Linguo-cultural studies of phraseologisms in Russia: past and present

Abstract The present paper looks into the history of linguo-cultural studies of phraseology within the Russian phraseological tradition as well as highlights some key peculiarities of their present development. The discussion dwells on the most important facts that characterize the specifics in terms of which the Russian thought has evolved from the 18th up to the 21st centuries in the understanding of phraseologisms as culture-dependent formations. The mainstream approaches engaged in the analysis of different ways of the ‘culture – phraseology’ interaction are outlined. The paper focuses more specifically on one of such approaches. It describes the major theoretical tenets elaborated within the linguoculturological approach to phraseology – an innovative area of investigation evolved in Russia at the end of the 20th century. Special attention is paid to the application of the linguoculturological principles of analyzing phraseologisms to the practice of dictionary-making. The specifics of representing the cultural information in “The Large Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language” is described in the given paper.