TAMBOV WOLF. THE PROBLEM OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNIT AND REGIONAL IDENTIFYING SYMBOL

Abstract

Combinations of words with toponymical component pretending to the role of phraseological unit, speech figure, cultural symbol and regional brand are considered. Basing on the rich materials comparing two phrases Bryansk wolf and Tambov wolf it is proved that the conjunction Bryansk wolf has absolutely different history in Russian language of the second half of XX - the beginning of XXI century. The conjunction Bryansk wolf is met rather rarely (36 contexts) and all its history is in repetition of one or two quotations. It is established that the name Tambov wolf belongs to XX century and is fixed in 262 contexts it is with maximum probability connected with folk speech and the events of peasant history, and stylistically it is mostly connected with vernacular, jargon, language culture of hackneyed phrases, borrowed from all available sources. It is becoming widespread in cinema texts where it goes through some transformations both as in written texts. The most early fixation of this word combination with the definite date - 1912 (A.S. Novikov-Priboi “Porchenyy”) let coincide the phrase Tambov wolf not with staging camp but with peasants of Tambov province who were looking for a job and then rebelled.