Abstract
<jats:p>In Ukrainian dialectology, researchers pay special attention to the identification of phraseological units, their component composition, types of ethnocultural information they accumulate, comparison and interpretation of localised phrase contexts. On the basis of studying the use and spatial distribution of phrasemes denoting the concept of ‘never’, on the material of narratives and dictionaries, it has been determined that the sphere of human life associated with the understanding of the fluidity and cyclicality of life, the impossibility or unreality of certain events, phenomena, abstract concepts is very complex, multidimensional and often encoded. Realised in different linguistic conditions, phraseological units metaphorically nominate the concept of ‘never’ in different ways: natural, physiological, historical, religious and folklore. The application of the method of structural-semantic and semantic modelling of phrases made it possible to determine the main ways of motivating their internal form (figurative specifiers for domestic animals, birds, relief, somatisms, etc.), to identify the ethno-cultural connotation of the units.</jats:p>