Ornythonym component and phraseological meaning

Abstract

The paper represents the results of the research into phraseological and paremiological units with ornythonym component. According to the level of complexity of their semantic structure phraseological units are divided into 3 groups. Detecting the status of ornythonym components one should refer to this classification, because these two phenomena, i.e. the level of semantic complexity of the phraseological unit semantic structure and status of its component parts, are closely related to each other. Within the framework of this research studying symbolic meanings different birds are endowed in the English linguistic culture is given appropriate attention too, because most ornythonym components of phraseological units realize their symbolic meaning. Appearance, behavior, relations with other birds and different other characteristics of birds also serve as basis for metaphoric meaning realized in phraseology.