NAUTICAL PHRASES

Lexicology (from lexico-, in the Late Greek lexikon) is that part of linguistics which studies words, their nature and meaning, words' elements, relations between words (semantical relations), words groups and the whole lexicon.

ASSIGNMENT ON LEXICOLOGY

HA NOI,2008

PART A : INTRODUCTION

I.Aims of the study

Lexicology (from lexico-, in the Late Greek lexikon) is that

part of linguistics which studies words, their nature and meaning, words'

elements, relations between words (semantical relations), words groups and the whole lexicon

The term first appeared in the 1820s, though there were

lexicologists in essence before the term was coined Computational

lexicology as a related field (in the same way that computational linguistics

is related to linguistics) deals with the computational study of dictionaries

and their contents An allied science to lexicology is lexicography, which

also studies words in relation with dictionaries - it is actually concerned with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that perspective with the

whole lexicon Therefore lexicography is the theory and practice of

composing dictionaries Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part

or a branch of lexicology, but the two disciplines should not be mistaken: lexicographers are the people who write dictionaries, they are at the same time lexicologists too, but not all lexicologists are lexicographers It is said

that lexicography is the practical lexicology, it is practically oriented though

it has its own theory, while the pure lexicology is mainly theoretical.

Phraseology is a branch of lexicology, together with lexicography.It studies compound meanings of two or more words, as in

"raining cats and dogs" Because the whole meaning of that phrase is much different from the meaning of words included alone, phraseology examines

the laws governing these word combinations Phraseology also investigates idioms

Moreover,the world of sail gave us more pharses and sayings than any other occupation.It is Sailor’s lingo or nautical phrases

II.Methods of the study

To finish my study on this topic,I need to read the book”Lectures on Lexicology_Third edition”of Dang Tran Cuong,pay attention on some evidences that are useful for my topic and take note all of them.Moreover,I also search for more information on thhe internet and then filter that information

III.Scope of the study

Study phrases,nautical phrases

IV.Design of the study

Part A: Introduction

Aims of the study

Methods of the study

Scope of the study

Design of the study

Part B: Development

Part C: Conclusion

PART B : DEVELOPMENT

Nautical phrases

Many phrases that have been adopted into everyday use originate from seafaring - in particular from the days of sail Virtually all

of these are metaphorical and the original nautical meanings are now forgotten That association of travel and metaphor is significant in that the word metaphor, itself metaphorical, derives from ancient Greek for 'to carry'

or 'to travel' The influence of other languages and other cultures is evident

in many of the long list of English phrases that have nautical origins

It is an undoubted fact that seafaring is also the source of more false etymology than any other sphere This can be attributed

to the attractiveness of the romantic image of horny-handed sailors singing shanties and living a hearty and rough life at sea After all, it sounds plausible that 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' comes from brass ship's fittings and that POSH means 'Port out, starboard home',

but neither of these is correct CANOE, the Committee to Ascribe a Naval

Origin to Everything, don't really exist, but the number of such false trails

might make one believe that they do

It is lucky for us, in our endeavours to distinguish truth from falsehood, that activities at sea have been scrupulously recorded over the centuries, in insurance records, newspaper accounts and, not least,

in ships' log books The term log-book has an interesting derivation in itself

An early form of measuring a ship's progress was by casting overboard a wooden board (the log) with a string attached The rate at which the string was payed out as the ship moved away from the stationary log was measured

by counting how long it took between knots in the string These

measurements were later transcribed into a book Hence we get the term 'log-book' and also the name 'knot' as the unit of speed at sea

The list below are phrases that have documentary evidence to support the claim of a nautical origin:

A shot across the bows Anchors aweigh Batten down the hatches Between the Devil and the deep blue sea

Broad in the beam

By and large Chock-a-block Close quarters Copper-bottomed Cut and run Get underway Give a wide berth

Go by the board Hand over fist Hard and fast High and dry

In the offing Know the ropes

On your beam ends Plain sailing Shipshape and Bristol fashion

Shake a leg Shiver my timbers Taken aback Tell it to the marines Three sheets to the wind

