms revealed the sayings have the traditional English sentence structure and are used in particular situations as a full idiom, i.e. they are inseparable. The saying a rising tide lifts all boats is used to mean that “everybody benefits when a country’s economy improves”. Another saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink means that “you can give someone an opportunity but you cannot make them use the opportunity if they do not want to”. The saying wild horses wouldn’t drag someone to something is used to emphasize that “someone will not do something even when forced”. The last idiom has the form of the imperative sentence: Don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar and is used in the situation when someone risks ruining something because they do not want to spend a relatively small amount of money on a necessity (Sinclair 2002, 655). The sayings are revealed not only by vehicle component. They can also have other components or keywords, e.g. weather (Liubkevič-Bedulskaja 2014). The study of the transport-related idioms revealed some cultural aspects of the British people. Idioms with the horse component indicate the interest in the horse races, as several idioms originate in the horse race. It was already stated that the idioms dark horse and to back the wrong horse are retrieved from the horse race. The idiom a one-horse race manifests the roots in the race by the constituents. According to Sinclair (2002, 412), the idiom from the horse’s mouth may as well have originated from racing. According to Sinclair, it may refer to the racing tip which is so trustful as if the horse itself has told it. The idiom horse for courses is believed to have come to the everyday language from racing. It originally meant that “a particular horse is suitable for a particular race” (Sinclair 2002, 415). Horses in Great Britain were a sign of wealth. Three idioms confirm this conception: get on your high horse, get off your high horse and a one-horse town. A high horse used to be a sign of high rank, as only knights could own and ride them (Sinclair 2002, 413). A one-horse town refers to a small town. It might imply that the town is small and poor so it does not even need more than one horse. The findings indicate the variety of transport means used in Great Britain. They reveal certain habits of the British people, such as horse races. 9 out of 17 idioms with the component horse refer to something else rather than farming, what as well indicates the lower importance of farming in the British society. The linguistic peculiarities represent the language changes in any living language and the specificity of the language. Such words as ha’p’orth confirm the stability of idioms, as the word is no longer in use solely, but is present in the idiom which is not yet considered to be old fashioned. The English language is known for its ability to have many synonyms for one word; therefore the flexibility of the idioms to 50

substitute the constituents with the synonyms is also specific to the English language. The language and culture specific features of the idioms enable deeper understanding of the society and its everyday life. The Lithuanian language comprises 83 idioms which originated from two major sources, i.e. the folklore and other languages. Many of the idioms have synonymic idioms. Some idioms are language-specific. Despite the linguistic features distinguished in the Lithuanian idioms, there are several cultural aspects that indicate unique characteristics of the Lithuanian society. Many Lithuanian transport-related idioms have synonyms. Synonymic idioms may differ in number, e.g. kaip ant arklio joja (Eng. like someone’s riding a horse) and kaip ant šimto arklių joja (Eng. like someone’s riding a hundred horses) and case, e.g. nors vežimą vežk - vežimą is an accusative case, nors vežimu vežk – vežimu is an instrumental case. The idioms might as well have different verb form, e.g. vežimu neišvežtum - conditional, while vežimais neišveši – future tense. 29 Lithuanian idioms form synonymic pairs and groups. As well as the English idioms, some of the synonymous idioms have changeable constituents. The Lithuanian idioms have the feature of ellipsis, i.e. the meaning of the idiom does not change and is not lost when one of the constituents is omitted. Consider the following examples:

(9) Kaip ant šimto arklių – kaip ant šimto arklių joja – kaip ant šimto arklių užsėdo (FŽ, 67); (10) Kaip žirgą dovanotas – kaip žirgą gavęs (FŽ, 874).

The idioms presented in the example (9) are closely synonymous, despite the fact, that the first idiom has no verb and the second and third idioms have different verbs. The example (9) represents both ability to change and omission. Example (10) represents synonymous verb dovanoti (Eng. to make a present) and gauti (Eng. to receive, to get). The participial form of the two verbs represents fully equivalent idioms with synonymic constituents. Along with the idioms that have constituents changeable to their synonymous equivalents, Lithuanian transport-related idioms comprise idioms equivalent in meanings. This type of idioms constitutes 6 groups which share 23 idioms in unequal parts. One pair of equivalents is arklys avižose and arklys pasileido. Both idioms mean “that someone’s shoes are untied”. Another group comprises 4 idioms which all are used to refer to a stupid person: arklio galva, asilo brolis, asilo galva, paskutinis asilas. The biggest group is formed of 8 51

