Russian Linguistic Bulletin (Jun 2018)

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE IDIOMATICITY AND THE EUPHEMISTIC POTENTIAL OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN ENGLISH (A CASE STUDY OF THE NOMINATIVE GROUP "POOR COUNTRIES")

  • Biryukova, I.A.,
  • Serozeeva, D.N.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18454/RULB.2018.14.2.5
Journal volume & issue
no. 2
pp. 16 – 21

Abstract

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The article deals with the features of euphemisms pertaining to the nominative group "Poor countries". The authors analysed a range of euphemistic units from the news articles published in the early 20th – early 21st century. The analysis revealed that lexical units with high idiomaticity contain more extralinguistic components. It was revealed that the euphemistic potential of phraseological euphemisms could depend on the cohesion of their constituent elements. The authors found out that the less a lexical unit is motivated and the more frequently it is implemented in a constant context, the lower its euphemistic potential is and the more likely it is to be dysphemised.

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