Vol 20, No 2 (2022): Traditions and innovations in Russian phraseology and paremiology

The paper aims at presenting the research potential of the transformational paradigm of the phraseological unit as a set of all detected speech realisations of its updated invariant, formed not by the principle of “predicting” the possible transformations, but of “collecting” their actual variants in speech. The starting points in this case are both the intralingual multi-sided (according to R. Sternemann) model of comparing the actual speech updates of the phraseological unit with its invariant as tertium comparationis and the broad understanding of the object of phraseology. The basic methods are methods of total sampling and textual identification of the phraseological transform, component-variant analysis, methods of phraseological modelling, applicative method, methods of historical-etymological and linguocultural analysis. The material of the research contains transformation paradigms of different types of phraseological units collected and systematized by the author (wolf in sheep’s clothing, return of the prodigal son, step on the same rake, man in a skirt, Pandora’s box, he who has a tongue can find his way), which were formed on the material of Russian fiction and non-fiction texts, Russian and Russian-language printed and electronic media, including texts of Internet forums and blogs of the early 21st century as a space of network (often anonymous) media communication. The systematization of phraseotransforms in Russian speech and structuring the transformational paradigm, taking into account the internal and external levels in the form of a “matrix,” opens up opportunities for searching for the systemic and the asystemic, the predictable and the unpredictable, for generalising the linguistic and non-linguistic factors stimulating the phraseoransformation and phraseoformation of the phraseological invariant as well as for determining the ratio of creative capacities of the language system and the creativity of the authors of phraseological transforms. The proposed model of analysis can be used in the context of intralingual and inter-lingual comparisons.

In modern Russian studies, much attention has been paid to the study of proverbs and catch phrases as the main varieties of language aphorisms (aphoristic units). In this regard, it is relevant to determine their own linguistic characteristics, including functional ones. The aim of the study is to establish and describe the obligatory and optional functions of proverbs and catch phrases as aphoristic units, to establish unique functions of language aphorisms in speech and text. The material of the study includes the most popular proverbs and catch phrases among the units of the paremiological minimum and the basic paremiology used in written speech. The main method in the research is the descriptive method based on functional modelling of language units with the help of contextual and stylistic analysis. It was found that all the basic functions of the language (basic and derivatives) are inherent in proverbs and catch phrases as aphoristic units. The obligatory functions of language aphorisms are communicative, cognitive, nominative and cumulative ones; the optional functions are emotive, metalinguistic, phatic, voluntative, empirical, axiological, referential, aesthetic, and ritual ones; the unique functions are universalizing and style-forming ones. The unique functions of aphoristic units determine each other, are completely and diversely used in fiction, journalistic and scientific-philosophical texts.

With the intensity of modern research devoted to the reconstruction of the linguistic world picture and cultural linguistics, such conceptual oppositions as “friend” - “enemy,” naturally, rose the scientific interest. The purpose of the study is a multifaceted semantic analysis of the concept “enemy” on the most complete Russian phraseological and paremiological material reflected in a three-volume dictionary. The corpus of these paremiological dictionaries includes the classic collections of Russian proverbs and sayings, extracts from the latest dialect dictionaries and the records made by the compilers. With this approach, the concept “enemy” receives a detailed description, taking into account the entire set of paremiological variants. This ensures the possibility of structural-semantic modeling of the analyzed paremiology, and the dominants of the concept “enemy” are revealed. One of the tasks of the analysis is to determine to what extent and in what way the semantic characteristics of the lexeme “enemy” and some of its synonyms are implemented as part of three types of paremias - stable comparisons (comparatives), sayings (resp. phraseological units) and proverbs. The revealed semantic dominants correlate with the characteristics of the concept “enemy” in explanatory dictionaries. The proposed analysis shows that the concept “enemy” and its lexemes constitute an active part of the Russian phraseology and paremiology. The word “enemy” (vorog), which forms the main part of this fund, preserves the ancient semantic impulses and is actualized in Russian paremias. At the same time, the semantic characteristics of the corresponding lexicon largely determine the connotative and axiological potential of proverbs and sayings. However, quantitatively and qualitatively, they are represented in them in different ways. On the one hand, such differences are observed in three different groups of Russian paremiology: in stable comparisons they are relatively few in number, in phraseological units they are semantically selective, in proverbs they are extremely active and multifaceted. Their imagery, reproducing both ancient and modern semantics and connotation of this concept, allows to reconstruct a bright and multidimensional “enemy image” in the mirror of the Russian language.

The purpose of the research is to consider the aspects of some functions of phrasemes in the Russian-language Internet discourse, primarily in connection with their role in forming significant elements of network communication. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact, that the problem of implementation of certain functions of set expressions in Internet discourse has not yet been fully explored and requires close attention to the interdependence of phraseology and other Internet phenomena. The material of the article are contexts with phrasemes, collected by the method of continuous sampling only from the proper network genres: Internet forums, network blogs, Internet comments, social networks, etc. The author analyzes the features of phraseology and its pragmatic potential. The method of continuous sampling, classification-typological and interpretive methods, as well as the method of discourse-contextual analysis of linguistic units were used. The methodological basis was formed by articles on the functional aspects of phraseology and Internet linguistics. The study proved that, on the one hand, the Internet is an actual environment for studying the linguistic units functioning, and phraseology itself in the new speech and discursive conditions remains in demand. It is shown that phraseology and its functions in online communication create proper discursive features of the Internet: expressiveness, colloquialism, neogenity, etc., and also take part in emerging different phenomena of network origin: Internet memes, “demotivators,” threads of Internet comments.

The article presents an innovative authors’ approach to representing Russian phraseology in a dictionary for schoolchildren. The relevance of the research is determined by the need to improve educational lexicographic technologies in connection with the increasing role of the dictionary as a means of teaching languages and a motivation for language learning. The purpose of the study is to reveal the linguodidactic potential of innovative educational lexicographic discourse in the detective genre. The topic is revealed on the material of the author’s phraseological dictionaries developed in this genre by experimental laboratory of educational lexicography at Pskov University, which have no analogues in the domestic phraseographic practice. The dictionary materials are based on the method of parametric lexicographic modeling. Special attention is paid to developing the etymological parameter by the method of parametric etymological paraphrasing. The method is based on the chosen model of etymologization depending in the method of phraseme formation. The linguodidactic potential of innovative lexicographic discourse is revealed by the descriptive method (techniques of systematization and interpretation). Fragments of dictionary entries illustrating the main provisions of the concept are given. The revealed possibilities and mechanisms of combining the parametres of educational and artistic discourse in the entries of phraseological dictionary for the junior school student are shown. The new models of etymologization, linguoculturological commenting and representating functional and pragmatic features of Russian phraseological units within the educational lexicographic discourse of the detective genre are presented. It is proved that the innovative lexicographic discourse organized in this way allows to effectively solve the problem of multidimensional educational representation of phraseology, and also supports the process of teaching schoolchildren genres of speech. The authors outline the possibilities of using the presented lexicographic technology of designing interactive educational dictionaries on paremiological and lexical material.