The paper deals with elucidating the semantic changes and pragmatic effects of the precedent phenomenon in modern Ukrainian media discourse. The examples chosen for analysis have appeared within Ukrainian discourse following Ukraine’s independence in 1991. It verbalizes one of the valuable concepts – ‘patriotism’. Taken into consideration is the phrase coined by Yevhen Chykalenko, about “love to the depth of a pocket” with references to its use in contemporary discourse. The research is based on the 13th version of the General Regionally Annotated Corpus of Ukrainian and on the Ukrainian Language Corpus test version. The functional variant peculiarities of this expression are described, and its truncated derivatives and its lexical shifts as well. The difference between the origin of Chykalenko’s phrase and its current modifications is deduced from the semantic-pragmatic point of view. The paper reveals the role the above mentioned phrase plays in the formatting of new expressions. Outlined is the manipulative potential of this precedent expression in the realization of the author’s intentions.