idioms which mean “a big amount of something”,: arkliai neveža, arklys nevežtų, vežimu neišvežtum, vežimais neišveši, vežimu vežk, nors vežimu vežk, nors vežimais vežk, nors su vežimu vežk. 4 animal transport-related Lithuanian idioms have meaning of dragonfly: velnio arklys, žydo arklys, laumės žirgas, velnio žirgelis. Another two pairs of equivalents are kaip ant dešimt arklių sėdos - kaip ant šimto arklių joja, which means “happiness” and vežimą priskaldyti iš adatos - vežimą priskaldyti iš degtuko, which means “to exaggerate”. Equivalent idioms form a significant part of the Lithuanian data and result in the bigger number of idioms if compared to English and Polish. According to Jakaitienė (2009, 294), one of the signs that idiom is from folklore is its unique structure that is typical to the particular language. The Lithuanian idioms manifest themselves as folklore idioms in several main aspects. One feature that is common to Lithuanian idioms is particle ne/ nei. Three idioms from the data have this particle: ne po ienom ne po arkliu, ne (kieno) rogės ne (kieno) ratai and nei ratai nei rogės. Although the last two idioms have very similar constituents and structure, they have different meaning - ne (kieno) rogės ne (kieno) ratai is used to say that “someone does not care”, while nei ratai nei rogės means that “something or someone is unsuitable”. According to Kalinauskas (1974, 12), the change in meaning when the grammatical form changes is a characteristic feature of the Lithuanian language. The last feature that indicates the folk origin of the idioms is the onomatopoeic interjection nors which is found in the following idioms: nors vežimą vežk, nors vežimu vežk, nors vežimais vežk and nors su vežimu vežk. The Lithuanian idioms comprise 5 idioms that include proper nouns. One of them was already discussed as a full equivalent of the English and Polish idiom (Trojos arklys) and the other four were Lithuanian language-specific.. The idioms that include proper nouns raise the interest as any proper noun has background. The background of the noun Troy has already been discussed, therefore the following discussion is concerned with the four idioms: Alijošius važinėja su ketvertu arklių, Perkūno vežimas, Lipniaus arklį paikinti, and Buridano asilas. According to Masiulionytė (2007, 69), Alijošius is a mythical god, who is known as Elijas or Perkūnas. Laurinkienė (1996) claims that Alijošius is very often used in Lithuanian fables and myths to refer to the main god (as cited in Masiulionytė 2007, 69). The meaning of the proper noun Lipnius could not be traced; however the origin of the idiom is Lithuanian. The idiom is dialectic and comes from the Klaipeda region (Župerka 2006). On the other hand, the idiom Buridano asilas is not Lithuanian. It is translated from Latin phrase Asinus Buridani inter duo prata (Eng. Buridan’s donkey between the two fields). According to Butkus (2009, 37), Buridanas refers to a French philosopher Jean Buridan, who commented 52

on a donkey having choice and not knowing what to choose. Though the idiom is not from Lithuanian folklore, it is not found in the English or Polish data. Along with the linguistic aspects, certain cultural features of Lithuania are revealed. The idioms with the animal-related means of transport indicate that Lithuanians see a horse as a big, strong animal, e.g. sulig arkliais (Eng. as horses) meaning “very strong”. The idioms do not reveal any relation to racing; however, the Lithuanian data comprises idioms with component žirgas (Eng. a racehorse). These idioms do not reflect meaning related to horse race. The presence of the pagan god names and numerous idioms related to nature reflect the late adoption of Christianity as well as strong attachment to land. Polish idioms differ from the English and Lithuanian idioms as they do not present any synonymic idioms, any idioms with changeable constituents or any sayings. Each of the 25 unique idioms has different meaning and different structure; however one language pattern is observed. The characteristic feature of the Polish idioms that is not present in the English or Lithuanian language is the adjective made from the noun horse: koński, końska, końskie (Eng. horse-like). There are 8 idioms formed with this adjective: koński ogon, końska kuracja, końska szczęka, koński organizm, końska dawka, końskie okulary, końskie zaloty and końskie zdrowie. Although the adjective horse-like exists in the English language, the adjective arkliškas exists in the Lithuanian language, they are not used in the idioms. No other linguistic features characteristic of Polish idioms, such as specific vocabulary or structure of idioms were observed; however, a very distinct cognitive aspect is manifested very visibly in the Polish idioms. A thorough investigation of the idioms with the component horse revealed that people are compared to horses. 8 idioms with this component are to a certain degree related to human beings. Koński ogon is a hairstyle, końska szczęka is a facial feature, koński organizm and końskie zdrowie mean health, stary koń is used to refer to an adult male, czarny koń is an unexpected winner. The idiom znać się jak łyse konie (Eng. to know each other like bald horses) refers to old friends, i.e. like two old bald horses know each other, so do two old friends. In the idiom końskie zaloty, an inexperienced or to straightforward person trying to seduce is compared to a horse. The Polish language as well as English contains idioms related to horse race. They were already discussed in the chapter of equivalents (see Table 9). Along with the already discussed features of the Polish idioms, it is worth mentioning, that the idioms are very different and do not represent many linguistic patterns characteristic of the Polish language, what is a characteristic per se. Lack of the features suggests that language is rich and has a 53

