IDIOMS WITH A SOMATIC COMPONENT IN POLITICAL MEDIA DISCOURSE (BASED ON ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES)

Dahi Lama, Popova Evgeniya A.

The article is devoted to identifying the features of stable expressions with a component of body parts in English and Russian-language media discourse on political topics. As part of the study, it defines the concept of “political media discourse”. The idioms under the study are considered in from the point of view of their conventionality and creativity when transmitting information and evaluative connotations. The article investigates metaphor as a phenomenon through which both conventionality and creativity are actualized in discourse. Particular attention is paid to the possibilities of translating somatic expressions from English into Russian. Despite a number of differences in the functioning of somatisms in the two languages, the article concludes that they contain a universal conceptual metaphor “the state is an organism” and its subtypes, expressed with the names of body parts.

Keywords:political media discourse, idiom, somatic component, metaphor, conventionality, creativity