THE STUDY OF ENGLISH ANIMALISTIC PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN GENDER ASPECT
The article is devoted to the analysis of the phraseological units with animalistic components, in other words, with a component - name of an animal. The authors try to trace the etymological grounds for the gender correlation that some phraseological units with a component - name of an animal appear to have got. On the basis of a definition analysis of the components and phraseological units, taking into account the contextual analysis, the authors come to the conclusion that the correlation of a component -name of an animal with the characteristic features of men and women can be revealed only in a context. Taking into consideration the fact, that in English the category of gender is not so obvious as in the Russian language, the authors of the article prove once again that the context should be of paramount importance while analysing the units with a component - name of an animal. The component “mouse”, actually, can be referred both to men and women. This fact is due to some metaphoric or metonymic transference of a core component - a name of an animal.