SEMANTIC, PRAGMATIC AND LINGUOCULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN ARTISTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

 
The  study  of  phraseology  has  traditionally  focused  on  structural  and  semantic 
properties. Contemporary approaches, however, increasingly examine phraseological 
units  from  cognitive,  pragmatic  and  linguocultural  perspectives.  Such  approaches 
allow researchers to identify not only what an expression means, but also why it is used 
in a particular communicative situation and what cultural knowledge it activates. 
In  literary  discourse,  phraseological  expressions  are  particularly  productive 
because they enable writers to convey complex meanings in a concise and expressive 
form. They can characterise a literary figure, indicate social or cultural identity, express 
emotional attitudes, create irony and establish a particular relationship between the 
author, characters and readers. 
One of the most distinctive characteristics of phraseological units is the relationship 
between  their  lexical  components  and  their  overall  meaning.  In  many  idiomatic 
expressions,  the  meaning  of  the  whole  unit  cannot  be  predicted  simply  by  adding 
together the meanings of its individual words. English provides numerous examples of 
this phenomenon, including “break the ice,” “spill the beans,” “hit the nail on the head,” 
“cost  an  arm  and  a  leg,”  and  “once  in  a  blue  moon.”  These  expressions  have 
conventionalised meanings that differ from their literal interpretations. For example, 
break the ice is commonly used to describe an action intended to make people feel 
more  comfortable  in  an  unfamiliar  social  situation.  The  expression  is  based  on  a 
metaphorical image in which social tension is conceptualised as a physical barrier that 
can be broken. Similarly, spill the beans means to reveal secret information, although 
its literal components refer to an entirely different physical situation.