English Biblicisms in Colloquial Speech and a Literary Text: Looking for the Right Interpretation

Abstract

In several cases, the function of colloquial speech, English biblicism, does not cause common associations with their former meanings or the original context in the speaker’s mind. The absence of corresponding marks in phraseological dictionaries confirms the fact that biblicisms, possessing a particular source, lose their connection with it. This research aims to trace the original and transformed semantic content of English phraseological units of biblical origin and provide the correct interpretation of the semantic peculiarities of biblical citation both in colloquial speech and literary text. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to identify a number of specific tasks: to define the universal features of biblicism; classify English biblicisms according to their origin and structure; study the semantics of phraseological units of biblical origin and establish the relationship between the original meaning of English biblicism and their transformed meaning in colloquial speech and literary text; to explore semantic and stylistic peculiarities of English biblicism and to identify the main thematic groups of the units under analysis in colloquial speech and literary text.