PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS AS EXPLICATORS OF A SPEECH ACT IN THE TEXTS OF RUSSIAN BUSINESS WRITING OF THE 17th–18th CENTURIES

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of phraseological units (PU), the main component of which are procedural and performative verbs, indicating certain actions as a process. These units are considered on the basis of the monuments of business writing of the Russian language of the 17th–18th centuries. The author substantiates categorical features and peculiar features of use and describes the illocutionary-perlocutionary function of the objects of study: lexicalized combinations, phrasemes and set phrases. The attempt of a comparative analysis allows us to see specifi c features in them and to discover the peculiarities of their use in the business language, even though they are everyday colloquial speech units. The point of view is given that some examples covered by lexicalization should be called procedural phraseological units. The originality of the internal form and fi gurative basis contribute to these units of speech to acquire idiomatic, phraseological, and most importantly, lexical indivisibility. As a result, the whole expression acquires stability in the composition of the components and a generalized meaning, phraseological semantics, which, due to the nature of the internal form, the presence of additional shades and expressive-evaluative coloring. From the point of view of the communicative-pragmatic content of statements, the analyzed phraseological units clearly convey certain types of speech act. The types of dependence observed between the components of units are lexical, paradigmatic, syntagmatic and semantic. The sender uses fi xed phrases both according to traditional rules (introduction to speech, message), and according to the mechanisms of consciousness that produce thinking: judgment, conclusion, expression of will. The author concludes that, fi rstly, the thematic component of this communicative situation is the offi cial business appeal of the petitioner, who clearly has a motive and desire to achieve the result of the message; secondly, the studied texts of letters and petitions are telegrams and friendly letters, therefore, the studied units of speech are used in texts in order to fulfi ll the goal of the petitioner’s appeal, as well as the goal of communication of both the addresser and the addressee