Conflictogenic Potential of English Phraseology

Abstract.

CONFLICTOGENIC POTENTIAL OF ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGY

Iryna Harbera

Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavic Philology, Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: In phraseological units, as a unique, peculiar figurative and evaluative verbal fund, information is stored about the sociocultural experience of the nation, in particular its attitude to conflicts, rules of conduct in them, ways to resolve them. Therefore, the problem of studying the role of phraseological units in the creation, deployment and completion of a conflict situation is relevant for modern linguistics.

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to determine the conflictogenic potential of English phraseology. To do this, it is necessary to complete the following tasks: 1) to describe the key semantic features of the concept of «conflict»; 2) on their basis, make a selection of the corresponding English phraseological units (plus the contexts of their use), which most clearly and vividly describe one or another feature of the conflict interaction; 3) to draw a conclusion about how great the conflictogenic potential of English phraseology is.

Results: The main explanatory dictionaries of the English language define the following as the key qualifying features of the conflict: argument, disagreement, fighting. The selected English phraseological units describe mainly such aspects of conflict interaction as confrontation, contest, disagree­ment, discussion, dispute, dissension, enmity, fight, misunderstanding, skirmish, struggle, etc.

Discussion: The conflictogenic potential of English phraseology is exceptionally large. In the future, we plan to compile a complete ideographic classification of phraseological units that describe various aspects of conflict interaction.

Keywords: English phraseology, conflictogenic potential, linguistic conflictology, phraseolo­gical unit.

Vitae

Iryna Harbera is Ph.D. in Philology, Assistant Professor of the Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavic Philology, Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University, Ukraine. Her areas of research interests include English phraseology, linguistic conflictology, linguoculturology, psycholinguistics.

Correspondence: iryna.harbera@gmail.com

Article.

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