variety of different patterns. The investigation of the language specific idioms revealed similarities between the English and Polish languages. Both languages are flexible so that the constituents of some idioms might be substituted by their equivalents. Unlike Polish, the English and Lithuanian languages reflect unique language features such as old fashioned vocabulary and grammatical patterns. The structure of the idioms in all the three languages is different, however English and Lithuanian idioms represent more similar features. On the other hand, the cultural insights revealed in the investigation reflect the similarities between the English and Polish cultures. Both groups of idioms contain numerous idioms related to horse race. The investigation of the equivalent performed in the research presented the common cultural features, while Lithuanian idioms represent less cultural aspects that are similar to the British or Polish cultures. Along with many differences and similarities, distinct and unique features of the languages and cultures were revealed. Idioms of every language manifested linguistic and cultural elements representing the language. The investigation highlighted that the United Kingdom, Lithuanian and Poland have points of contact that are either linguistic or cultural.

CONCLUSIONS

The investigation revealed many commonalities despite the distance between the three languages and the three cultures. The similarities in the aspect of linguistics were more visible between the English and Lithuanian languages. Idioms in both languages presented the structural similarities, i.e. both languages comprise idioms with changeable components and synonymic pairs of idioms. The similarities in the cultural aspect manifested themselves in the English and Polish idioms. The cultural commonalities were highlighted by the origin of idioms. The points of contact of the three cultures were revealed through the equivalent idioms. The analysis of equivalents highlighted the influence of classical mythology and ancient cultures on the three languages through such idioms as a Trojan horse and to be on the same boat. Another point of contact was drawn between the English and Polish cultures. Both languages comprise idioms that originate from horse race. It was determined that horse race was brought to the United Kingdom by Romans while the tradition of horse race was developed in Poland only in the XVIII century. The last point of contact drawn in the research resulted from the cultural and historical background which is common to all the three countries. The United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland were cultivating agriculture. This point of contact is marked by the high frequency of the animal components as well as animal- powered components. The results of analysis of a semantic component in the idioms with vehicle component revealed that the most common component in all the three languages was horse. The research results proved the importance of the animal and animal-powered transport in Great Britain, Lithuania and Poland which can be explained by historical reasons. Historically, horses have been valued as a means of transport, tool for farming and sports by the three societies. The component analysis suggested that animal-related means of transport prevailed. No components related to motor surface transport, rail transport or air transport were identified. The reason behind the absence of the components related to these means of transport could be the novelty of the referents, i.e. means of motor, rail or air transport in comparison to water or animal-powered surface transport. The commonalities of conceptualization are defined by idioms in the English and Polish languages. Idioms with vehicle component in the two languages highlighted the common conceptualization of horse and eating, conceptualization of situation (be in the same boat, jechać na jednym wózku). The concept of the situation common to several people as being

in the same vehicle as well as the concept of the horse as an animal of huge appetite reflected the similarity of cognition. Despite the numerous similarities, the investigation also revealed distinctive features of the three languages and cultures as well as the differences of the three languages. English and Lithuanian idioms comprised culture specific vocabulary, e.g. old-fashioned words or proper nouns naming cultural phenomena. The results of the investigation of the semantic areas disclosed the variety of meanings coded in the idioms. The field comprising the biggest number of idioms was the semantic field of human. The research of the semantic field disclosed cultural aspects of the societies. It revealed that Lithuanians, in comparison to the English and Polish, have idioms with both positive and negative connotation, i.e. the data comprises idioms denoting success as well as failure, whereas English and Polish data comprises idioms denoting success. Lithuanian idioms comprised numerous idioms related to nature as well as idioms with the names of pagan gods, which indicate the late adoption of Christianity and importance of nature in the Lithuanian society. The current research revealed the preferences in formation of idioms in the three languages. English idioms have exemplified the rhyming slang which is traditional in British idioms. Lithuanian idioms have reflected the structural patterns typical to the Lithuanian idioms, e.g. onomatopoeic interjection. On the other hand, Polish idioms revealed the use of adjective horse-like, which is present in the English and Lithuanian languages as well, but is not reflected in idioms. The differences and distinctive features of the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Poland were also evident in the processes of cognition. The difference in understanding of donkey is revealed in the English and Lithuanian idioms, while the component donkey was completely absent in Polish idioms, which indicated the unimportance of this animal as a means of transportation in Poland. In order to achieve more extensive findings outlining cultural relations between the United Kingdom and Poland, a detailed investigation of the origin of idioms of other types in the two languages could be preformed. The current research could as well serve as the basis for a thorough analysis of the similar linguistic features of the English and Lithuanian idioms in order to outline more extensive linguistic points of contact.

