Theoretical and Methodological Foundations for the Study Understanding and Use by Children of Older Preschool Age Phraseological Units in Speech

ABSTRACT The article presents theoretical approach to phraseological analysis of preschoolers’ speech with taking into account psycholinguistic postulates. The proposed approach provides identification of specific features in mastering and acquiring knowledge in using phraseologisms by preschool children, based on understanding of phraseological units as the most common, primarily for everyday style of speech and expressions. They are important means for studying the speech development of children, laconicity of the child’s individual speech, its imagery, impressiveness, accuracy, and at the same time emotionality and expressiveness, the presence of pearls of national-authorial thought in it. The phraseologisms are considered in the article as a kind of integral macro unit of the multivector and multidimensional phenomenon of metalanguage, analyzed not by elements, but by “units” (L. Vyhotskyi), which are defined as micro units having all the signs of the whole. These are psychological, psycholinguistic and linguistic micro units, different in functions and meanings. The article scientifically substantiates the choice of criteria and indicators of studying the understanding and use of phraseology in speech by the children of the senior preschool age: a semantic criterion with corresponding indicators: lexical – understanding of the semantics of the direct meaning of the words-components of phraseologisms; metaphorical – understanding of phraseological (figurative) meaning; conceptual – the understanding of the content volume of the word-concept – a component of phraseology. Pragmatic criterion with corresponding indicators: activity in using phraseologisms; correctness of their reproduction; appropriateness of phraseologisms actualization in one or the other situation of communication. Expressive-stylistic criterion with its corresponding indicators: appreciation – providing through the used phraseologisms favorable or unfavorable characteristics of objects, people, situations; emotionality - reflection in speech of the mood, emotions, feelings, experiences by means of phraseologisms; figurativeness – the ability to understand and use in utterances the language units that actualize visual-sensory representations