Phraseology and Figurative Language: Some Basic Concepts and Future Prospects

Phraseology as a distinct linguistic subsystem and the domain of figurative language share common ground, and they are often perceived in popular discourse as nearly identical. However, they are far from being the same. Phraseology—especially as understood today—constitutes a vast and intricately structured part of language, where figurativeness is characteristic of only some phrasemes, i.e., phraseological units. While the notion of figurativeness is intuitively clear, it remains especially difficult to define precisely. It is often associated with metaphor and metonymy, which, though partially correct, is insufficient: metaphorical transfers and metonymic shifts only occasionally give rise to figurative expressions. This study aims to clarify the relationship between phraseology and figurative language and, more importantly, to outline future directions in phraseology research, particularly that tied to the image component inherent in the semantics of many phrasemes. Additionally, it addresses several related issues, including: the interplay between figurativeness and idiomaticity the role of idiomaticity in shaping different classes of phrasemes criteria for identifying conventional figurative expressions in language A key focus is developing methods for analyzing the semantics of figurative phrasemes (especially idioms) and examining the underlying conceptual images that often govern not only their actual meaning and semantic associations but also their discursive behavior.