THE ROLE OF THE COMPONENT “FRIEND” IN FORMING SEMANTIC AND CULTURAL LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Abstract

The role of the component “friend” to form semantic and cultural linguistic features of English phraseological units is being considered. With the help of the data of the English-Russian phraseological dictionary edited by Alexander Vladimirovich Kunin and Internet resources, the authors detect 52 phraseological units, in the structure of which the component “friend” is presented. To identify the features of semantics formation of phraseological units with this component, the most productive phraseo-formative semes are being elicited from the definitions of the lexeme “friend” recorded in various English dictionaries. The article provides a classification of phraseological units in accordance with the semes identified as well as the specification of those of them which are most active in formation of phraseological meaning. The seme ‘helpful (supportive)’ reveals the highest level of phraseo-formative ability, while the seme ‘helpful to everyone’ reveals the lowest one. The authors remark on cultural linguistic potential of the studied language units.