National and cultural variety of phraseological units of the English language

The article analyzes national and cultural peculiarities of English phraseological units. The author stresses that English phraseological units are an important source of socio-cultural information. The author notes that extralinguistic factors determine the national specificity of English phraseology. It should be emphasized that national peculiarities of the way of life, mode of life and cultural events are reflected in the phraseology of the English language. The author of the article notes that phraseological units reflecting the peculiarities of historical development of the country, its military affairs, nautical phraseological units and the phraseological units which came into the English language from the Bible make up the most numerous groups of phraseological units with national and cultural components of semantics. The use of Biblical phraseological units makes the speech more expressive and helps speakers to emphasize the most important points of their information. Phraseological units with a “colour” component in their semantics are also widely spread in the English language. The symbolic aspect of the “colour” phraseological units in the English language expresses the mentality of the nation. The author’s conclusions are supported by the examples from the English literature of the 19 th and 20 th centuries. The results of the research show, that peculiarities of using phraseological units in speech and frequency of their use in speech depend on the socio-historical factors and the level of the linguistic culture of speakers.