The article examines how recurrent evaluative lexemes organize stable phraseological combinations in present day English. The study combines nucleological selection, contextual sampling and lexicographic verification. The analysis shows that a limited set of central adjectives and adverbs forms productive zones of judgment, intensity, certainty and stance. These combinations are significant for English lexicology, phraseology, translation and university teaching.

Lexical nucleology, English phraseology, evaluative vocabulary

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