LEXICO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE IDIOMS DENOTING NATURE PHENOMENA

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical-semantic structure of the idioms denoting nature phenomena in the English language. Addressing the issue of the chronotop of the society development enabled not to only characterize the mechanism of the phrasal units evolution and reflected their functionality in speech but also provided basis for adequate interpretation of the lexical-semantic meaning of the idioms. The method of the component analysis, represented in the research, allowed to identify the components that comprise the meaning structure of the idioms, denoting nature phenomena, and trace the way, of how the connotative element transforms into the axiological component that constitutes the image basis, represented in the idiom. The identified components served as the key elements for developing the definition formula of the main action that reflected assossiative links between the realia, represented by the idioms considered and the nominee. The emotional component, that is directly linked to the evaluation of the situations, represented by the idioms, denoting nature phenomena, justified classification of the idioms into two groups: a group of the idioms with positive evaluation and a group of the idioms with negative evaluation. The first group was comprised by the idioms that contained lexems denoting the hosts of heaven. The second one contained the idioms that included lexems denoting precipitation. Thus, the study of the idioms, denoting nature phenomena, once again proved the fact, that the character of the image ground of an idiom is directly connected with evaluation and emotional component. In particular, the associative image, that is constituted by the idioms, denoting nature phenomena is the result of either positive or negative impact of nature phenomena on the people`s lives.