a set grammatical construction

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Dear community, will you explain me, please, what is "a set grammatical construction"? So, I begged to interpret me at a language forum the following sentense: "What an army and what a sergeant to have in the army." and was replied: "It's a set grammatical construction."
I tried to find out it but failed.

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View best answer, chosen by Razmysl

@Razmysl,

First, I will re-write your question, keeping it as much like the question you asked as I can, but putting it into standard English:

Will someone explain to me what "a set grammatical construction" means? I went to a language forum and asked that someone interpret the following sentence for me: "What an army and what a sergeant to have in the army." I got the reply: "It's a set grammatical construction." I tried to find out what that means, but failed.

A set grammatical construction is a term from semiotics, and you don't need to trouble yourself with semiotics. The person who gave you that answer was, it seems to me, trying to make him- or herself sound very wise and knowing. But that person did not give you a useful answer. I suggest that you forget all about "set grammatical constructions," and I'll try to give you a simple and useful answer.

In this context, "what . . . " expresses admiration, and means that something is of a very high standard. "What a beautiful woman" means an extremely beautiful woman. "What a beautiful day" means an exceptionally beautiful day. Therefore, "What an army" means an exceptionally good army, and "what a sergeant to have in the army" means a sergeant of exceptional ability. Exceptional means unusually good, outstanding; of very high quality.

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@Setanta,

Quote:

First, I will re-write your question, keeping it as much like the question you asked as I can, but putting it into standard English:

Will someone explain to me what "a set grammatical construction" means? I went to a language forum and asked that someone interpret the following sentence for me: "What an army and what a sergeant to have in the army." I got the reply: "It's a set grammatical construction." I tried to find out what that means, but failed.

Thanks a lot for the lesson, Setanta! Yes, my English is far from being perfect. I am sorry. You know, I learn it without any teacher and have formulated my above question according to stylistics of the Russian language.
And, yeah, following you, I have already forgotten all about "a set grammatical construction". Everything is perfectly clear now.
I wish you good luck! So long!

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@Razmysl,

Thank you for your kind remarks. I wish you well in your attempt to learn what to you must seem an odd and difficult language.

(We make it more difficult so that speakers of other languages will have trouble, and then we can laugh at them when they've left the room.)

(That was just a joke . . . mostly.)

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Wow, it is so rare to see our veteran Setanta being so soft-hearted.
BTW, would using semantics instead of semiotics be more accurate, while the use of semiotics is not an error?

Setanta wrote:

A set grammatical construction is a term from semiotics, and you don't need to trouble yourself with semiotics. The person who gave you that answer was, it seems to me, trying to make him- or herself sound very wise and knowing. But that person did not give you a useful answer. I suggest that you forget all about "set grammatical constructions," and I'll try to give you a simple and useful answer

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@Setanta,

Quote:

We make it more difficult so that speakers of other languages will have trouble, and then we can laugh at them when they've left the room.

This is a great joke!

Quote:

I wish you well in your attempt to learn what to you must seem an odd and difficult language.

English is wonderful indeed.

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a set grammatical construction

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