TYPES OF MOTIVATION OF ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH A COMPONENT DENOTING WEAPONS

Abstract

The article focuses on the cognitive-onomasiological analysis of English phraseological units with a component denoting weapons. The task of the analysis is to identify and describe their motivational types. The material for the study was English phraseological units, in the structure of which one or more lexemes denoting the general concept of weapons, types of weapons, their structural parts and ammunition were found. The methodology for the scientific research was the method of cognitive-onomasiological analysis proposed by O. Selivanova. Having applied the procedures of cognitiveonomasiological analysis to study the motivation of English phraseological units with a component denoting weapons, we distinguished four motivational types among them: associative-terminal, propositional-dictumative, integrativecomparative and mixed. It has been determined that phraseological units of the associative-terminal type of motivation are metaphorical in their nature and semantically oriented to the description of human behavior and psychological states. Phraseological units of the propositional-dictumative type of motivation are metonymic in their features and acquired their phraseological meaning through observations of the use of weapons. The integrative-comparative type of motivation has shown low representation among English phraseological units with a component denoting weapons. The highest degree of representation was demonstrated by phraseological units of the mixed type of motivation, among which five subtypes were distinguished: associative-modal, propositional-associative, propositional-modal, propositional-associativemodal and integrative-comparative-modal. It has been determined that four subtypes of the mixed type of motivation are associated with the mode, which results in the presence of an evaluative-expressive component in the phraseological meaning of such phraseological units. Their semantics acquire a negative connotation, since weapons are a symbol of conflict and aggression.