Phraseological Units in German Song Discourse

Abstract

In the modern world, rock music is perceived as a social and cultural phenomenon
and is a powerful tool for influencing a wide audience. In this respect, the study of song
discourse from the point of view of pragmalinguistic features, in particular, from the point of
view of the use of phraseological units in modern song texts composition, is regarded as
curious and promising for further study. The songs of the German rock band Versengold have
been chosen as the research data. In total, 42 song texts from the latest three albums of the
band have been analyzed: Zeitlos (2015), Funkenflug (2017) and Nordlicht (2019) and 78
phraseological units revealed. The selection and systematization of phraseological units has
been carried out by means of continuous sampling, the component and contextual analysis of
phraseological units having been applied. The analysis of the songwriting of the Versengold
band made it possible to reach the following conclusions: phraseological units are seen as
highly informative units of the language, which, on the one hand, are a means of emphasis;
on the other hand, reflect the peculiarities of folk culture, everyday life of people and their
historical development; their use in song texts contributes to the implementation of the main
communicative strategy of song discourse - the impact on the emotional sphere of a
personality. In addition, phraseological units in song texts are often found as part of several
textually significant compositional blocks and perform text-forming functions: the function of
a reference of a phraseological unit, the function of a leitmotif, the function of creating
hidden motivation or creating a circular composition