The multifaceted nature of the study of biblical phraseology today is due, on the one hand, to the ambiguity and insufficient study of biblical phraseological units, on the other hand, to their active use and frequent reproducibility in different types of discourse. Moreover, their study requires the involvement of several approaches, such as structural-semantic, linguocognitive and cognitive-discursive, linguocultural, and finally, functional. In this respect, the relevance of the presented problem is beyond any doubt. Designating the study of functional specificity of the phraseological units of biblical etymology, presented in the contexts of political communication as the aim of this study, we offer a comprehensive coverage of issues related to the specifics of communication in the political sphere, in particular the analysis of approaches to the definition of the notion of publicistic discourse, its key characteristics and ingredient features, consideration of the functioning of phraseological units of biblical origin and their usual and occasional variants. The methodology of this study is determined by the purpose and scientific hypothesis, which implies the identification of a representative corpus of examples of political discourse contexts, containing biblical phraseological units, performing the leading persuasive function. The research methods are as follows: the method of phraseological identification and phraseological description proposed by prof. A.V. Kunin, the contextual method, the method of lexico-semantic analysis, the search corpus method. The results of the research allow concluding the following: biblical phraseological units are a separate microsystem, biblical phraseological units are actively used in oral and written speech of native speakers in different types of discourse due to their polyfunctionality and variability, in political discourse biblical phraseological units are used in the function of persuasion. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time a systematic study of biblical phraseology in English and Russian on the example of their functioning in the texts of political discourse. The currently available works are few and sporadic. The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility of using the data obtained in the classroom as part of the disciplines Fundamentals of First Foreign Language Theory, English Language Stylistics, special course English Language Phraseology.
biblical phraseology, political discourse, usual and occasional variants, specificity of functioning, function of persuasion
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