In the thesis the object of study is phraseological units in the Russian language which name a human being. A phraseological unit is defined in the larger relationship, in distinction from narrow view of phraseology (only phraseological fusions, phraseological unities, collocations) as 1) phraseological units which are in the form of a sentence or different clauses of everyday speech; 2) phraseological units which are in the form of word-groups. Thus, we understand that the larger relationship of phraseology is everything which is not a word and can be reconstructed for its future use. This criterion is usual: all non-predictive or predictive word combinations, which are reflected in the language due to usage, are phraseological units. In other words, we classify all fixed word groups regardless of their characteristics as an object of phraseology.
The aim is to identify features of the researched concept, the ways of their manifestation and means of representing human character.
Research methods. The study of language material was conducted using both general scientific (analysis and synthesis) and actual linguistic methods (component and contextual analysis).
Theoretical value of the research centers around the closer definition and development of the main provisions of the conceptual and linguocultural approach to the part of the structural organization of the concept, the study of the peculiarities of the correlation between elements of this linguocultural concept and semantics of phraseological units, and therefore searching for the answer how culture is reflected in a language, what cultural information linguistic units carry. The obtained conclusions will contribute to the deepening of knowledge of linguistic world view, unique features of ethnical mentality. The results of the investigation of the concept of a human being according to the phraseology of the Russian language may help to analyze other concepts as well.
The practical relevance of the thesis is determined by the fact that the attained results of the research will be applied in the lexicographic practice for lexicographic descriptions and construction of the phraseological, common-language, etymological, ethnolinguistic, ethnographic dictionaries. The theoretical principles will be used in the studies of not only philological direction but ethno-psychological, folklore, pedagogical, etc., while teaching courses in phraseology, ethnolinguistics, cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics. The actual material gives an opportunity to expand the semantic base of the Russian language phrasemes, it might be useful for preparation of textbooks for students of the philology faculties and students of the general education institutions, while working on the course papers and master’s degree projects.
The scientific novelty of the dissertation research is to substantiate a systematic approach to the study of the semantics of phraseologisms; in the combination of semantic and linguocultural analysis of phraseologisms to describe the linguistic and cultural semantics of phraseologisms; in generalization of mechanisms of phraseogenesis. The scientific novelty of research also consists in a new, integrated approach to the study of phraseological units (including proverbs, sayings, eloquent expressions and so on), including additional data of the anthropocentric paradigm not only from linguistics, but also from cognitive linguistics, linguocultural studies etc., in other words, disciplines that appeal to national linguistic awareness and problems of linguistic thinking.
Directions for future research. The study of anthropocentric phraseology in linguo-cultural, cognitive and semantic aspects not only replenishes and deepens phraseology with new knowledge, but also outlines the directions for further research, such as a detailed study of discourses specific for an image-concept of “a human being” and related strategies and tactics of the communicators’ linguistic behavior, comprehensive study of phraseologisms in discursive and pragmatic aspects, issue of the semantic phraseological fields overlapping, position of phraseology in the aphoristic world-image.
