The article deals with the phenomenon of syntactic phraseological units, which is insufficiently studied and requires further research. The basic provisions of the theory of syntactic phraseological units are described: different terminological designations of this phenomenon, definition, categorical features, classifications, algorithm for determining the types of these expressions. The main content of the study is the analysis of the functioning of the elements of the scheme “What would I (we) do without you?(!)”. The material for the analysis was the contexts with this phrase, extracted from fiction. The idea is substantiated that the studied expression is a syntactic phraseology and is constructed in accordance with the phraseosyntactic scheme according to the classification of V. Yu. Melikyan. Semantic, syntactic and pragmatic features of the studied scheme are analyzed. The theoretical and practical significance of the work is that the results of the study can complement the understanding of the system of syntactic phraseological units and can be used in the compilation of dictionaries of this kind of Russian expressions. In addition, the results of the study in a pragmatic aspect can contribute to understanding of the use of syntactic phraseological units in dialogues, which is important for the proper use of these units, in particular in the study of Russian as a foreign language.