IMAGES OF HUNGER, SATIATION AND THIRST IN THE MIRROR OF ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN PHRASEOLOGY. Article 3

Abstract

This publication is the final, third article of the thematic cycle Images of feeding/eating food in the mirror of English and Ukrainian phraseology. It is devoted to the problem of figurative understanding and phraseological description of the processes (including causes and consequences) of CONSUMING food or drinks. The material considered by us offers the possibility of ethnocultural comparative analysis of two unrelated societies — Ukrainian-speaking and English-speaking ones. Based on A. Maslow’s thesis about the basic level of needs in the phylogenetic development of a person as a biological and social being, namely the need to quench hunger and thirst, the phraseological funds of both languages, which are focused on seeing exactly these needs, are considered. It has been proven that phraseological units (PhU) of gustatory semantics verbalize the deep cognitive model AGENT FEEDS THE PATIENT SOMEHOW and its mirror second half PATIENT CONSUMES SOMETHING (FOOD/DRINK) SOMEHOW. This publication highlights exactly this second half of the specified cognitive model. The purpose of this study was to investigate the phraseological fund of a language as certain clots of cultural heritage, cast into a figuratively transformed patterns of idioms, phraseological units, proverbs, sometimes maxims, i.e. prescriptions of ancestors, which they passed on to their descendants regarding the correct worldview and successful functioning in the surrounding world. The total sample is quantitatively distributed unevenly between the two languages, the English component is twice as small as the Ukrainian one: 117 English PhUs and 265 Ukrainian PhU. The semantic component CONSUMPTION is verbalized by 13 verbs in English and 28 in Ukrainian, which indicates a greater sensitivity of Ukrainian speakers to the semantic nuances of the process of consuming food and drinks (them being excessive or insufficient, approved or critically regarded by the speaker who nominates the phenomenon). It was found that the English-speaking sample is more focused on reflecting universal, philosophical aspects of life, while the Ukrainian sample is more “home-centric”, the state of hunger and thirst in the Ukrainian-speaking sample is reflected much more broadly and more emotionally than in the English-speaking sample, overeating is a frequent object of mockery and criticism of Ukrainians, which in no way coincides with the dominant code of political correctness in modern Western culture. The analyzed material testified to a certain role of alcoholic beverages in the lives of representatives of the two ethnic groups, both ethno-specific and cross-cultural customs and traditions were revealed, the presence of English-language PhUs regarding drug use was recorded, which is not observed in Ukrainian-speaking PhUs. In conclusion, let us emphasize that gustatory phraseology of any language reflects not only the processes and customs of FEEDING / CONSUMING something edible, but a much wider spectrum of human existence: personal and social relationships, philosophical interpretations of human needs and limitations, moral prescriptions and prohibitions. In the end, we will repeat the thought of Socrates, with which we started this series of articles: “One must eat to live, not live to eat.”