A LANGUAGE GAME WITH PRECEDENT PHENOMENA

Abstract

This paper is devoted to a language game with precedent phenomena. By precedent phenomena the authors mean well-known texts, easily recognized and reproduced in the minds of native speakers. This paper describes precedent phenomena of a phraseological level such as set expressions, idioms, proverbs. These elements are often transformed to draw the addressee’s attention and serve as the basis for creating a language game. A language game refers to the intentional breach of habitual use of words and set expressions which demonstrates the author’s creative ability to deviate from the normative and stereotypical use. The purpose of this deviation is to express the additional denotative and connotative meanings. The materials of the research include texts of modern fictional prose, mass media and advertisements. The methods of contextual, semantic and structural analysis were used to discover the types of precedent phenomena transformation. The main types of precedent phenomena transformations include the following: 1) change of size of a precedent phenomenon; 2) change of structure of a precedent phenomenon; 3) formation based on an analogy, according to a commonly known model; 4) transformation of elements of set expressions without replacing them; 5) transformation of meaning based on polysemy and homonymy of elements. The given types of transformation specify and specialize semantically the original set expressions, proverbs, phraseological units to fit them into a certain situation. It is the author’s individual interpretation that the transformed set expressions, phraseological units and proverbs acquire emotional-evaluative connotations, produce additional influence effects on the reader and convey a wide range of emotions.