Phraseological unit and periphrasis: concerning the problem of linguistic status correlation

The article is devoted to the consideration of formation features of phraseological units, semantic structure. Exploring language material of a phraseological dictionary, the author of the article proves that the fundamental trope for all phraseological units is periphrasis, the on ground of the opinion that shaped phraseological meaning is based on the transfer of the meaning (trope) and with the help of figures of speech. In this regard the article shows the comparison of phraseological unit and periphrasis as linguistic phenomena.