Have you ever noticed how in your speech stable combinations such as “beat the buck” or “cry with crocodile tears” slip through ? But have you thought about what it is, how they appeared? These combinations are called phraseological units. You will find out more about what it is a bit later. Probably, everyone at least once in his life heard the phrase "like a cat with a dog." But did you think about what it means to live like a cat and a dog?
In this article you can find out how this phraseological unit appeared and what it really means. The learning process is quite complicated. This article will simplify your task.
What are phraseological units
In order to get acquainted with the meaning of phraseology “live like a cat and a dog”, you must first find out what it really is. So, phraseologism is a stable combination of words with figurative meaning. It is noteworthy that such a combination, no matter how many words it may consist of, is always an integral linguistic unit, since it is the whole phrase that has its own semantics and performs a single syntactic function. When considering each word separately, the meaning of the whole phrase is lost. If you think about it, phraseologism is an idiom in Russian vocabulary. These word combinations are historically determined.
They give human speech emotionality and expressiveness. They make the language more expressive. They are characteristic of both oral and book speech, it is often possible to meet them in works of fiction.
Which ones exist?
Conventionally, they can be divided into several groups.
Among phraseological combinations, two bright groups can be distinguished:
The books have a touch of solemnity (sing praises, breathe incense, smoke incense, the first violin), while conversations can sound very rude and have a jargon color (give a bream, cry with crocodile tears).
According to the semantic indivisibility of phraseological units can be divided into three groups:
- combinations;
- unity;
- adhesions.
So, the first one is a form of stable combinations in which unfree phraseological meanings are realized. An example is the expression “look away”. So, we can say: "Anna could not take her eyes off the beautiful sunset," but if you change the management, then there will be a phraseological unity "to turn my eyes away" (to someone) with the meaning "to confuse, deceive."
The second - stable word combinations that are characterized by semantic duality: these expressions can be understood both literally and figuratively - as a single semantic unit with its own meaning. Examples of such unity: "to take dirty linen out of the hut," "what the hell is not joking," "to soap the neck." Two examples of using the phrase "soap the neck":
- With a direct meaning: "When you wash, do not forget to thoroughly soap your neck."
- With the figurative meaning: "Wow, I will soap this scoundrel with a neck!"
The third is a stable phrase, the main feature of which is complete semantic indivisibility. Fusion is a semantic unit, homogeneous with the word, devoid of form inside. They are usually called idioms. It is noteworthy that they do not allow literal understanding. The following phraseological units can serve as examples of fusion: “sharpen the baldness”, “beat the bacilli”, “on one’s mind”, “live like a cat and a dog”. The meaning of the latter is presented in the article.
How did phraseological units based on comparisons with animals come about?
For a very long time, people began to compare human features and personal characteristics of different animals. For example, an untidy person can be called a pig, an awkward person can easily be called a bear, and stupid people have long been called donkeys. However, one should not forget that these comparisons did not appear because of some good value, on the contrary, ancient people believed that animals are people turned by gods into animals for their faults. So to compare a person with an animal is akin to calling him a scoundrel.
It was by ridiculing human vices that they created allegories in which animals appear in the place of people. These substitutions formed the basis of fables, fairy tales and many phraseological units. Examples of phraseological units based on comparisons with animals: a dark horse, looking like a ram at a new gate, a bear’s corner, even a wolf howling, like a cat and a dog, like a mouse a grinder, a no brainer, monkey work, pompous turkey, bear service, chain dog , on the bird’s rights, back to our sheep, calf tenderness and others.
What does it mean to live like a cat with a dog?
So, having understood what phraseological units are, we can move on. What does it mean to live like a cat with a dog? In fact, everything is very simple. Phraseologism characterizes this bad, hostile relationship. To live like a cat with a dog means to live, constantly quarreling, conflicting.
This phraseological unit has a bright expressive coloring and is conversational, so you should avoid it in official conversations. It is used as an adverbial group. Synonymous phraseological units are the following phrases: to live in trouble, to bite, bite, be in the counter, break off relationships.
How did this phraseologism appear?
The relationship between dogs and cats has always been very strange, controversial, and funny. They often fight, dogs incredibly love to chase cats, cats do not remain in debt and easily respond to dog attacks.
Yes, sometimes it happens that a warm relationship develops between cats and dogs, however, it is a negative description of their interactions that formed the basis of phraseology. Because, as already mentioned, comparisons with animals initially did not have a positive connotation, this trend has persisted to this day: there are categorically few comparisons with animals that do not carry a negative value.
Examples of the use of phraseology
In this part of the article, various examples of the use of the phraseology “living like a cat with a dog” will be presented, namely:
- The couple always quarreled, in general, they lived like a cat and a dog.
- Despite all the efforts of the woman, her new husband and daughter could not find a common language and lived like a cat with a dog.
- Half a century has passed since the moment they began to live together, but love still lived in their hearts, although they lived like a cat and a dog.
- Sasha and Lech live like a cat with a dog, despite the fact that they are siblings.
- Teenagers often behave like a cat and a dog towards those they like: they still don’t know how to show sympathy.
- Tanya and Galya are classmates, both are doing very well, but still live like a cat and a dog.
Conclusion
So, now that you have read the whole article, you should have no questions at all about what “live like a cat and a dog” really means and where this expression came from. You also received new interesting, and most importantly, useful knowledge about phraseological units and their types in general.