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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.7
How to Cite:
Terekhova, S., Mykhailenko, V., Stasiuk, T., Kazakevych, O., & Lytvynko, O. (2023). The role of phraseologisms in shaping
stylistic peculiarities of scientific texts. Amazonia Investiga, 12(72), 80-90. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.7
The role of phraseologisms in shaping stylistic peculiarities of scientific
texts
Роль фразеологізмів у формуванні стилістичних особливостей наукових текстів
Received: October 30, 2023 Accepted: December 28, 2023
Written by:
Svitlana Terekhova1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7473-9399
Viktoriia Mykhailenko2
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6620-0441
Tetyana Stasiuk3
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6815-0000
Olena Kazakevych4
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2224-0860
Oksana Lytvynko5
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2241-3776
Abstract
The aim of the study was to analyse the role of
phraseology in shaping stylistic peculiarities of
scientific texts using the Ukrainian language as
an example. Quantitative, descriptive, statistical,
comparative, hermeneutic, contextual analysis
and close reading methods were used in the
analysis. The specifics of the study is the focus
on scientific texts in the field of literary studies,
which enables a broader vision of the functions
performed by phraseological units in the studies.
Phraseological units are classified into 5 main
groups according to lexico-semantic function
and notional words: indicative, related to career
and social connections, related to religion,
related to philosophy and culture, and related to
time and space The results demonstrate the
indicative function of the phraseological units in
the text — conveying information to the readers
and focusing their attention on the key points of
the study. The academic novelty of the research
is the use of the texts on the Humanities due to
1
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Department of Eastern and Slavic Philology, Department of Germanic and Romance
Languages, Kyiv National Linguistic University, Кyiv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: GFT-8010-2022
2
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Lecturer, Department of Foreign Literature and Fundamentals of Rhetoric, Communal Higher
Education Institution «Vinnytsia Humanities Pedagogical College», Vinnytsia, Ukraine.
3
Doctor in Philology, Associate Professor, Professor, Head of Department of Philology, Faculty of Accounting and Finance, Dnipro
State Agrarian and Economic University, Dnipro, Ukraine.
4
PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of Philology, Faculty of Accounting and Finance, Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic
University, Dnipro, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: JFB-2898-2023
5
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign languages, Faculty of Biology and Technology, Sumy National
Agrarian University, Sumy, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: GLS-8943-2022
Terekhova, S., Mykhailenko, V., Stasiuk, T., Kazakevych, O., Lytvynko, O. / Volume 12 - Issue 72: 80-90 / December, 2023
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the appeal to images that are universal for the
readers’ minds as examples of the use of
phraseological units in a scientific style.
Prospects: Further studies may diversify the
sample of materials for the analysis of the use of
phraseological units in scientific style in general,
and in interdisciplinary studies on the
Humanities in particular.
Keywords: phraseological units, notional word,
lexico-semantic groups, interdisciplinarity,
linguistics, literary studies.
Introduction
Relevance
The relevance of the research is determined by
the need to analyse the lexico-semantic load and
stylistic functions of phraseological units in
scientific texts on Literary Studies. This study is
aimed at contributing to the understanding of the
nature and functions of phraseological units in
interdisciplinary research in a scientific style.
There is an essential need to define
phraseological units. In the article on the concept
of phraseological units, Masimova singles out the
following universal features of this type of
lexemes: 1. Unmotivated word-groups; 2. Cannot
be invented independently in speech;
3. Reproduced as ready units; 4. Structurally
stable; 5. Demonstrate the stability of lexical
components; 6. Reproduced as indivisible
unchanging phrases (Masimova, 2018, p. 11-12).
However, a distinctive feature of different
phraseological units is interchangeability of their
parts. The central one is the notional word, the
dependent parts may or may not be
interchangeable. Figurative phraseological units
are idioms — “linguistic expressions, the
meaning of which is not equal to the sum of the
meanings that form their components”
(Masimova, 2018, p. 12). Nominative
phraseological units are idioms centered around
a meaningful word, which can be a noun,
adjective, adverb, or verb. Communicative
phraseological units used in proverbs and
aphorisms can be singled out among them. At the
same time, phraseological units are neutral, and
idioms have a more aphoristic shade.
