The dissertation studies the features of verbalization of concept of FRAU in the German language by means of phraseological units in the linguoculturological aspect.
The concept that appears as an image in the consciousness of a person is subsequently abstracted to different ideas and notions and is generalized and preserved in the cultural memory of an ethnic group or a nation. Herewith, the phraseological units play a significant role in the language representation of the concept, as they reflect the system of values of a certain nation, as well as convey cultural stereotypes from one generation to another. Idioms are common to all languages of the world, but have their own special forms of expression.
The categories and definitions were identified as well as the concept research methodology based on the material of phraseological units was determined; the semantics and the structure of the studied units were described; the lexemes were analyzed, which are the key in the formation of phraseological units and represent concept of FRAU allowing to create a nominative filed of the studied concept; the conceptual features, integrated in the phraseological units of German language were characterized, taking into account the impact of cultural, historical and natural factors on the content of the concept; gender stereotypes were determined that influence the formation of concept of FRAU in German language; common and specific features of concept of FRAU were specified, based on the meaningful cultural contexts and connotations of the idioms in German language.
The concept of FRAU is represented as one of the basic concepts in the minds of German language native speakers. This concept has a complex structure, thereby one and the same idiom can represent several elements of the conceptual structure due to the variety of conceptual features that are made actual by the phraseological unit in language.
Cultural and historical, social and economic as well as natural factors have had the impact on the development of the phraseological unit, making a projection of stereotyped image of a woman as a personality with certain social qualities and features formed as a result of family, sexual, social, ethical, aesthetic and other roles.
The research has revealed the following basic microconcepts with vivid characteristics of femininity: «Description of woman’s appearance”, including such segments as "Biological characteristics" and "Appearance"; the microconcept of «Inner world of woman” with such segments as "Psychological characteristics" and "Intellectual abilities"; the microconcept of “Social dimension of a woman”: “Marital status”, "Relations with others", "Social status".
In each of the segment the most frequently used lexemes, which characterize a woman, were analyzed. A woman became the object of comparison with animals, plants, weather phenomena, and hell. Many parallels were drawn between a man and a woman, in which the dominant role almost always belonged to a man.
The results of the study revealed the structure of the concept of FRAU as well as the transformations, the ways of developing gender stereotypes in the German-speaking world. It is identified, that the image of a woman in phraseology is a result of dynamic historical process, due to the complex interweaving of internal and external ethno-cultural factors that include religious and worldview characteristics and peculiar features.
