IDIOM CREATIVITY IN MODERN ENGLISHIN THE PERSPECTIVE OF DYNAMIC SYNCHRONY
The work is concerned with idiom creativity, in particular with the dynamics of English phraseology at the present stage of its evolution. The research is focused on the creative potentialities of English idioms. Idiom creativity, being involved in the general process of language creative development, can be viewed as a potential variability of idiomatic expressions in their structural plane and semantics, intended to meet certain communicative aims of the speaker in his / her discursive activities. In synchrony, idiom creativity serves to adjust the available language units to the altering conditions of communication, so that they could function effectively. In the historical perspective, any innovation may turn out to be the starting point of a new sign function developed on the basis of an existing language sign. Creativity of conventional idioms proceeds from the mental operations which initiate innovations of verbal structures, yet it would be erroneous to diminish, so the more to disregard the inherent linguistic factors of creativity. Specifically, it is important to take account of the fact that cognitive creativity, which precedes verbal creativity, can be realized only due to certain systemic language tools. Moreover, it relies on the arsenal of nominative means and patterns worked out by the language system throughout its historical development. These considerations are substantiated in the article with illustrations exemplifying the functioning of English and Russian pseudo-equivalent idioms borrowed from the Bible: such units differ considerably not only semantically, but also in terms of their functionality, for they follow different patterns of creativity. The study makes it possible to conclude that idiom creativity is equally stipulated by both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, cognitive and cultural. On the one hand, there’s the influence of the systemic properties of phraseology such as compositionality of idioms’ form and meaning, coordination of idiom dynamics with the overall evolution of the language, the tendency towards balance and regularity of forms, which accounts for the importance of analogy in renovation of phraseology. On the other hand, idiom creative potentialities are largely determined by culture specific mental schemas that shape the nation’s patterns of thinking and underlie the nominative patterns typical of the given language. Such schemas usually reflect most relevant concepts and condition innovative processes in the corresponding segment of phraseology defining their vector and forms. The research also shows that idiom innovations largely follow regular patterns of creativity that combine a particular lexical-grammatical model and an invariant mental structure. Both sides of such a pattern define its linguocultural peculiarity.