Gobbo (2019) defines phraseological units from
the perspective of constructive linguistics. Social
convention contributes to the categorization of
linguistic constructions that can be formed into
phraseological units. “For this reason, human
languages can be described as collections of
constructions” (Gobbo, 2019, p. 79).
Constructive linguistics considers constant
combinations of words in several aspects, in
particular, as a result of: 1. Grammaticalization –
the syntactic process of organizing lexical
elements of the language; 2. Lexicalization – the
formation of stable sayings, idioms, as well as
other types of phraseological units, “language
game, portmanteaus (words, the meaning and
phonetic sound of which combine the meaning
and phonetic sound of several words), dynamic
metaphors and, in general, creative language
use” (Gobbo, 2019, p. 79).
Idioms have a clichéd nature, because
phraseological units are phrases, the elements of
which can change, provided preservation of the
key meaning of the original phrase. For this
purpose, Gobbo (2019) describes the so-called
“trees of phraseological unity”, variations of
phrases in which changes may occur according to
mathematical modelling. “In the field of
semantics and pragmatics, CxAdGrams have
been applied to discourse analysis of therapeutic
conversations, through the representation of
Searle’s speech act theory of social world
construction from the perspective of pragmatic
customers” (Gobbo, 2019, p. 80). The relations
between the elements of phraseological units are
not equal and are characterized by asymmetry,
because there are also disproportionate relations
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between the main and dependent parts in
phraseological units similar to the structure of a
word combination, where there are main and
dependent words.
In a practical aspect, the researcher demonstrates
the use of constructive linguistics and
phraseological units in it using Esperanto as an
example — an artificial language created for
international communication, which is referred
to as the so-called “planned languages” —
languages whose fundamental structures arose
before their introduction into use (another
example is Latin) (Smolnytska, 2016). As a result
of the ideology of ethical neutrality — the
attempt to universalize artificial language to the
general standards of most languages of the world,
the formation of tokens in a figurative sense, in
particular, phraseological units in it is the result
of choosing those figurative meanings of tokens
that are common in most countries of the world.
“On the other hand, many of the phraseological
expressions found in spoken Esperanto are
derived from Europeanisms — unities that are
commonly present in most European languages”
(Gobbo, 2019, p. 84). In this context, we can
mention the work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980),
which emphasizes that idiomatic expressions in
European countries are usually universalized due
to the common understanding of various life
values by Western European people. “The view
that we have access to absolute and unconditional
truths about the world is a cornerstone of the
Western tradition” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980,
p. 195).
Bouherar (2020) uses a communicative approach
in defining phraseological units. A researcher
compares statistics provided by students before
and after taking language courses. As a result of
the fact that not only the lexical and logical
(idiom meaning and contexts of word use), but
also encyclopaedic levels (associative series that
arise in the perceiver in connection with a
particular idiom individually) are essential for
the study of idioms, it is extremely important to
learn the language of the target culture (the
culture that is the subject of study for foreigners)
on the same level as learning the language of the
native culture (home culture). The example of
interviews with members of a student group from
Algeria was used to demonstrate that appealing
to examples from the target culture during classes
aimed at studying idioms contributed to a better
understanding of the meanings of idioms,
because the commonality of the context in which
the explanation is carried out is essential for
learning the material. “This suggests that
indigenous cultural assumptions can contribute
to a better understanding of idioms when
integrated into the classes” (Bouherar, 2020,
p. 45). Therefore, the communicative approach in
the institutional study of linguistics, in particular,
idioms, contributes to the establishment of a
dialogue between cultures.
The specifics of the scientific style are accuracy
and avoidance of figurative language. However,
phraseological units, especially phraseological
units and phraseological combinations are an
integral part of any style of the expression of
thoughts. This is determined by the need to
investigate their influence on the stylistics and
lexical load of the texts.
Unexplored Issues
The need to analyse which groups of
phraseological units are used most often in the
scientific style and to outline the indicative
function they perform in the texts currently
require research and thorough study.
