Qualitative Changes in Phraseology: General Principles and Catalysts
Qualitative Changes in Phraseology: General Principles and Catalysts

Summary/Abstract: The article observes the qualitative change of lexical units as a ­natural part of language development process. The authors aspire to explicate the regularities in changes that the meaning of phraseological expressions has undergone. This is performed on the example of phrase läheb nagu lepase reega ’goes as on an alder sleigh’ - an etymologically old and genuine phrase that is popularly used in Estonian dialectal, colloquial and literary language and which semantic meaning has been subject to the largest possible qualitative change. The reconceptualization of the motif can be explained by the context of the image’s formation and the cognitive motivation of motion event.

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