Abstract
The paper deals with the linguistic comparative structural and semantic analysis of English and Russian proverbs with the concept of ‘happiness-unhappiness’ that reflects national and cultural identity and the specificity of thinking of the English and Russian people. The aim of the paper is to explore and show similarities and differences in mentality and perception of the world by English and Russian people. This aim was achieved due to the study of the structural and semantic components and expressive-evaluative components of the proverbs. As a result of the study both common and specific meanings of the Russian and English proverbs were revealed in the languages under consideration. The object of the study is English and Russian proverbs associated with the binary concept of “happiness-unhappiness”. During the analysis the basic meaning of the proverbs were revealed and systematized. The analysis of the phraseological meaning, lexical components, syntactic structures, expressive and emotive connotations, sound organization of English and Russian proverbs made it possible to identify the role of linguistic means in expressing the features of the mentality of the English and Russian peoples.
Highlights
Modern linguistics constantly emphasizes the idea that language is a mean of thought expression, a mean of communication, and a mean of reflecting the world around a man, and expresses the mentality of people, their national character, customs and traditions
The most vividly national and cultural identity of the people is reflected in the phraseological body of a language, in particular — proverbs, which are short, well-defined sayings, containing teachings, advice, edification, judgments and moral appraisals
It is known that national and ethnic proverbs are an integral part of the worldview of peoples, reflection of stereotypes, and the national and cultural identity
Summary
Modern linguistics constantly emphasizes the idea that language is a mean of thought expression, a mean of communication, and a mean of reflecting the world around a man, and expresses the mentality of people, their national character, customs and traditions. Comparative structural and semantic analysis of the proverbs in the English and Russian languages, related to the concept “happiness-unhappiness” allowed to reveal the multisided attitude of the peoples towards this concept. Comparative analysis revealed that the concept ‘happiness-unhappiness’ is more expressed both in Russian and English proverbs through the meaning ‘misfortune’.
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