LINGUOCULTUROLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGIcal units WITH A NUMERICAL COMPONENT IN RUSSIAN AND ARABIC LANGUAGES

Abstract

The article analyzes Russian and Arabic phraseological units with a numerical component which are a universal code of the culture. Lingoculturological analysis revealed both common and specific features of numerical symbols in the worldviews of Russian and Arab peoples. There are examples of identical and totally different images in the basis of a phraseological unit. The most frequent numbers in the Russian linguoculture are “one”, “two” and “seven”, while in Arabic linguoculture they are “one” and “two” and to some extent “five”, “seven”, and “ten”. Most similar are phraseological units representing symbolic meanings of “one” and “two”, as these numbers have a universal meaning (one is the beginning, unity, integrity and superiority; two is contradiction, opposition, complementarity). Cultural and national identity is caused by the use of specific culture codes typical of the nation and reflecting the realia, historical experience and religious beliefs. Synonymous phraseological units may have different evaluative semantics (for instance, the equivalent of the Russian expression “стричь под одну гребенку” (tar with the same brush) has a positive connotation in Arabic as it is used in the sacred Muslim text). Some phraseological units are based on the peculiarities of writing (“ноль без палочки” - a zero without a one in Arabic is “ноль слева” zero on the left). Among the analyzed lexemes phraseological units with a numerical component emphasizing negative qualities of a person or an object are more frequent, which is the similarity of the Russian and Arabic phraseology; many of the analyzed units refer to slang or colloquial language.