THE NOTION AND CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

The main purpose of the study is to describe the nature of the phraseological units and the criteria for their clasification. Concerning the goal, the following tasks are set and fulfilled: the terms such as phraseologism, idiom are studied and described, the criteria for the allocation of phraseological units are reviewed as well as the different criteria for the selection of phraseologisms. All this allows us to form a theoretical basis for further analysis. The article highlights the features of phraseological units, identifies the criteria and their classification. The difference between the terms “idiom” and “phraseologism” is shown. The structure of phraseologisms is characterized. Criteria of stable expressions are their idiomaticity, stability (morphological, syntactic, lexico-semantic and stability of use) and word equivalence. Phraseologisms occupy an intermediate position between words and free word groups. It is noted that, on the one hand, they have features of words, and on the other hand – features of free word groups. That’s why they are sometimes difficult to distinguish. Additionally, it is stated these difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that the expressed properties of phraseologisms are expressed in various idioms in varying degrees. These difficulties are also manifested in various classifications of phraseological units, which were disassembled in this article. In our article were used such scientific methods as the method of vocabulary definitions, the descriptive method and the method of analysis in order to give the definitions of terms idiom and phraseology, to describe the criteria for classification of phraseological units and to analyze different thoughts on phraseology definition.