Accordingly, the academic novelty of the work
consists in the selection for the analysis of
phraseological units in the scientific style of
studies from the field of the Humanities —
Literary Studies. The underlying reason is that
researchers usually choose only texts in the field
of exact sciences as an illustration for the
analysis of lexical phenomena in a scientific
style.
Aim
The aim of the study is to analyse the role of the
use of phraseological units in shaping stylistic
peculiarities of scientific texts using the
Ukrainian language as an example.
Questions/Objectives
The aim involved the fulfilment of the following
research objectives.
1. Analyse the corpus of scientific texts:
articles published in Ukrainian literary
publications.
2. Classify selected phraseological units
according to lexico-semantic groups and a
key notional word.
3. Analyse the frequency of use of certain
phraseological units in the selected corpus.
4. Describe the lexico-semantic load, stylistic
and semantic functions of phraseological
units in the selected corpus.
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Literature Review
Masimova (2018) concludes about emotional
expressiveness as the most characteristic feature
of phraseological units, and about the greatest
correspondence of phraseological units to
journalistic style.
Gobbo (2019) considers the application of
computational linguistics to the analysis of
phraseological units with the conjunctions in
artificial languages created for universal human
communication, mainly in the field of technical
sciences. The researcher defines constructive
linguistics as a field of science that studies
knowledge in the field of the Humanities based
on stable constructions, paradigms of language
use (Gobbo, 2019, p. 78). The idea of this
direction is to perceive language as a purely
utilitarian mechanism in terms of obtaining
information. Accordingly, constructive
linguistics combines the approaches of
mathematics and linguistics. Cognitive science
emphasizes the study and conceptualization of
patterns of human behaviour that are reflected in
speech and texts of different genres and are
repeated since human socialization itself takes
place on the basis of learning and repeating
linguistic constructions after other individuals.
Bouherar (2020) continued the topic related to
the study of idioms of the assimilator culture in
the process of linguistic globalization. In his
study, he proves the high effectiveness of
studying idioms for cross-cultural
communication using quantitative and
qualitative research.
Sułkowska (2023) analyses contrastive
linguistics and applied phraseology, outlining
phrase didactics and phrase translation as new
progressive areas of research that can be applied
to the analysis of phraseological units. Singleton
and Leśniewska (2021a) also work in the
direction of interdisciplinary research. Their
article Phraseology: Where Lexical and Syntax
Conjoin deals with the interpretation of
phraseology as a science where various linguistic
layers are united thanks to the presence of
notional words and clear patterns in phraseology.
Computer linguistics is used to directly analyse
idioms in works of scientific style. The article by
Hubers et al. (2020) shows the basic principles
and principles of learning idioms at the L2 level
in a CALL environment and traces the principles
of learning fixed expressions in a cross-lingual
environment.
Attention is also paid to the stylistics of the
scientific text when using certain phraseological
units. Larsson et al. (2022) analyse the frequency
of use of idioms in scientific texts, the function
of which is to draw readers’ attention to a certain
process or phenomenon.
Ramonda (2019) investigates foreign language
learning by analysing understanding of idioms of
other languages by native speakers of English
through comparing information about the
meaning of certain idioms obtained through
reading encyclopaedia texts and their meanings
in practice. Zheng et al. (2022) analyse the
understanding of Chinese idioms and non-
idiomatic formulaic sequences by foreigners. In
particular, the researchers consider the process of
replacing some idioms with other idioms or with
words from everyday use by foreigners in oral
speech.
Wang and Kaatari (2021) study the specifics of
using formulaic sequences in scientific texts.
Such factors as type of text, academic subject,
personal preferences were taken into account
when choosing certain formulaic sequences.
Methods
Research Design
Research materials are scientific articles
published in Ukrainian literary publications -
Academic Notes of NaUKMA, Literary Studies
and Ukrainian Literary Studies (Ivan Franko
National University of Lviv) for 2016-2023.
These materials are written in a scientific style,
but, taking into account the specifics of the field
of research, they also contain elements of artistic,
journalistic, and memoir (in quotations used to
illustrate biographies of writers) styles. Those
scientific articles were selected due to their
potential for a demonstration of the use of the
phraseological units for different academic
purposes in the scientific texts - from the
indicative function to the intertextual appeal to
the cultural and literary sources.
