Russian Fraseologisms in Aspect of Quantitative Linguoculturology: Corpus-discourse Analysis of Idiom ‘iz kozhi (von) lezt’’

This paper examines the evaluative potential of the Russian phraseological unit iz kozhi (von) lezt’ ( to go out of one's way ) within the framework of quantitative cultural linguistics. The specific features of the phraseological unit's speech realization, revealing various reflexes for inducing evaluations of different signs through the immediate and extended contextual environment, are analyzed. The author's method of corpus-discourse analysis is employed. The study material consists of dictionary definitions of the idiom in explanatory and phraseological dictionaries of the Russian language, as well as the contexts of their use in the Russian National Corpus. The total material volume is 462 contexts in 417 texts from the main corpus. The meaning of the phraseological unit in lexicographic sources is defined as ‘to try hard, to be zealous’, without any indication of any evaluative value. However, the analysis of the corpus data revealed a significant predominance of contexts of negative-evaluative use of the expression. Even when it is acknowledged that the nominated participant is making an effort to achieve positive goals, the very fact of excessive effort is interpreted negatively by the speaker. The authors came at a conclusion of national conditonedness toward negative evaluations of Russian phraseological units expressing the idea of excessive expenditure of effort, or unjustified overstepping of the norm in the performance of an activity.

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