Phraseological unit <i>une pomme de discorde</i> in cognitive-discursive consideration (on the material of the modern French Press)

Abstract

This article is focused on the functioning of the phraseological unit une pomme de discorde in French from the standpoint of the cognitive-discursive paradigm. The purpose of the work is to present the foundations of the semiosis of the considered phraseological unit as a cognitive scenario, to establish its main components and their transformations in the target areas. The main material was publications in modern French periodicals Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation, L’Obs, 20 minutes, Le Point, posted on the respective websites, for the period from 2018 to the first half of 2022. In the process of research, methods of observation, description, interpretation, modeling, lexicographic, linguistic, contextual, cognitive analysis were used. The study of the phraseological unit was carried out in several stages: first, its status was determined, then it was studied from the semantic-cognitive and functional-discursive aspects. It was found that une pomme de discorde belongs to the group of antique phraseological units and is a phraseological universal. Its phraseological meaning ‘a subject of dispute and disagreement’ was fixed in the French language in 1680 on the basis of a cognitive scenario dating back to the ancient Greek mythology. Four microsituations were identified in the scenario structure, but none of them is profiled completely in the target area. The transformations of the basic scenario of a dispute (conflict) affected all its main components: the sphere of manifestation, the type of conflict, its dynamics, structure (participants, their goals, the object of the conflict). Target areas – areas of conflicts manifestation, in which the baseline scenario is profiled, were grouped by territorial reference (France or other states) and by thematic areas (internal or international issues). The political, economic and social spheres are mainly represented, less often the cultural ones. By its type, the conflict has transformed from interpersonal to intergroup and interstate, from trilateral to bilateral. The object of conflict in the target areas are mainly material values, less often social and spiritual ones. In general, the objects of conflicts are things and phenomena, and only in exceptional cases − persons. The subjects of conflicts can strive both for the possession of an object or for its rejection. Thus, the phraseological unit of the French language une pomme de discorde actualizes the concepts of DISPUTE, CONFLICT and WAR. The wide use of the phraseological unit and a wide variety of areas of purpose prove the relevance of ancient images, the high viability of the phraseological unit under consideration and its high phraseological potential.