SUMMARY

Idiomos su transporto komponentu anglų, lietuvių ir lenkų kalbose

Šio darbo esmė – ištirti idiomas su transporto komponentu anglų, lietuvių ir lenkų kalbose. Užsibrėžtas tyrimo tikslas – palyginti semantines ir etimologines trijų kalbų idiomų su semantiniu transporto komponentu ypatybes. Tyrimo metu bandyta atsakyti į tyrimo klausimą – kiek įtakos transporto komponento sąvokai idiomose turi istoriniai įvykiai, geografinė, socialinė ir kultūrinė šalies padėtis. Tyrimo tikslui pasiekti ir tyrimo klausimui atsakyti buvo iškelti šie uždaviniai: palyginti idiomų su transporto komponentu anglų, lietuvių bei lenkų kalbose kilmę ir semantines savybes, pateikti kiekybinius tirtų idiomų rezultatus bei aptarti semantinių transformacijų priežastis trijose kalbose. Idiomos tyrimui buvo renkamos iš penkių žodynų. Angliškos idiomos buvo surinktos iš Collins Cobuild Dicitionary of Idioms (Sinclair, 2002) su vertimu į lietuvių kalbą (Katiliūtė, Stasiulevičiūtė, 2009) ir Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English (Parkinson, 2006), lietuviškos idiomos buvo surinktos iš Frazeologijos Žodyno (Paulauskas et al. 2001), o lenkiškos iš Słownik Idiomów Polskich PWN (Drabik et al. 2006) ir Słownik wyrazów obcych, synonimów, frazeologiczny (Bernacka 2012). Duomenų bazę sudarė 159 idiomos, iš kurių 40 angliškų, 86 lietuviškos ir 32 lenkiškos. Tyrimo metu buvo naudojami kiekybinis, kokybinis bei lyginamasis metodai. Kiekybinis tyrimas padėjo nustatyti transporto komponento dažnumą tirtose kalbose, taip pat jis buvo naudojamas kaip pagalbinis metodas semantinių sričių nustatymui. Tam, kad išanalizuoti idiomų reikšmes ir sudaryti reikšmių grupes, buvo naudojamas kokybinis metodas. Jis taip pat padėjo nustatyti idiomų atitikmenis trijose kalbose. Kokybinis tyrimas taip pat buvo atliekamas analizuojant etimologinį idiomų aspektą. Lyginamasis metodas buvo naudojamas siekiant nustatyti panašumus ir skirtumus bei išskirtines kalbos savybes, išreikštas idiomose. Atliktas tyrimas parodė, kad dažniausiai idiomose aptinkami transporto komponentai yra gyvūnų pavadinimai (arklys, žirgas ir pan.) arba gyvuliais varomos transporto priemonės (vežimas, rogės ir pan.). Tiriamose idiomose nerasta mechaninių transporto priemonių, tokių kaip automobilis, lėktuvas, ar traukinys. Rastos dviejų rūšių transporto priemonės: žemės ir vandens. Idiomų reikšmės tyrimo metu buvo suskirstytos į 18 reikšmių sričių, iš kurių plačiausios buvo sėkmės sritis, žmogiškoji sritis bei kiekio/mato sritis. Nustatyta, kad kai kurios reikšmių sritys yra bendros visos trims arba dviems kalboms, tačiau kai kurios yra 57

