The Rearrangement and Shift of the English Multi-Word Units

  • O. M. Alexeeva T. O. Anokhina V. A. Kovalchuk
Keywords: MWUs, COCA, shift and rearrangement, neo, mimesis

Abstract

The modern linguistics has a wide variety of approaches to describe the natural language meanings. In our research we rely on the corpus-based approach to offer a particular way of looking at Multi word units (MWUs) change, creation and rearrangement. The paper presents the insights into form changes and shifts of meaning of MWUs using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) friendly interface. The shifted MWUs outlined in the paper are regarded as the secondary units where the actual meaning is changed, modified or erased. The operations of semantic deviation is described in the light of shift and rearrangement demonstrating mimesis when the initial meaning of MWUs can be partially modified or removed. The semantic shifts are viewed as the secondary and the post-secondary changes. In the process of semantic deviation, the old meaning of the modified figurative expression is deleted and the brand new conceptual unit appears.

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Published
2020-12-06
How to Cite
V. A. Kovalchuk, O. M. A. T. O. A. (2020). The Rearrangement and Shift of the English Multi-Word Units. Scientific Journal of National Pedagogical Dragomanov University. Series 9. Current Trends in Language Development, (20), 5-15. https://doi.org/10.31392/NPU-nc.series9.2020.20.01