Biblical Lexical Items vs Biblical Phraseological Units: Specifying the Notions (Based on English and German Texts)

Abstract

This article discusses the problem of delimiting the notions of biblical lexical item and biblical phraseological unit within the framework of studying the formation and development of biblical phraseology as a separate branch of general phraseology. The author believes that biblical phraseology should to be considered as an independent research area due to the progressive development of the study of phraseology in general, as well as the growing interest among scholars in phraseology of biblical origin and pertinent research materials that have accumulated over the past two decades. To begin with, the paper specifies the status of the biblical phraseological unit as a phraseological unit. Further, the definitions of the above-mentioned notions are analysed and a typology of biblical lexical items and phraseological units of biblical origin is developed based on a review of scholarly works dealing with various aspects of biblical lexical items and biblical phraseological units. Examples of the use of biblical lexical items and biblical phraseological units in English and German texts are provided as illustrations. The research methods applied here include analysis and synthesis, generalization and hypotheticoinductive method; comparative, contextual, and classification methods, as well as analysis of definitions, phraseological identification, and phraseological analysis. The author concludes that biblical lexical item is a broader notion, which includes biblical phraseological units. Biblical lexical items are numerous and diverse in terms of composition and can be presented in the form of multi-level linguistic units (from a word to a sentence), while biblical phraseological units are structured as fixed expressions, from a phrase to a sentence. Thus, a biblical phraseological unit is defined as a fixed reproducible linguistic unit in the form of a phrase or a sentence, having integrity of nomination and integrity of meaning that is etymologically related to the Bible. It is emphasized that the specificity of phraseological units of biblical origin is manifested at the formal, content and functional levels.