būdingos tik vienai kalbai. Tyrimo metu buvo rastos 6 atitinkančių idiomų grupės, iš kurių trys apėmė visas kalbas, o kitos trys - tik anglų ir lenkų kalbas. Tyrimo metu buvo nustatyti kultūriniai panašumai tarp Jungtinės Karalystės ir Lenkijos. Abejose kalbose buvo rastos idiomos kurių kilmė yra žirgų lenktynės. Taip pat tyrimo metu buvo rasta suvokimo procesų eigos bruožų. Idiomų tyrimas parodė, kad asilas anglų ir lietuvių kalbose yra suprantamas skirtingai – lietuvių kalboje kaip kvailas gyvūnas, o anglų kalboje kaip darbštus. Suvokimo procesų panašumai buvo identifikuoti anglų ir lenkų kalbose. Tyrimas parodė, kad šiose dvejose kalbose arklys ir valgymas yra suprantami panašiai. Tyrimo metu taip pat paaiškėjo, kad idiomos kilmė bei užkoduota kultūrinė reikšmė turi įtakos jos semantikai bei struktūrai, kadangi buvo rasta daug savakilmių idiomų su kalbai būdingais bruožais. Tyrimas nustatė kalbinius panašumus tarp anglų ir lietuvių kalbų. Abejų kalbų idiomos turi vienodas savybę - galimybę keisti komponentą. Be to, transporto komponentų analizė patvirtino idiomų stabilumą ir kultūrinį paveldą. Lyginamasis trijų kalbų idiomų su transporto komponentu tyrimas padėjo išanalizuoti/ suprasti sąlyčio taškus tarp trijų kalbų bei kultūrų.

REFERENCES

Abel, B. (2003). English idioms in the first language and second language lexicon: a dual representation approach. Retrieved April 12, 2016 from http://slr.sagepub.com/content/19/4/329.abstract Abrazevičius, A. (2008). Lietuvos transporto sistema. Vilnius: Generolo Jolo Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija. Alke, E., Barcikowski, B., Bujno, T., Dobosz, Z., Grudzińska, E., Kaczor, M. … Ładno, T. (2015). Transport wyniki działalności w 2014 r. Retrieved from http://stat.gov.pl/en/topics/transport-and-communications/transport/transport-activity- results-in-2014,6,10.html Antrushina G. B., Afanasyeva O. V., Morozova N. N. (1985). English Lexicology. Moskva: Vyzshaja Shkola. Baczkowki, K.,Balcerak, W., Barański, Bazylow, L., Bogucki, A., Braun, J. … Zientara, B. (1995). Historia. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa szkolne i pedagogiczne. Balfaqeeh, N. (2009). Strategies for translating idioms and culturally bound expressions within the human development genre. MA thesis. Birmingham: the University of Birmingham. Bjornson, K. (2010). The role of cultural awareness on LT comprehension and retention of culture-specific idioms. MA thesis. Saint Paul: Hamline University. Boers, F., Eyckmans, J., Stengers, H. (2007). Presenting figurative idioms with a touch of etymology: more than mere mnemonics?. Language Teaching Research. Retrieved May, 15, 2016 from ltr.sagepub.com/content/11/1/43.full.pdf Bruce, E. (2011). Eat like a horse. Retrieved April 12, 2016 from https://idiomation.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/eat-like-a-horse/ Butkus, A. (2009). Sparnuotieji žodžiai. Kaunas : Aesti. Casas, R. M., Hernandez Campoy, J. M. (1995). A sociolinguistic approach to the study of idioms: some anthropolinguistic sketches. Cuadernos de filologia inglesa. Retrieved from https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/1325527.pdf Cowe, A. P. (Ed.) (1998). Phraseology theory, analysis, and applications. Oxford: Clarendom Press.

Czekańska, M., Przystasz, D. (1984). Polska – ziemia i ludzie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo szkolne i pedagogiczne. Dobrovilskij, D., Piirainen, E. (2005). Cognitive theory of metaphor and idiom analysis. Jezikoslovlije. Retrieved from hrcak.srce.hr/file/48919 Driskius, K, Suslavičius, L. (2005). Automobilis Lietuvoje. 1918-1940 metai. Vilnius: Aidai. Eidintas, A., Bomblauskas, A., Kulakauskas, A., Tamošaitis M. (2013). Lietuvos istorija. Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla. Fernando, Ch. (1996). Idioms and Idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ginzburg R. S., Khidekel S. S., Knyazeva G. Y., Sankin A. A. (1979). A Course in Modern English Lexicology. Moscow: Vysšaja Škola. Guineng, M. (2012). Exploration of cultural similarities and differences in custom-loaded idioms between English and Chinese. Retrieved from http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol02/11/18.pdf Hasselgren, P. (2015). Body language - from head to toe. Retrieved from https://books.google.lt/books?id=v8rYCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=to+bac k+the+wrong+horse+1600s&source=bl&ots=wP3hjjH381&sig=iUPohFdDJgQP9VdFg u- xpZKpcwY&hl=lt&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjayLWIlvDMAhUFkywKHaYUAhUQ6AEI KTAC#v=onepage&q=to%20back%20the%20wrong%20horse%201600s&f=false Hornby, A. S. (2010). Oxford advanced learner's dictionary. Oxford: Oxford university press. Jakaitienė, E. (2009). Leksikologija. Vilnius: Vilniaus Universitetas. Kalinauskas, B. (1974). Lietuvių Liaudies Šnekamosios Kalbos Frazeologija. Vilnius: Vilniaus Valstybinis Pedagoginis Institutas. Karaś, H. (2009). Frazeologia gwarowa. Retrieved from http://www.gwarypolskie.uw.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22 0&Itemid=58 Keysar, B., Bly B. M. (1999). Swimming against the current: Do idioms reflect conceptual structure?. Retrieved from psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/keysar/14_keysarbly99.pdf Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago press. Langlotz, A. (2006). Idiomatic creativity. Retrieved from https://books.google.lt/books/about/Idiomatic_Creativity.html?id=YpfYSjNfCn4C&redi r_esc=y

