Isolated or fossilized words. About unical components in some German idioms.

Abstract

Unical components (G unikale Komponenten) in word groups and their characteristics, e.g. cohesiveness, are discussed in this article. Some common unical components in German idioms from different sources are explained. German Maulaffen feilhalten and Kohldampf schieben show idioms with unical components appearing very strange and non-transparent to students of German as a foreign language. However, word groups containing unical components can play an interesting role in culture and the history of language and be evidence of ancient ways of trading or working methods, or even stem from the law or social life in the language area. They can offer a good opportunity in the teaching of the foreign language to introduce the culture and history of language of the language area. Some semantic equivalents in Icelandic and German unical components are highlighted.

Keywords: German, word groups in German, phraseology, contrastive linguistics, unical components