Communicative and Structural-Semantic Features of Phraseological Units with Tactile Non-verbal Components

Abstract

Human communicative abilities are manifested primarily at the verbal level, but communication is a complex process, an important feature of which is the multidimensional perception of information through the relationship between speakers. Communication is a unity of verbal and non-verbal means, as speech is accompanied by gestures, facial expressions, glances, postures, intonation, etc.

A multidimensional analysis of the non-verbal sphere of knowledge, including issues related to the linguisation of speakers' non-verbal communication, has allowed us to interpret phraseological units with non-verbal components as stable, reproducible combinations of words, characterised by a peculiar structure that depends on kinesic and phonetic components. Phraseological units with non-verbal components are interesting and complex linguistic units that reflect the most diverse spheres of human life and activity. In addition, phraseological units preserve and verbalise native speakers' ideas about the world around them, representing their ethno-cultural and historical experience. Most phraseological units with non-verbal components are characterised by their duality, illustrating the close relationship between verbal and non-verbal fragments of communication.

The research defines the linguistic status of phraseological units with non-verbal components, considers phraseological units as specific linguistic signs that translate non-verbal code into verbal and are peripheral in the general phraseological system of the Ukrainian language. It is shown that stable compounds denoting non-verbal behaviour form a branched group of the Ukrainian phraseological system, which is characterised by multivariate and complex semantic processes.

Phraseological units with tactile nonverbal components are divided into four groups: 1) phraseological units indicating deictic gestures; 2) phraseological units indicating descriptive gestures; 3) phraseological units representing symbolic gestures; 4) phraseological units reproducing reinforcing gestures.