THE PHENOMENON OF VARIABILITY IN ENGLISH PHRASE-OLOGY OF BIBLICAL ORIGIN: USUAL AND OCCASIONAL QUANTITATIVE AND COMPLEX VARIANTS

Bakina A. D.

The problem of linguistic variability remains acute due to the dynamism of national language development. A keen scientific interest in the research of phraseological units of biblical origin in the aspect of their variability is motivated by the high frequency of the use of phraseological units of bib-lical origin in modern communication. The analysis of the numerous phra-seological units of biblical origin identified the following types of variants: simple variants and complex variants; usual and occasional variants. Simple variants are represented by lexical and grammatical variants, also include quantitative variants (with truncation and addition of compo-nents). Contracted parts of a phraseological unit may be represented by three types (truncation of the initial part of the phraseological unit; trun-cation of the final part of the phraseological unit; mixed truncation). A group of quantitative comparative variants is distinguished, in which the first conjunction (as) as a result of regular truncation becomes optional, resulting in quantitative-variative pairs. A type of mixed variation has been identified, implying the origin of variants by multiple modifications. Substantive-quantitative variants are formed by changing the substantive component together with varying the structure of the phraseological unit by expanding it with a variable component with a preposition. Adjectival-quantitative variants are formed as the result quantitative variation (ex-pansion of the structure of the phraseological unit) coupled with the re-placement of the adjectival element.

Keywords:biblical phraseology, phraseological units of biblical origin, phraseological variability, variant, invariant, simple and complex variants, usual and oc-casional variants, quantitative, comparative, mixed variants