PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS DENOTING ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN: SEMANTIC AND STRUCTURAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of phraseological units in contemporary German denoting the state of alcoholic intoxication. Special attention is paid to their semantic, structural, and motivational features, as well as to the specific character of their internal organisation within the corresponding phraseosemantic field. The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a more profound investigation of phraseology as a sphere of secondary nomination reflecting linguistic mechanisms of conceptualising reality. The aim of the article is to identify the main semantic groups of phraseological units representing the state of alcoholic intoxication, to clarify the principles of their internal classification, and to analyse the motivational basis and figurative models underlying their meaning. It has been established that the units under study form an integral subsystem with nuclear and peripheral zones. The nuclear part is constituted by phraseological units directly denoting the state of intoxication and differentiating it according to the degree of intensity, whereas the periphery includes units denoting the process of alcohol consumption, its consequences, and the evaluative interpretation of this state. Gradation has been shown to be an important principle of the internal organisation of this corpus. Particular attention is given to the inner form of phraseological units and the motivation of their imagery. It has been found that the meaning of such units is shaped through semantic reinterpretation involving deactualisation of the direct meaning of components, metaphorisation, and associative transfer. The material includes both phraseological units with synchronically transparent motivation and units with obscured etymological motivation. The analysis has shown that the figurative representation of intoxication in German is based on productive metaphorical models that ensure the semantic integrity and expressiveness of these units. The results of the study may be used in further research on phraseology, semantics, linguocultural studies, and translation studies.