The inner form of animal English phraseological units as a mirror of the cultural experience of speech community

Novikova O.

The goal of the current work is to study the inner form of animal phraseological units which reflect the long process of the English culture development. The in-depth analysis of 315 English metaphors. proverbs and sayings with fauna images showed that the figurative content of the units in question is the mirror of the cultural and national worldview. Special attention is paid to the etymological meaning of fixed word combinations with erased inner form. The focus on the idiomatic phrase origin allows us both to identify the creative thinking peculiarities of the English-speaking people and to reveal the expressiveness of the language units under consideration. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study zoonym images, which are a valuable linguistic heritage, since they embody cultural and historical worldview of the people, their culture, customs and traditions.

Keywords:cultural linguistics, etymology, imagery, English animal phraseological units, zoonym, inner form.