Kvalitatiivsed muutused fraseoloogias: olemus ja suunajad

The article observes the qualitative change of lexical units as a natural part of the language development process. The authors aspire to explicate the regularities in the changes that the meaning of phraseological expressions has undergone. This is performed on the example of the phrase läheb nagu lepase reega ‘goes as on an alder sleigh’ – an etymologically old and genuine phrase that is popularly used in Estonian dialectal, colloquial and literary language and whose semantic meaning has been subject to the largest possible qualitative change. The reconceptualization of the motif can be explained by the context of the image formation and the cognitive motivation of the motion event.