Stable Polilexical Units as Extralinguistic Motivation of Mythological Origin

Abstract

The problems of motivation regarding the emergence of phraseological etymology (or motivation is a term of etymology and general linguistics) are as complex as the problems of lexical etymology. Phraseology, like lexis, is in permanent evolution, for these reasons its object of study must be researched both synchronically and diachronically. In the present study, a new classification of stable polylexical units is proposed according to the extralinguistic motivation of the linguistic sign. Regardless of whether the stable polylexical units (SPU) are borrowed, calcified or have entered the language through culture, they are all of foreign origin and must therefore be considered as general to a large number of languages. Thus, there emerges the character of universality that we can attribute to SPU with extralinguistic motivation. Below we propose to study some SPU of mythological origin we find in several languages, but which are updated in the Romanian languages by giving examples of their use at the level of language and discourse.