Semantic Transformation of Biblical Proto-messages in Modern English Political Discourse
The article deals with the research of semantic transformation which Biblical proto-messages undergo in the process of their communicatively secondary realization in English political discourse. There have been singled out three groups of Biblical phraseological units which have different degree of adaptation in language and speech: phraseological units with the similar interpretation in all reference books, phraseological units which differ in shades of meaning in reference books and phraseological units which meaning differ completely in different reference books. The first group of Biblical phraseological units is characterized by the semantic homogeneity both in reference books and political speech. The analysis of the second group of Biblical phraseological units showed the absence of their complete semantic transformation in political discourse except for the widening of their evaluating connotative meaning and lexical transformation. Biblical phraseological units of the third group demonstrate either minimal semantic changes in political discourse or a complete deviation from its primary Biblical meaning, thus undergoing complete semantic transformation in political discourse.