Phraseological units selected from the corpus of
texts are grouped according to notional (key)
words and their meaning. This classification
takes into account both the functions of the
phraseological units in the texts and the sources
of their origin. So, thne criteria given to
differentiate the phraseological units and
catalogue them are quite universal. Accordingly,
phraseological units are categorized according to
semantic groups and the function they perform in
a scientific text (e.g. establishing an indicative
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function, expressing an antithesis, appealing to
universal archetypes). Quotations with
phraseological units used in the context of the
study are also given. The limitations of this
research include a representativeness of the
selected corpus of texts and possible biases in the
identification and classification of phraseological
units.
Methods
The descriptive method (grouping and
systematization of the analysed lexical units) and
contextual analysis (the study of phraseological
units in the context of their use in scientific
articles) are basic in the analysis. In addition,
elements of statistical analysis are used (counting
the frequency of use of phraseological units with
certain notional words classified by lexico-
semantic groups). A comparative method was
also used (comparison of the semantic features of
the use of phraseological units in scientific
articles). In view of the specifics of articles on
Literary Studies, the hermeneutic method (the
analysis, which involves a perception of the text
as a compex unity, and also analysis the dialogue
of the author with the readers) and the method of
close reading (a detailed analysis of the given
quotation in different contexts) are involved in
order to trace the influence of phraseological
units on the nature of the scientific style and to
give the texts more expressiveness. The outlined
methods imply attention to “specific textual
examples” and direct observation of textual
elements. Attention is paid directly to the
analysis of texts and the meanings acquired by
phraseological units in the proposed contexts.
The choice of the outlined methodology and
materials is determined by the interdisciplinary
nature of the research, which involves the
analysis of the influence of phraseology on the
specifics of the scientific style. The journals of
two higher educational institutions were selected
for a more thorough understanding and a more
accurate representation of which phraseological
units and idioms are most often repeated in
scientific texts on Literary Studies.
Ethical Criteria
All sources were analysed in accordance with the
principles of academic integrity and the absence
of plagiarism. The citation complies with the
copyright of all authors of the analysed sources
and literature. The irreplaceability of the cited
sources was observed during the research. The
journals are publicly available on the websites of
higher educational institutions, and therefore, no
programmes that violate the copyright were used
when reading the texts.
As a result of the application of these methods,
phraseological units used in literary articles in the
journals Academic Notes of NaUKMA and
Ukrainian Literary Studies (Ivan Franko National
University of Lviv) for 2016-2023 are grouped
by lexico-semantic meanings. In general,
phraseological units are classified into 5 groups
according to meaningful words and lexico-
semantic load: 1). Phraseologisms performing an
indicative function; 2). Phraseologisms related to
career; 3) Phraseologisms related to religious
discourse; 4). Phraseologisms related to the
philosophical and cultural world;
5). Phraseologisms to indicate temporality.
Results
The first important group of phraseological units
are phraseological units that perform an
indicative function - they draw our attention to a
certain phenomenon, in fact, to the object of
observation. This group of phraseological units is
characteristic of the scientific style, which
involves the analysis of phenomena based on
consideration of the research topic. In texts on
Literary Studies, we observe a significant
number (10 in the given sample) of
phraseological units with the notional word
увага/attention: увагу зосереджено/attention is
focused (Panforova, 2022, p. 108), звертає
докладну увагу/pays detailed attention
(Panforova, 2022, p. 110), багато уваги
дослідниця приділяє/the researcher pays a lot of
attention (Panforova, 2022, p. 111), більшу
авторську увагу/more authorial attention
(Ageyeva, 2022, p. 26), не хотів брати до
уваги/did not want to take into account
(Ageyeva, 2022, p. 30), основну увагу
приділено/main attention was paid (Snizhynska,
2020, p. 117), акцентував увагу/focused
attention (Horblianskyi, 2020, p. 6), приділяє
особливу увагу/pays special attention
(Panforova, 2022, p. 112), заслуговують на
увагу/deserve attention (Horblianskyi, 2020,
p. 10), скеровують увагу/direct
attention (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 110);
рамки/limits: донедавна обмеженої певними
етнічними рамцями/until recently confined by
certain ethnic limits (Lysyi, 2020, p. 59),
скованими жорсткими рамками/bound by
rigid limits (Lysyi, 2020, p. 61), звільнення з
«жорстких рамок»/release from rigid limits
(Lysyi, 2020, p. 61), роль/role: неабияку роль у
романі М. Пруста відіграє мистецтво/art
plays a considerable role in M. Proust’s novel
(Snizhynska, 2020, p. 117), роль для історії/a
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role for history (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 113). The
phraseological units мати рацію/to be right
(Grabowski & Pezik, 2023, p. 10), відточувати
формули й твердження/to perfect formulas and
statements (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 29), царство
розуму й чіткого розрахунку/kingdom of
reason and clear calculation (Ageyeva, 2022,
p. 29) are also used.
