USE OF LANGUAGE CORPORA FOR VERIFICATION OF SEMANTICS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Abstract

The article considers the potential of corpus linguistics as an empirical method of modern linguistic research, highlightsits advantages for phraseological studies and outlines the possibilities of using the Internet as a linguistic corpus. Computer-mediated communication demonstrates a peculiar combination of features of oral and written speech,which is explained by specific parameters of the channel and means of communication (electronic text, hypertext,multimedia, interactivity, simultaneousness, variability in the number and explicitness of communicators). The functioningof communicative and expressive phraseology in asynchronous Internet communication is defined as one of the constituentsof this mediolect. Phraseological units of this type are considered as a functional field of phraseological expressivesand communicatives.The rich illustrative material revealed the wide and often linguistically creative use of the studied phraseological units,including units with pronounced national and cultural specifics, in the modern German-language media space. Theseunits not only embody the background knowledge common to this linguistic community, but also, given the specificsof their meaning and emotional and expressive color, convey a common “background” humor, express the commonalityof emotional and evaluative worldview.The phraseological unit Jetzt schlägt’s dreizehn! was chosen for the empirical corpus check. In lexicographic sources,semantic and translational equivalents are based on associations with both “extremity” and danger (symbolic component)with an obvious negative emotional and evaluative semantic component (indignation).The study analyzed 40 contexts of using this unit in online media articles. The lexicographically codified meaningof something transcends all boundaries, causing outrage was found only in 13 cases, in 10 of which there is a doubleactualization of the idiom meaning (explication of the number thirteen). The number thirteen was associated witha “superstitious” interpretation of it as dangerous in 5 other contexts, but in spite of this, good news was announced. Inmost of the analyzed case examples (22) the use of Jetzt schlägt’s dreizehn! turned out to be unexpected: the numberthirteen is combined with the announcement of a positive event without explication of its symbolic interpretation. Thephraseological unit acquires the meaning something incredible becomes possible; the decisive moment has come.Analysis of 40 usage contexts of Jetzt schlägt’s dreizehn! in the messages on the forums confirmed the uncharacteristiccreative language use of phraseological expressives and communicatives in asynchronous communication in comparisonwith the texts of professional journalists. In 35 messages, this unit is used in its lexicographically codified meaning. In5 cases Jetzt schlägt’s dreizehn! conveys joy, a pleasant surprise and acquires the meaning something incredible becomespossible; the decisive moment has come.The possibility of applying this method in phraseographic projects is argued.