Phraseological Units in the Tagalog Language and Ways of Their Classification

Abstract

The research of Tagalog phraseological units contributes to the study of almost all spheres of private and social life of the Tagalogs, their national and universal human values. One cannot claim complete language proficiency in Tagalog without knowledge of its phraseological units. The article deals with the methods of identification of Tagalog phraseological units and ways of their classification on the basis of different criteria: (1) affiliation of the key word to a certain part of speech, (2) origin, (3) topics, (4) degree of semantic fusion. The first three criteria have already been used in the classification of Tagalog phraseological units whereas the last one is used for the first time. This classification based on the degree of semantic fusion was introduced by V.V. Vinogradov for the analysis of Russian set expressions. This research proves the universal character of this classification and possibility to use it for the description of the Tagalog phraseological units as they possess the features of semantic fusion similar to those of the Russian set expressions. Most of phraseological units are based on metaphors and can be described using methods of cognitive linguistics. It’s possible to group them in target domains and determine their source domains that facilitates understanding of mental and perceptive peculiarities of the Tagalog native speakers. Four target domains (“intelligence”, “stupidity”, “beauty” and “ugliness”) are analysed in the article and their source domains are detected. Thus the research shows that analysing Tagalog set expressions one can use different approaches that reveal various aspects of such complex phenomenon as phraseological units.