Furthermore, a significant number of
phraseological units related to career and social
connections are used in the analysed scientific
texts. In case of careers and types of human
activity, the characteristics of people based on
their profession or social class are most
frequently used: службової ґвинтикової ролі в
суспільному механізмі/official cog role in the
social mechanism (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 30),
людина-ґвинтик/cog person (Ageyeva, 2022,
p. 31), робочої сили/labour force (Drozdovskyi,
2017, p. 110). The phraseological units used to
indicate the dynamic process of career
development are also common: підйом по
щаблях соціальної драбини/climbing the social
ladder (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 28). Finally, in this
semantic group we can see phraseological units
related to a person’s attitude to financial well-
being and accumulation: забезпечив собі
фінансову незалежність/secured financial
independence (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 33), культ
грошей/the cult of money (Borysiuk, 2022, p.
37). In addition to the perception of a person
based on his/her material position only, lexemes
are also used to denote power здобувають над
Сванном повну владу/they gain full power over
Swann (Snizhynska, 2020, p. 117), системи
контролю над владою і знаннями/systems of
control over power and knowledge
(Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 108), перебуває при
владі/is in power (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 112),
влади, яку мають/power they have
(Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 113), прагнення
влади/striving for power (Drozdovskyi, 2017,
p. 114), розвиток капіталістичного
споживацтва та стосунки зі структурами
влади/the development of capitalist
consumerism and relations with government
agencies (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 114) and social
dynamics (the notional word is гра/game:
інтелектуальні ігри/intellectual games (Lysyi,
2020, p. 60), іграшки зовнішніх сил/games of
external forces (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 32), зіграло з
нею злий жарт/played an evil joke on her
(Ageyeva, 2022, p. 30), etc.
A special place is occupied by phraseological
units related to religious discourse, in particular,
to Abrahamic religions, which are used in the text
on Literary Studies to illustrate the disclosure of
the motives of the actions of the main characters
and transformations in their lives. The appeal to
the Bible as a universal source of archetypes of a
representative of Western culture makes it
possible to understand the inner evolution of the
heroes (скуштувати плодів із дерева
пізнання/tasting the fruits of the tree of
knowledge (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 28), наріжними
каменями/cornerstones (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 30),
хліба насущного/daily bread (Ageyeva, 2022,
p. 34). We observe the use of constant
expressions as from the Old, as well as from the
New Testament. «Проте наріжним каменем
протистояння між старою та новою
естетикою є не так зображення селянства…,
як передусім опозиція
самодостатності/утилітарності мистецтва, що
її виокремлюють чи не всі дослідники цього
літературного періоду»/However, the
cornerstone of the confrontation between old and
new aesthetics is not so much the image of the
peasantry... as primarily the opposition of self-
sufficiency/utilitarianism of art, which is singled
out by almost all researchers of this literary
period (Borysiuk, 2022, p. 36); Ідеальне
послуговується для свого вираження
особливою формульною мовою, здатною не
так описати світ, як сотворити його заново
– в іпостасі втраченого раю/The ideal uses a
special formulaic language for its expression,
capable not so much of describing the world as
of creating it anew — in the guise of a lost
paradise. (Borysiuk, 2022, p. 36); Є.
Маланюкові судився його хрест, якого він
нестиме усе життя позаукраїнським
Вавилоном, але з Україною в серці./Ye.
