Comparative Analysis of Russian and Turkish Proverbs that Involve the Concept of “Family”

Abstract

Proverbs are an ancient and known part of folk literature. Wisdom, philosophy, ethical norms, experience and aesthetic ideals of the folk is seen in the proverbs. At the current stage of the development of linguistics, comparative analysis of proverbs in different languages has become increasingly important. This article compares Russian and Turkish proverbs that involve the concept of “family”. Proverbs about family make up a significant group in both languages. Concept of “family” plays an important role in social structure and reflects the collective mind of society. The aim of this study is to compare the semantic features of Russian and Turkish proverbs and to identify their common and national characteristics. During the comparative analysis of proverbs, we aimed to identify the links between the facts of different languages that reflect the common culture of their native speakers and the specific features inherent only to a particular cultural background. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that for the first time the proverbs in Russian and Turkish languages with the component “family” are considered in terms of comparing their semantic characteristics. In the result of the comparison of 155 proverbs (81 Russian and 74 Turkish) involving the concept of “family”, common and national features as well as similarities and differences in their meanings were revealed. The data has been analyzed and presented in four charts.