Phraseological Units with Temporal Meaning in Modern Russian Journalism
The article considers peculiarities of semantics and functioning of temporal phraseological units. The relevance of the research is the following: the phraseological corpus of any language is specific, it contains knowledge of culture of a particular people, where a considerable part of it is phraseological units with temporal meaning. These phraseological units are represented by a large amount of units. Relying on a narrow conception of phraseology we will not consider proverbs. The phraseological corpus under consideration contains more than 140 phraseological units. The article analyses phraseological units denoting duration of action and event. Phraseological units of this group are similar in terms of the integral seme “duration”, but have different structural characteristics. In terms of structure this phraseo-semantic group is divided into three sub-groups: temporal phraseological units denoting duration of action or event with the indication of beginning of action or event (since Adam and Eve, from olden times, since Adam was a boy, from the cradle, since one was knee-high to a grasshopper, from childhood, from the outset, from the start); temporal phraseological units denoting duration of action or event (mere hours (days), for a solid hour, the whole century, a very long period of time); temporal phraseological units denoting duration of action or event with the indication of completion of action or event with different connotations (until one gets grey hair, to the last moment of one’s life, until one’s last day, forever and ever, through all eternity, to the Greek Kalends, till the crack of doom). The research focuses on the semantic similarity and difference of phraseological units within each sub-group, their cultural connotations and situational use. The analysis of Russian temporal phraseological units functioning in publicistic texts will allow one to define peculiarities of their usage, reveal universal and national-specific understanding of time.