The Main Structural Patterns of Verbal Phraseological Units in English and Albanian

Abstract

This paper introduces a comparative approach to the structural patterns of verbal phraseological units in English and Albanian. The structural criterion brings forth pronounced distinctive features characterising phraseological units and especially contrasting them to free word-groups. In the same way as we speak of word patterns, the structure of phraseological units is also based on certain patterns. In this paper we are going to focus on verbal phraseological units which compared to free word-groups have structural stability, semantic unity and figurativeness. Both languages, English and Albanian are very rich in such phrases and share some similarities. Structural invariability is an essential feature of phraseological units, though, as we shall see, some of them possess it to a lesser degree than others. Structural invariability of phraseological units finds expression in a number of restrictions. The aim of this study is to find out the main restrictions regarding the structure of verbal phraseological units and to give the main structural patterns in both languages. Their structure is contrasted and compared by use of examples in English and Albanian as well.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n13p637