This work is devoted to the study of phraseological units in the English language. It focuses not on the norms of their occurrence in the language but on the deviations from these norms. The paper also investigates the role and function of the violation device in the language system and studies whether it can be preserved in translation. Its aim is to establish the ways how the process of phraseological renovation occurs in the language, what is the purpose to resort to this device, and whether it can be rendered in translation.