THE AXIOLOGICAL DIMENSIONOF ENGLISH ZOOMORPHIC PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
The paper contains a study of the axiological components of zoomorphic idioms, proverbs and sayings of the English language. Considering set expressions with the conceptual component of DOG as an example, the author shows that this concept, embedded in concrete animal-life situations, serves as a source domain for building a variety of axiological mappings into various domains of human social relations. On the cognitive level, an idiom, a saying, or a proverb is a set of source and target domains. These domains are structured as propositions with an evaluative component, and are connected with each other via metaphorical mappings. On the textual level, the conceptual structure of phraseological units with the component DOG sets an everyday, concrete, easily accessible frame of reference (a perspective) for interpretation of more complicated social events referred to in a text.