Liubkevič-Bedulskaja, J. (2014). Weather idioms in the english and lithuanian languages: comparative studies. BA thesis. Vilnius: Lithuanian university of educational sciences. Makkai, A. (1972). Idioms structure in English. The Hague: Mouton and Co. N. V., Publishers. Masiulionytė, V. (2007). Apie vieną pasaulio modelio fragmentą: orus valdančios būtybės Lietuvių ir Vokiečių frazeologijoje. Retrieved from www.su.lt/bylos/mokslo_leidiniai/filologija/2007_12/masiulionyte.pdf Nascisione, A. (2001). Phraseological units in discourse: towards applied stylistics. Riga: Latvian academy of culture. Novakowska, A. (2005). Świat roślin w Polskiej frazeologii. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. Nunberg G., Sag I. A., Wasow T. Idioms. Language, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), 491-538. Retrieved March 25, 2016 from http://links.jstor.org/sici O'Driscoll, J. (2009). Britain for learners of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online etymology dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://etymonline.com/ Parkinson, D. (Ed.) (2006). Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Palionis, J. (1999). Kalbos Mokslo Pradmenys. Jandrija. Ren, C., Yu, H. (2013). Translation of English idioms from the perspective of cultural context. Cross-cultural communication. Retrieved from www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/download/j.ccc.../5215 Rizq, W. M. (2015). Teaching English idioms to l2 learners: ESL teachers' perspective. USA: St. Cloud State University. Retrieved from repository.stcloudstate.edu › CLA › ENGL › ENGL_ETDS › 19 Rogers, A. (2011). The 10 greatest empires in the history of the world. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-greatest-empires-in-history-2011-9?op=1 Sinclair, J. (2002). Dictionary of idioms. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers. Skutrzyk, A. (2002). Dobry zwyczaj – zapożyczaj?. Retrieved from www.poradniajezykowa.us.edu.pl/artykuly/AS_dobry.pdf Šapoka, A. (1989). Lietuvos istorija. Kaunas: Mokslas. Šukytė, G. (2009). Kai kurie arklių įvardijimai lietuvių tautosakoje. Actahumanitarica universitatis Saulensis. T. 8, 44-52. Retrieved from www.su.lt/bylos/mokslo_leidiniai/acta/2009_8/sukyte.pdf

The history of great British racing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.greatbritishracing.com/about-great-british-racing/the-history-of-great- british-racing/ Teilanyo, D. I. (2014). Unity in diversity: a comparative study of selected idioms in Nembe (Nigeria) and English. Intercultural communication studies. Retrieved from web.uri.edu/iaics/files/Diri-I.-Teilanyo1.pdf Teliya V., Bragina N., Oparina E. Sandomirskaya I. (1998). Phraseology as a Language of Culture: Its Role in the Representation of a Collective Mentality. Phraseology Theory, Analysis, and Application. Clarendon Press, Oxford. p. 55-75. Vega-Moreno, R. E. (2003). Relevance Theory and the construction of idiom meaning. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 15. Retrieved from http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/PUB/WPL/03papers/abstracts/rosa.html Zanim powstał tor na Służewcu. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://torsluzewiec.pl/historia-toru/ Župerka, K. R. (2006) Tarminės šnekos komentavimas nelingvistiniuose tekstuose. Acta humanitarica universitatis Saulensis. Retrieved from http://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/obj/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2006~1367154319441

SOURCES

Svetikienė D. (Ed.) (2009). Anglų kalbos frazeologijos žodynas. Lietuva: Alma littera. Paulauskas J. (2001). Frazeologijos žodynas. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Parkinson, D. (Ed.) (2006). Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Drabik L., Sobol E.., Stankiewicz A. (2014). Słownik idiomów polskich PWN. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA. Smaza M., Bernacka A. (2012). Słownik wyrazów obcych, synonimów, frazeologiczny. Warszawa: Buchmann Sp. Z o. o.

