PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS OF ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES: GENESIS AND FUNCTIONING CLUES

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of phraseological conceptualization as a process of cognition and rethinking of socio-cultural meanings with the help of fixed language forms. Synchronous and diachronic analysis allow to trace the changes occurring in the semantic field of Russian and English phraseological units. The paper considers the concept of motivation of phraseological units and its connection with the internal form of phraseological meaning. The processes of transformation of phraseological units that occur during the historical development of society are instantiated. The influence of gender and age criteria on the estimated connotation of phraseological images is demonstrated. It is concluded that phraseological units are special linguistic units that can be compared with a living organism undergoing certain stages. Three stages of the life cycle of phraseological units have been identified: occurrence due to the influence of extralinguistic and linguistic factors, flourishing at which there is widespread use in speech (it is possible to expand the scope), and obsolescence, that is, phraseological units completely cease to be used in modern speech due to loss of understanding those phraseological images with the help of which these phraseological units used to be conceptualized. Practical significance consists in the fact that the results of the study can be used as the basis for further study by linguists of the historical origin of phraseological units, as well as internal and external factors that contribute to occurrence and fixation of phraseological units in speech.