Malaniuk was bound to his cross, which he will
carry throughout his life in non-Ukrainian
Babylon, but with Ukraine in his
heart (Vasylyshyn, 2016, p. 42). It is also
interesting to use the symbolism of numbers in
phraseological units, in which it is difficult, at
first glance, to trace biblical borrowings: Пані
Вердюрен посадила Сванна біля Одетти на
час прослуховування гри піаніста, і коли всі
навколо почали ототожнювати сонату
Вантейля зі Сванном та Одеттою,
усвідомлення єдності цієї символічної трійці
прийшло і до Сванна…/Mme. Verdurin sat
Swann next to Odette while listening to the
pianist play, and when everyone around began to
identify Vantheil’s sonata with Swann and
Odette, the awareness of the unity of this the
symbolic trinity came to Swann as well...
(Snizhynska, 2020, p. 118). The concept of the
святої трійці/holy trinity (God the father, God
the son, and God the holy spirit) is replaced by
the concept of the символічної трійці/symbolic
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trinity, because religious mythologems are
integrated into most discourses.
Scientific texts also have phraseological units
that are related to the philosophical and cultural
world and are allusions to the approaches and
concepts of thinkers. The notional word
культура/culture unites 14 phraseological units
(phraseological fusions, unities, conjunctions,
aphorisms, etc.) listed in the articles:
культурного світу/the cultural world (Lysyi,
2020, p. 53), людину культури, ідею
культури/the person of culture, the idea of
culture (Lysyi, 2020, p. 55), безпам’ятство
безкорінної глобальної культури/the
memorylessness of the rootless global culture
(Lysyi, 2020, p. 55), культурну
пам’ять/cultural memory (Lysyi, 2020, p. 55),
мандри індивіда культурами/the journey of an
individual through cultures (Lysyi, 2020, p. 57),
способом транскультурного буття на
перехрестях культур/the way of transcultural
existence at the crossroads of cultures (Lysyi,
2020, p. 58), переходи з культури до
культури/transitions from culture to culture
(Lysyi, 2020, p. 58), мозаїкою відвідуваних
ними культурних світів/a mosaic of cultural
worlds visited by them (Lysyi, 2020, p. 59),
культурну когорту/cultural cohort (Lysyi,
2020, p. 59), культурної орієнтації/cultural
orientation (Lysyi, 2020, p. 60), чим
досконаліше володіє людина рідною мовою,
тим вищі стіни в’язниці-культури, які вона
для себе споруджує/the more perfect a person is
in his native language, the higher the walls of the
prison culture that he builds for himself (Lysyi,
2020, p. 61), визволення з обіймів
культури/liberation from the embrace of culture
(Lysyi, 2020, p. 62), культурні
установки/cultural attitudes (Borysiuk, 2022,
p. 38).
Another multi-meaning word is світ/world,
which in phraseology usually means the
inclusion of a person in a particular culture. In the
analysed articles, there are 28 phraseological
units with this key component: громадянином
всесвіту/a citizen of the world (Lysyi, 2020,
p. 54), світовому громадянстві/world
citizenship (Lysyi, 2020, p. 56-57), світ
реального і світ уявного/the world of the real
and the world of the imaginary (Borysiuk, 2022,
p. 36), модерністську віру у здатність
мистецтва змінити світ утрачено/the
modernist faith in the ability of art to change the
world has been lost (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 29),
координатами світу є безкінечність і
вічність/the coordinates of the world are infinity
and eternity (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 32), появи на
світ, не із нашого «світу» came into the world,
not from our “world” (Snizhynska, 2020, p. 118),
автор за допомогою художніх образів
словесності створює музичне полотно
світу/the author creates a musical canvas of the
world with the help of artistic images of
literature (Snizhynska, 2020, p. 120), увібрала в
себе тонке світовідчуття/took up a subtle
sense of the world (Snizhynska, 2020, p. 120),
створює світ, просякнутий
мистецтвом/creates a world saturated with art
(Snizhynska, 2020, p. 118), художньо-
поетичний світ Є. Маланюка/the artistic and
poetic world of Ye. Malaniuk (Vasylyshyn,
2016, p. 37), поринути у світ
майбутнього/plunge into the world of the
future (Vasylyshyn, 2016, p. 38), світ проблем
і своє індивідуальне обличчя в афоризмах/the
world of problems and one’s individual face in
aphorisms (Horblianskyi, 2020, p. 7), поезія – у
сполуках слів, старих, як світ/poetry - in word
combinations, old as the world (Horblianskyi,
2020, p. 9), картину всесвітньої катастрофи,
цілий світ фактів і спостережень/a picture of
a global catastrophe, a whole world of facts and
observations (Kravets, 2022, p. 45), наштовхне
світ на повторення/will lead the world to
repeat itself (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 110), etc.