APPENDICES

Appendix 1 Semantic areas of the idioms with vehicle component.

Semantic area of success and luck

Idiom Meaning push the boat out if you push the boat out, you spent a lot of money in order to have a very enjoyable time or to celebrate in a lavish way. a rising tide lifts all boats used to say that everybody benefits when a country's economy grows and improves. a dark horse if you describe someone as a dark horse, you mean that very little is known about them, although they may have recently had success or may be about to have success. don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar people say don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar when someone risks ruining something because they do not want to spend a relatively small amount of money on a necessity. when your ship comes in when people talk about what they will do when their ship comes in, they are talking about what they will do if they become rich and successful. hitch your wagon to someone if someone hitches their wagon to a particular hitch your wagon to a star person or policy, they try to become more successful by forming a relationship with someone who is already successful. You can also say that they hitch their wagon to a star. kaip ant arklio joja good luck rogės užriesti to pass away ne į tas roges įsėsti to appear in the wrong place vežimą versti į griovį to deny, not accept nuo gero žirgo kristi a moral decline ožka prieis prie vežimo someone will be caught arklys avižose to have untied shoes arklys pasileido to have untied shoes czarny koń unexpected winner konia z rzędem temu, kto...; dać (komuś) konia z a promise of reward rzędem temu, kto...

Semantic area of situation and place

Idiom Meaning in the same boat if you say that two or more people are in the same boat, you mean that they are in the same unpleasant or difficult situation. 64

burn your boats do something that makes it impossible for you to return to a previous situation. rock the boat if someone tells you not to rock the boat, they are telling not to do anything which might cause trouble or upset a stable situation. a one-horse town if you describe a town as a one-horse town, you mean that it is very small, dull, and uninteresting. hold your horses if you say someone hold your horses, you are telling them to wait, slow down, or stop for a moment, often when you think that they are going to do something nasty. circle the wagons if a group of people who are in difficult or danger pull your wagons in a circle circle the wagons, they unite in order to protect themselves and fight whoever is attacking them. You can also say that people pull their wagons in a circle.

Semantic area of politics

Idiom Meaning a one-horse race if you say that a contest is a one-horse race, you mean that it is obvious even before it starts that one person or team is much better that the others and will win. a stalking horse in politics, a stalking horse is someone who stands against the leader of a party to test the strength of any opposition to the leader. They then withdraw in favour of a stronger challenge, if it looks likely that the leader can be defeated. back the wrong horse if someone backs the wrong horse, they support the wrong person, for example the loser in a contest or election. Verb such as bet or pick can be used instead of back.

Semantic area of organizations, business and work

Idiom Meaning a sinking ship if you say that an organization or cause is a abandon a sinking ship sinking ship, you mean that it is failing and like a rat leaving a sinking ship unlikely to recover. run a tight ship if you say that someone runs a tight ship, you mean that they keep firm control of the way their business or organization is run, so that it is well organized and efficient. jump ship if you accuse someone of jumping ship or of abandon ship abandoning ship, you are accusing them of leaving an organization or cause, either because they thing it is about to fail or because they want to join a rival organization. shape up or ship out used to tell somebody that if they do not improve work harder, etc. they will have to leave their job, position.

wół roboczy hard worker

Semantic area of actions

Idiom Meaning be (like) ships that pass in the night meet for a short time, be chance, and perhaps for the only time in your lives. shank‘s a pony walking, rather that travelling by car, bus, etc.; on foot. drive a coach and horses through something succeed in avoiding certain rules, conditions, etc. in an obvious and important way, without being punished wild horses couldn't/wouldn't drag someone you can use wild horses in expressions such as to something wild horses would not drag me to something or wild horses couldn't/wouldn't make someone do wild horses would not make me do something to something emphasize that you will not do something even if other people try to force you to. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make if someone say's you can lead a horse to water him drink but you can't make him drink, they mean that you can give someone the opportunity to do something, but you cannot force them to do it if they do not want to. flog a dead horse if you say that someone is flogging a dead horse, you mean that they are wasting their time trying to achieve something that cannot be done. put the cart before the horse if you criticize for putting the cart before the horse, you think that they are making a mistake by doing things in the wrong order. paddle your own canoe if you paddle your own canoe, you control what you want to do without anyone's help or interference. lipniaus arklį paikinti to take a risk per smiltį pamažu su jaunais arkliais to keep cool Trojos arklys deceptive actions į vežimą sėsti to get married ant aukšto žirgo jodinėti to become too self confident ne po ienom, ne po arkliu to talk unclearly arklius varyk to go away arklius varyti to go

