"Close question" means ... Value, origin and translation of phraseology

Often in the media or even in everyday communication, you can hear the phrase "close the issue." This phraseology has an intuitively guessed meaning. More details about it will be discussed in the article. And also you will learn in what situations this stable expression is used, how it is combined with other lexical units, in what ways is translated into foreign languages and many other interesting facts.

Value

To start, you need to voice what phraseology is. So in linguistics is called a stable combination of words, which makes sense exactly in the form in which it exists. For example: "fool around", "circle your finger", "collar-inverted", "white crow" and the like. The meaning of such expressions is not conveyed with the help of their constituents, individual words, but because of the significance implanted in the language. So, "fooling around" means deliberately behaving stupidly, "fooling around" - cunningly deceive, "the scruff of the back" - not as necessary, or inside out, the "white crow" - sharply different from the total mass.

Also to the number of phraseological units is the expression "close the question". This means to finally solve some problem or problem, so as not to return to it any more. Closure of the issue may be due to the implementation of any action, as well as simply with the termination of the discussion of the exhausted topic.

Parallel to this, there are stable expressions "open question", "the question is open" and "the question remains open". They, accordingly, mean that the problem has not been solved so far - you need to take measures or end up becoming a meaningless discussion.

Origin

At present, the phrase "close the issue" is a cliche that is used quite often in publicistic speech. It is not known for certain where this expression comes from, but one can assume that its source was the socio-political sphere. Most likely, the phrase was once used in the media and quickly spread, entrenched in Russian.

Using

"Close the question" is a phraseology that can often be found in news reports and speeches of statesmen. They use it when discussing important social and political issues when they want to show their intention to bring a case to its logical conclusion, to solve the existing problem, etc. However, the decision may also be to not continue or take any action. The expression can also be used in situations where the speaker emphasizes the importance of the final solution of the problem.

Examples of the use of this phraseology you can see below.

• The trade union put forward a demand to close the issue with wage arrears before the end of the month.
• The countries agreed to close the issue regarding the terms of export.
• The city authorities have closed the issue of the possibility of building a new stadium.

Synonyms

Speech should be literate and diverse. Sometimes, in order to avoid lexical repetition, it is not superfluous to recall and use an expression with the same meaning as "close the question". The synonym for it can be, for example, the simplest: "solve the problem (matter, question)". You can put it like this: "close the topic." Another option: "finally decide and do not go back to it." The last expression sounds somewhat overloaded, but it carries in itself the same meaning as the desired phraseology.

Translation into other languages

Now let's talk about how the expression "close the question" is used in the speech of other peoples. This phenomenon, like phraseological units, is characteristic of any language. The difference is that each such combination of words is unique. It makes sense only in this form and in a given language, so translation by means of a translation or a verbatim can rarely come up.

Next, we'll look at how the phrase "close the question" sounds in European languages. Translation into English has several options. Some of them are quite close to Russian:

• Close the matter;
• Close the issue.

There is also an English expression close the books on (someone or something), which means "solve the case" or "close the question."

In German there is the expression das Thema zu schließen, in French - fermer la question, in Spanish - cerrar el tema. All of them are similar in their structure, from which it can be concluded that this expression is universal. Perhaps it has the same source everywhere - the journalistic style of speech.

Variations on the theme

You can also mention situations in which the phrase "close the issue" is not exactly phraseological. These include, for example, the sphere of Internet communication. Closing a question on a forum or site is an option that the moderator implements. Otherwise, you can say - the closure of the topic. This means disabling the possibility of commenting in one or another thread of the discussion, because the top-starter (the person from whose post the virtual conversation started) has already received an answer to the question asked, or does not want to see feedback from other participants.

Another type of expression, which is devoted to this article, we can call the concept of "closed question" (English closed question). It is used in sociology and means such a question in the questionnaire to which the respondent can only answer "yes" or "no". For example: "Do you like milk?" Or "Is it true that ...?" And similar language, not suggesting an expanded answer with an explanation.

After reading the article, you learned what the phrase "close the question" means. This expression is phraseological and is most often used in media reports and official statements by the authorities. Also this phrase is familiar to regulars of Internet forums and sites with questions and answers, but in this area it is used in a slightly different meaning.