Tide over

We can see example:

Between the Devil and the deep blue sea

Meaning

In difficulty, faced with two dangerous alternatives

Origin

The phrase was originally 'Between the Devil and the deep sea' The sea turned blue much later and the phrase became well-known via the title of a popular song Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea was written by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, and recorded by Cab Calloway in

1931, although that version of the phrase may have been circulating earlier What's the source of the original phrase? Well, we would really like to know CANOE, the Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything, would have us believe that it has a nautical origin (well, they would wouldn't they?) In her book, 'When a loose cannon flogs a dead horse there's the devil to pay', Olivia Isil unambiguously attributes a nautical origin to the phrase

Set against that there's the explanation that this is from the usual meaning of Devil, i.e the supreme spirit of evil If it's that Devil we

are talking about then the origin is straightforward - the Devil is bad and falling in the deep sea is bad, so when caught between the two we would be

in difficulty

People who like that explanation can point back to Greek mythology for an earlier version of the idea of being caught between evil and the sea Homer's Odyssey refers to Odysseus being caught between Scylla (a six-headed monster) and Charybdis (a whirlpool)

To explain the nautical theory we'll need to define some sailing terminology That's always dangerous ground for landlubbers and usually results in some horny-handed sailing type writing in to say that we don't know our scuppers from our square-knots, but here goes anyway

"Devil - the seam which margins the waterways on a ship's hull"

This definition is from Henry Smyth's Sailor's

Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, 1867 That definition

wasn't entirely clear to me, but a correspondent who describes himself as 'an engineer and vessel constructor', clarified it this way:

"Devil - the seam between the deck planking and the topmost plank of the ship's side"

This seam would need to be watertight and would need filling (caulking) from time to time On a ship at sea this would presumably require a sailor to be suspended over the side, or at least stand at the very edge of the deck Either way it is easy to see how that might be described as 'between the devil and the deep sea'

Incidentally, another term for filling a seam is paying Those that like nautical origins also give this as the source for” the Devil to pay”, although the evidence is against them on that one

The first recorded citation of 'the Devil and the deep sea'

in print is in Robert Monro's His expedition with the worthy Scots regiment

called Mac-keyes, 1637:

"I, with my partie, did lie on our poste, as betwixt the devill and the deep sea."

The seafaring theory is plausible at least, but does it really hold water? Two factors count against it Firstly, it doesn't really explain the meaning The devil on a ship isn't inherently dangerous Secondly, does the phrase pre-date the nautical term 'devil'? We've no evidence to show the word in that context until over two hundred years after the first sighting of the phrase If the phrase really does pre-date the word then the nautical derivation, by that route at least, is clearly incorrect The onus falls on the nautical believers to provide the evidence

CANOE don't quite convince with this one On balance it seems wise to stay

on dry land and stick with the Devil we know

Between a rock and a hard place

Meaning

In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options

Origin

US origin The earliest known printed reference is Dialect Notes V, 1921:

"To be between a rock and a hard place, to be bankrupt Common in Arizona in recent panics; sporadic in California."

The 'recent panics' referred to in that citation are undoubtedly the events surrounding the Bisbee deportations of 1917 In Bisbee, Arizona, in the early years of the 20th century, a dispute between copper mining companies and mineworkers developed In 1917, the workers, some of whom had organized in labour unions, approached the company management with a list of demands for better pay and conditions These were refused and subsequently many workers at the Bisbee mines were forcibly deported to New Mexico

It's tempting to surmise, given that the mineworkers were faced with a choice between harsh and underpaid work at the rock-face

on the one hand and unemployment and poverty on the other, that this is the source of the phrase

PART C : CONCLUSION

When researching about nautical phares,we can see some more interesting things about sailors.We can understand some their lingos and the way they live with the sea.We also collect the knowledge of the phrase and history.We can boast our vocabulary,meaning of pharses and usage.Avoiding some misunderstanding and mistakes