PHRASEOLOGISATION OF PRECEDENT PHENOMENA IN THE ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES
Authors:   National University of Water and Environmental Engineering, Ukraine, Potapchuk Svitlana 
Published: November 2023

An important area of contemporary linguistic research concerns language as a reflection of national mentality, worldview, and culture, with specific focus on the consideration of linguistic and cultural categories in non-related languages. The study's object is the precedent phenomena (PP) present in both English and Ukrainian languages, and the research subject is the process of PP transitioning into the phraseological resources of both languages. The purpose of the research is to analyse the ways of transition of the PP (precedent name, situation and statement) into the phraseological fund of the English and Ukrainian languages. The resolution of a research problem dictates the presentation logic of the studied material within the paper. The aims of this study include defining a precedent phenomenon, outlining and detailing the stages of PP transition into phraseological funds of the English and Ukrainian languages, and exposing the specifics of precedent phenomena phraseologicalisation with regards to structural differences. The study methodology is grounded in the descriptive, transformational analysis, component analysis, and comparative methods. These are employed to distinguish between the universal and national precedent names, and to identify similarities and differences in the mechanism by which the PP transitions into the phraseological funds of the English and Ukrainian languages. The analysis of phraseological units with a precedent component indicates that prevalent precedent phenomena originating from mythological, biblical, ancient texts, and prior occurrences are primarily phraseologized, forming the "universal" cognitive foundation. However, the subject of the study is nationally precedent-setting РPs (which are known to an average representative of the Anglo-American or Ukrainian linguistic community and included in the national cognitive base) as representatives of national culture. The research material presents phraseological units of the English and Ukrainian languages containing a component-precedent phenomenon, totalling 125 units (76 units in English and 49 in Ukrainian). The results of the study show that the process of transition of precedent phenomena into the phraseological fund of the language takes place in two stages. First of all, there appears a certain unit (a name, a text) that is fixed in the language and to which native speakers refer repeatedly in the future. A text or a name thus becomes an element of the cognitive base of an average representative of a given linguistic community, i.e., a precedent phenomenon. In the second stage, PP phraseologisation takes place; such a unit is included in the phraseological fund of the language, accordingly it becomes a phraseologism, while remaining a precedent phenomenon. A precedent name (PN) is an individual name associated with a famous text or precedent-setting situation. The structure of a precedent name comprises differential features (the basis of PN perception) and attributes (periphery). The meaning of a phraseological unit with a component-precedent name evolves from a differential feature that embodies the object's characteristics (personality, appearance) or becomes relevant owing to a precedent situation. A precedent situation is an "ideal" situation that took place in real life (historical precedent situation) or one that belongs to the virtual reality of man-made art. The cognitive base stores a set of differential features of a precedent situation, universal for all representatives of a given linguistic and cultural community. Minimised knowledge of a specific situation (historical or virtual), compared to the system of evaluation of ethnicity, becomes the basis for the formation of phraseological units built on the basis of precedent situations. A precedent statement is a product of speech and thought activity, an integral and self-sufficient unit that can be presented as: 1) a precedent text (or part of it), for example, children's poems, proverbs; 2) a linguistic unit (phrase, sentence) related to a precedent situation. Precedent-setting expressions are fixed in the phraseological fund by metaphorising the direct meaning and preserving knowledge about the precedent-setting phenomenon. Practical implications. The practical significance of the work is determined by the fact that the conclusions formulated as a result of the study can be used for further study of precedent phenomena, and the proposed methodology for the study of PP can be useful for the analysis of other linguistic and cultural categories. The materials of the work can be used in the courses "General Linguistics", "English Lexicology and Stylistics", "Linguistic Studies", special courses and special seminars on "Comparative Linguistics", "Intercultural Communication", as well as in lexicographic practice when compiling dictionaries of precedent phenomena. Value/оriginality. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the new theoretical positions of linguocultural studies on precedent phenomena. The characteristics of the onomastic material in phraseological funds and the problems related to the essential features of the nature of precedent phenomena have been further developed.