Phraseological units related to philosophy, in
particular, to existentialism, are also used:
Виокремлюючи чотири найважливіші події
свого життя, першою називає сам акт
народження, наголошуючи цілковиту
випадковість цієї закинутости в існування,
закинутости, яку інтерпретує як насильство
інших/Singling out the four most important
events in his life, he names the act of birth itself
as the first, emphasizing the complete
randomness of this abandonment in existence,
abandonment, which he interprets as the violence
of others (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 32). Отже, його
вибір – добровільне припинення страждань,
те філософське самогубство, на яке з різними
мотиваціями зважувалися кілька персонажів
української літератури/Therefore, his choice is
the voluntary cessation of suffering, that
philosophical suicide, which several characters
of Ukrainian literature attempted with different
motivations (Ageyeva, 2022, p. 32) is a category
of A. Camus’s philosophy, which means one of
the ways to cope with the absurdity of the
surrounding existence, along with historical and
metaphysical rebellion. We can also observe the
use of phraseological units of ancient origin: Він
вважав себе лише ремісником, затисненим у
прокрустове ложе газетним поденником,
який відгукується на злобу політичного дня,
ні на мить не забуваючи, що пише перш за все
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для цензора/He considered himself only a
craftsman, trapped in a Procrustean bed by a
daily newspaper, who responds to the malice of
the political day, not forgetting for a moment that
he writes primarily for the censor. (Ageyeva,
2022, p. 31). Finally, we see literary allusions to
fixed sayings from famous works of art (e.g.
мефістофелівсько-іронічного
темпераменту/Mephistophelian-ironic
temperament (Horblianskyi, 2020, p. 10).
The fifth important lexico-semantic category is
phraseological units to indicate temporality —
the relationship between time and space.
Typically, time-related phraseological units
indicate a linear vision of history and the
possibility of social or individual change
between past, present, and future. For example:
минуле нероздільно поєдналося з
теперішнім/the past is inseparably combined
with the present: (Snizhynska, 2020, p. 118),
розпалює минуле в теперішньому/ignites the
past in the present (Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 110),
вносити зміни в хід історії/to make changes in
the course of history (Drozdovskyi, 2017,
p. 114), втраченого часу і втраченої
пам’яти/lost time and lost memory (Ageyeva,
2022, p. 27). Phraseological units related to space
also indicate phenomena at the junction of
different realities. Альтернативним сценарієм є
такий, у якому «повернення» (через пам’ять)
до минулого може впливати на теперішнє та
майбутнє, детермінуючи їхнє розгортання
одразу за кількома можливими
сценаріями/An alternative scenario is one in
which the “return” (via memory) to the past can
affect the present and the future, determining
their launch at once in several possible scenarios.
(Drozdovskyi, 2017, p. 110). Спогади
стирають реальність… Спогади
накладаються, заплутуючи час/Memories
erase reality... Memories overlap, confusing time
(Snizhynska, 2020, p. 118).
Table 1.
The most used phraseological units in the analysed articles written in a scientific style by lexico-semantic
meaning
Lexico-semantic meaning
Notional world
Occurrence in the analysed material
Indicative
attention
10
limits
3
Career and social connections
power
6
game
3
Religion
-
6
Philosophy and culture
culture
14
world
28
Time and space
past
4
present
3
future
5
The tabled material gives grounds to draw a
conclusion regarding the variety of functions
performed by phraseological units in texts on the
Humanities. The semantic load of phraseological
units used in texts performs a significant number
of tasks — from the basic indicative function to
an appeal to cultural archetypes in the readers’
minds.
