Binary opposition heaven-earth in Russian and English

Abstract

In the article, the author explores the semantic behavior of representatives of such fundamental concepts as "heaven" and "earth" in the Russian and English language spaces. This binary opposition, despite its ancient origin, demonstrates both interaction with relevant concepts and a tendency to nominate phenomena of a universal or particular nature. The pragmatics of each lexeme is determined not only by the realization of connotative potential, but also by the projection of actual meanings on a fragment of the universe. It should be noted the priority of differential characteristics that verbalize the functionally demanded spectrum of the semantic field. Each semantic derivative of the sky lexeme is characterized by a set of implication connections motivated by hypo- and hyperonymy phenomena. In the logical and meaningful space of English linguoculture, the concept of "sky" implements the values of the visible space above the earth and the equivalent-the religious name paradise, which illustrates the unification of each case of the development of the original meaning by a sign of height, location in the supramundane space. The linguosemiotic variation of the concept of "earth" in the English language picture of the world is associated with its functioning in topographic, legal and agricultural discourses. In the conceptual sphere of the Russian language, the mental unit of the sky provides information of a religious, spatial, physical or climatic nature, while the earth nominates phenomena of an astronomical, administrative-territorial, linguistic, ideal nature. This behavior of each of the pairs allows us to talk about nomination processes motivated by understanding the processes and phenomena of the universe through the prism of naive consciousness, as well as the desire of the language to use existing lexical units to express as many meanings as possible through association mechanisms.