Ways of transformation of phraseological units in the modern press

Abstract

One of the ways of intellectualization of modern media is a language game, the manifestation of which can be attributed to the transformation of the form and meaning of phraseological units. The purpose of this article is to study the functioning of transformed phraseological units in modern press. The research is carried out on the material of phraseological units that have undergone structural and semantic transformations. The material was extracted from the modern press. The research is based on the use of introspective, interpretive and contextual methods of analysis, as well as the reception of quantitative processing of the material. The analysis has shown that in the modern press, the main methods of phraseological transformation are literalization, double actualization and contamination of meanings, replacement, addition or elimination of a component. Among them, the most common is double actualization. Through this technique, the journalist places the phraseologies in the context in which the direct and metaphorical meaning of its components are realized simultaneously. The journalist’s tendency to transform phraseological units to solve stylistic problems is due to his creative thinking and is explained by the desire for a language game with the addressee. As a rule, this phenomenon is observed in analytical articles. Creatively transformed phraseological units are most often found in the heading complex as a strong position of the text. The stylistic affiliation of transformed phraseological units is determined by the characteristics of the press. In newspapers published for a mass audience, phraseological units that are characteristic of colloquial speech and vernacular are often used. In publications for the intellectual addressee, phraseological units peculiar to book speech are regularly found. The transformation of stable expressions is an active, but still insufficiently studied, speech phenomenon.