ON THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF IDIOMS IN FRENCH

Abstract

The issue of the origin of phraseological units is focal in linguistics, however it has not been studied thoroughly. Although linguists have addressed this issue in their works, the latter are typically restricted to common remarks only or, at best, they merely present a brief overview of the origin of idioms. The present paper studies the characteristic features of the lexical and phraseological stock of the French language from the genetic perspective. Based on a number of linguistic facts and statistical data, an attempt is made to reveal the difference between the “specific weight” of lexical and phraseological units of Latin origin.