Semantic area of building relations

Idiom Meaning (ktoś) pasować jak wół do karety not to match (ktoś z kimś) znać sie jak łyse konie to know each other very well (ktoś) robić, zrobić kogoś w konia to mislead someone

Semantic area of attitude and behaviour

Idiom Meaning 66

on your bike people sometimes say 'on your bike' when they are telling someone to go away or stop behaving in a foolish way. float someone's boat if something floats your boat, you find it exciting, attractive, or interesting. get on your high horse if you say that someone is getting on their high horse, you are showing disapproval of them for behaving as if they are superior to other people, and for refusing to accept any criticism of themselves. Other verbs can be used instead of get. come down off your high horse if someone comes down off their high horse or gets down off their high horse, they stop acting in a superior way. be on the wagon if someone is on the wagon, they have fall of the wagon stopped drinking alcohol. You can say that someone has fallen off the wagon when they have begun to drink alcohol again after a period of not drinking it. koń by się uśmiał critisism koń , jaki jest, każdy widzi obviousness koń ma cztery nogi i też się potknie consolation koń ma wielki, duży łeb, niech się martwi trouble

Semantic area of choice

Idiom Meaning horses for courses if you say that something is a matter of horses for courses, you mean that different people are suitable for different thins or kinds of situation, and this ought to be taken into account when making choices in particular cases. ride two horses at the same time if you say that someone is riding two horses at ride to horses at once the same time or is riding two horses at one, you are criticizing the for trying to follow two conflicting set of ideas at the same time. wóz albo przewóz two options (ktoś) stawiać, postawić na dobrego konia to make right choice (ktoś) stawiać, postawić na złego konia to make wrong choice

Semantic area of human

Idiom Meaning arklio galva stupid person arklio širdį turėti not to have compation arkliai baidosi very ugly arklių pristovėtos dirty ears ant keršo arklio joja not sure ant margo arklio stovėti to be not true or doubtful 67

ant arklio ir po arkliu buvęs experienced sulig arkliais strong kaip arklys strong, healthy kaip juodas arklys a hardworking person kaip margas arklys interesting kaip arklių pristovėtos dirty ears kaip ant dešimt arklių sėdos happy kaip ant devynių arklių išsėsti to be very happy kaip ant šimto arklių pleased kaip ant šimto arklių joja proud kaip ant šimto arklių užsėdo to become overjoyed nuo adatos ant arklio learning to steal nei karvei ant ragų, nei arkliui ant stimburio useless asilo brolis stupid asilo galva stupid paskutinis asilas very stupid Buridano asilas not able to make a choice kaip ant rogikių very successful ginčo rogės stubborn nei ratai nei rogės useless po vežimu pregnant šešiais žirgais strong character ant keršo žirgo not able to make a choice kaip žirgą dovanotas very happy kaip žirgą gavęs very happy kaip žirgo nustojęs very sad kaip ant keršo žirgo waiting kaip ant žirgo pasodintas in a good mood koński ogon hairstyle końska szczęka jaw koński organizm health można z kimś konia kraść a trustful friend stary koń adolescent male końskie okulary narrow-minded końskie zdrowie health piąte koło u wozu unnecessary (ktoś) jechać na jednym, na tym samym same destiny wózku

Semantic area of nature

Idiom Meaning arklio auksas excrement arklio dantis hardwood Alijošius važinėja su ketvertu arklių thunderstorm velnio arklys dragonfly

žydo arklys dragonfly laivo rykštė rainbow perkūno vežimas storm cloud laumės žirgas dragonfly laumžirgis dragonfly

Semantic area of amount

Idiom Meaning arklio jėga horsepower nė po arklio koja none arkliai neveža a lot arklys nevežtų a lot už juodą arklį hard (about work) vežimu neišvežtum a lot vežimais neišveši a lot vežimą prikrauti a lot (about speaking) vežimą priskaldyti iš adatos exaggeration vežimą priskaldyti iš dektuko exaggeration vežimą skaldyti iš adatos exaggeration vežimu vežk a lot nors vežimą vežk a lot nors vežimu vežk a lot nors vežimais vežk a lot nors su vežimu vežk a lot końska dawka a big amount

Appendix 2 Sources of examples . PUD - Nascisione, A. (2001). Phraseological units in discourse: towards applied stylistics. Riga: Latvian academy of culture. DOI - Sinclair, J. (2002). Dictionary of idioms. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers. FŽ - Svetikienė D. (Ed.) (2009). Anglų kalbos frazeologijos žodynas. Lietuva: Alma littera.