Ambiguity of the “Woman” concept in French and Ukrainian

Abstract

This article considers the ambiguity of the WOMAN concept in French and Ukrainian. The research investigated the national French-speaking linguistic and cultural community, analyzes the linguistic and cultural concept of WOMAN \ FEMME and identifies its symbolic growth in the French language and culture in general on the example of paremia. In the center of the articles in attention are similar and opposite evaluation units of two linguistic pictures of the world. Based on the dynamic development of language, paremias remain a historical constant activity, managing such power structures as timelessness, stability, imagery, generality, reflection of mentality. In order to understand the meaning of paremia, one sometimes has to expand one’s native verbal puzzle based on an understanding of the philosophy and thinking of the culture or nationality under study. In the comparative analysis of paremias, only literal translation was used by identifying their internal form and identifying similar and different semantic features inherent in language units in selected languages. Comparing the analysis of proverbs and sayings that create the tokens FEMME and WOMAN / WIFE, it was found that in both Ukrainian and French paremiology there is a clear layer of paremias, which represents not only the least attitude towards women, but he praises it. Both nations, emphasizing female beauty, cunning, attribute to women the image of the devil. For the French, a woman is a strong creature who has both physical strength and endurance. Men and women always have the strongest feeling – love. In the course of the analysis of the realization of the concept WOMAN \ FEMME on the materials of French and Ukrainian adverbs many commonalities are revealed, in particular, in those created for love. The differences relate to the characteristics of women. The material we studied allowed us to identify a number of metaphorical stereotypes characteristic of the French and Ukrainian languages, as well as communities and individuals that point to life in different linguistic pictures of the world.