Author’s phraseological expressions in Dickens’s "Posthumous notes of the peacock club"

A huge number of phraseological aspects came to us from history, closely intertwined with the customs of different peoples and their realities, but most of the phraseological aspects in English are author's turns, meaning that phraseological aspects have a number of specific properties, which distinguish them not only from the phraseological units invented by people themselves, but also from ordinary word combinations. Each language performs its function of organizing the social interaction of people in the process of their life activity [4].

As we see, phraseology is a branch of linguistics, which studies stable word combinations in terms of semantics. Phraseology also includes a set of stable combinations in the vocabulary of any writer or the content of works of fiction. But one should not confuse phraseological units with idioms, as they include units of constant used context, which are characterized by an integral meaning, and the semantically realized element in them is represented by a common lexical composition, for example, face like thunder (to be gloomier than a cloud).

Phraseological units often have a vivid national character, because it is in phraseological units that the history of the nation, folk culture and everyday life is enclosed. The phraseological fund of the English language is a complex conglomerate of native and borrowed phraseological units, since English phraseology includes national and international phraseological units. Kunin A.V. in his well-known works on phraseology identifies the following phraseological units [3]:

• -    native English;

• -    interlanguage borrowings;

• -    intra-linguistic borrowings, i.e. borrowings in a foreign language form, as well as from the American version of English.

One of the main sources of comic atmosphere in the novel "Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club" by C.Dickens is the creation and use of phraseological turns, as they give the work its zest, vivid originality and ironic effect, which makes the work in its own unique way.

In considering the types of phraseological devices that were used by C. Dickens. Dickens, we can distinguish the following: the method of insertion; reception of replacement; reception of double actualization; reception of contamination; reception of convergence.

The method of replacing one or more components in phraseological units, contributes to their renewal, as well as creates different variations on the basis of stable word combinations. So in the phraseology bless one's heart Charles Dickens replaces hearts with eyebrows and adds the word innocent to it:

"Why Sir, bless your innocent eyebrow, that's where the mysterious disappearance of respectable tradesman took place, four years ago" [1].

This adds a humorous effect to the phrase, because innocent eyebrow, translated as innocent, sounds unusually comical in relation to the cowardly Mr. Pickwick and his softhearted friends.

The technique of double actualization of phraseological units is based on a two-step perception: on the playfulness of the meaning of phraseological units and the direct meaning of its variable form. "Also, this stylistic device has different names: destruction of figurative meaning, literalization of phraseological meaning, ambiguous use of phraseological units, reinterpretation of turns and so on" [2].

Dickens describes an episode of a quarrel between a man and his wife, which looks very comical. The author created a humorous effect through the use of the phraseological turnover screw up one's courage, which in this situation works in both the literal and figurative sense: "Mr. Pott winced beneath the contemptuous gaze of his wife. He had made a desperate struggle to raise his courage, but it was quickly coming unscrewed again" [1].

Everything depends precisely on double actualization, whereby the stylistic actualizer becomes the subsequent contextual clarification in the context. In this case, the word Unscrewed is the stylistic actualizer, whereas to screw is its antonym.

We can make a short conclusion, and come to the conclusion that the double perception of the meaning of the components of a variable combination is due to the relevance of these components in some context.

The technique that authors usually use in order to give figurative phraseological units a note of comicism is called the technique of contamination or simply the combination of several phraseological units. Ч. Dickens combined two phraseological units be in high spirits and be in full (high) feather (to be in full parade), and as a result got the phraseology be in high feather and spirits, which in a certain context, that is, in his novel, should be translated as being in a good mood and in full parade: "Mr. Trundle was in high feather and spirits, but a little nervous withal... All the girls were in tears and white muslin..." [1].

The comedy in this context from this type of contamination, is used by the author for a solemn, with a share of nervousness prewedding fuss; in addition, it is a syllipsis that overlaps with another syllipsis to be in tears and white muslin.

The comedy here is that during the trial Mr. Pickwick gives a pompous, pathos-filled speech, piling it with complicated turns, than tries to impress the audience and attract their attention.

For the diversity of the work C. Dickenson used the following phraseological techniques: the method of wedging, replacement, double actualization, the method of contamination and convergence.

The proof of the phraseological convergence came in a whole paragraph of his work: "There appears nothing very tremendous in this little sentence, 'upon my word, Sir,' when it comes to be read; but the tone of voice in winch it was delivered, and the look that accompanied it, both seaming to bear reference to some revenge to be thereafter visited upon the head of Pott, produced their full effect upon him. The most unskilful observer could have detected in his troubled countenance a readiness to resign his Wellington boots to any efficient substitute who would have consented to stand in them at that moment." ... [1].

In this passage, Dickens describes a scene in which the husband accuses his wife of adultery, while she answers him with an angry and contemptuous "However, sir!" and from her heavy stare and tone, the husband loses his resolve. The phraseology to stand in somebody's shoes used by Ch. Dickens in this paragraph is used in several stylistic devices at once: replacing the component shoes with boots; adding the element Wellington (a special kind of boots); moving, combining, or replacing any components; introducing new words.

Consequently, in this example, the contamination of the comic effect of two figurative phraseological units is a means of characterizing a character through his speech. But C. Dickens never limited himself and did not use only one technique for the occasional change of phraseological units. More often he used several, and at times even three techniques in one phraseological context. This technique is called phraseological convergence.

From this article we have learned, the author's turns are one of the main sources of replenishment of the phraseological fund of the language. "Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club" is the very work which leaves a wonderful aftertaste and which cannot be thrown out of our minds for a long time, since the use of a wide range of expressive means is characteristic of C. Dickens' style.