Discussion
As a result of the research, the phraseological
units used in scientific articles were categorized
by lexico-semantic groups. What this article has
in common with the latest studies of phraseology
in a scientific style is, first of all, the
categorization of phraseology by groups and
subgroups.
Similarly to the methodology of this study,
Pichette and Gagné (2022), Bouherar (2020) and
Gobbo (2019) use quantitative methods to
visualize data on the frequency of use of certain
phraseological combinations and the
effectiveness of studying phraseological units in
the educational process. Besides, in the earlier
research, Pichette et al. (2019) analyse the
phraseological units in the specific
communicational context - in a connection with
the gender issues. As in this study, Masimova
(2018, p. 12) groups phrasal conjunctions into
categories. Although, in contrast to this article,
the author of the study groups phraseological
units not by semantic load, but by parts of speech
–substantive, adjectival, adverbial, verbal
(Mardanova, 2023). Similarly, Sułkowska
(2018) also classifies phraseological units by
groups. However, the main classifications she
refers to are word-forming (derivative) features
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of phraseological units and their translatability in
cross-lingual communication. Larsson et al.
(2022) also distinguish 5 semantic groups of
fixed conjunctions that perform an indicative
function: it is * to (it is interesting to), it is *
that (it is clear that), the * of the (the importance
of the), the * that (the fact that), and one of the
* (one of the major).
Hubers et al. (2020) and Díaz (2022) focus more
attention on the use of the comparative method,
characterizing the use of idioms in the context of
language learning (using the examples of Danish
and German). Zheng et al. (2022) similarly focus
their analysis on the Chinese language and the
learning Chinese idioms by foreigners. Ramonda
(2019) also focuses on learning certain idioms by
foreigners in the study. However, the
methodology is different from that used in this
article, because the author applies statistical
analysis by forming a sample through student
surveys. In our analysis, the experimental part is
based on the study of written texts.
Singleton and Leśniewska (2021b) and Estival et
al. (2023) analyse the impact of idioms on the
lexical level of language from various
perspectives: grammatical, lexical, and lexico-
grammatical, which has something in common
with this study, where attention is paid to the
transformation of the lexical level of language in
a scientific text with the help of phraseological
units.
Finally, Kaatari et al. (2022) investigate the use
of formula sequences in scientific text. Similar to
this article, attention is paid to the analysis of the
semantic load of phraseological units.
As we can see, the key common feature of this
article with similar studies is the use of a
quantitative method to categorize phraseological
units according to their functions. However, the
difference between the studies is the perspectives
used and the criteria for categorizing
phraseological units into groups according to
language levels.
The limitations of this research are the size of the
sample of the proposed sources, as well as the
style of literary history research determined by
their interdisciplinary nature. The choice of the
studies on the Humanities as a source of analysis
of the use of phraseology in a scientific style
implies the risk of shifting the focus from a
purely scientific style to the interdisciplinary and
cross-stylistic research.
Recommendations: in order to avoid the
limitations of this article, it is recommended to
study the scientific texts not only on the
Humanities, but also on the exact sciences. This
will make it possible to form a wider sample and
more general conclusions regarding the
peculiarities of the use of phraseological units
and the diversification of their semantic groups
in a scientific style.
Conclusions
The relevance of the work is in the analysis of the
lexico-semantic meaning of phraseological units
in scientific texts on the Humanities and the
focus of the research on interdisciplinary
analysis. Research findings: the phraseological
units used in scientific texts in the journals
Academic Notes of NaUKMA, Literary Studies
and Ukrainian Literary Studies (Ivan Franko
National University of Lviv) were classified into
groups by meaning and stylistic functions in the
text. Applications. The results of the study will
contribute to a broader vision of the lexico-
semantic load of phraseological units in scientific
texts, because the study focuses specifically on
idioms in the texts on the Humanities, in contrast
to the traditional use of examples from texts on
the exact sciences in other studies of a similar
topic. Prospects for further research. Further
studies can focus on the analysis of not only
lexico-semantic and stylistic, but also syntactic,
word-forming, phonetic features of the use of
phraseological units in scientific texts on the
Humanities. Comparisons of the use of
phraseological units in Ukrainian texts on the
Humanities with texts in other languages can also
be made.
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