Abstract
During intercultural communication, it is crucial to interpret correctly and to use appropriately foreign idioms which are culturally marked and reflect linguistic and cultural identity of a speech community. Interlocutors should be aware of the cultural and historical precedents that gave rise to the primary image underlying idiomatic expressions and thus created their unique phraseological worldview. The aim of the research is to find out what is a better predictor of correct idiom interpretation - degree of proficiency in a foreign language or degree of genealogical kinship between the native and foreign languages. The topicality of the research is justified by the need for a deeper understanding of linguistic and cultural identity of native and foreign-language speakers, with a view to facilitate and enhance cross-cultural communication. The working hypothesis is that due to the close genealogical kinship between Russian and Bulgarian and the users advanced level of English, the number of correctly interpreted idioms may vary within a statistically significant medium range. The total sample comprises 5000 idioms (2500 English and 2500 Bulgarian ones). The subsample used in the experiment comprises 60 idioms (30 English and 30 Bulgarian ones) selected from The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms and Nov fraseologichen rechnik na bylgarskiya jezik (Нов фразеологичен речник на българския език) by means of stratified systematic sampling. The main methods used in the research include (1) comparative linguistic and cultural analyses, (2) scientific experimentation, (3) systematic and stratified sampling, and (4) a paired t-test. The experimental research and the paired t-test have proved our hypothesis and demonstrated that Russian participants correctly decode more Bulgarian than English idioms, with intergroup variation being statistically significant. Research findings have implications for cultural linguistics. Since translation loans (calques), isomorphic idioms, and idioms dating back to a common source are interpreted more quickly and more accurately than idioms which contain unique or culturally-loaded elements, such as old-fashioned words or proper names, access to cultural precedents that served as prototypes of set expressions contributes to a more seamless code-switching and enables communicants to penetrate deeper the mentality of a specific linguacultural community and thus become aware of the variability of cultural cognition and conceptualisation.
Highlights
Phraseology is justly considered to be one of the most prolific areas of research, which explains why its systematic investigation started to gather momentum in the second half of the 20th century
The paired t-test statistical tool revealed a slight imbalance in favour of the Bulgarian idioms, which is statistically significant at p-value equaling 0.0157952
The Russian participants are all fluent speakers of English, their largely implicit cultural cognition makes them potentially more cross-culturally competent when decontextualized set expressions from Bulgarian, rather than English, are given for interpretation
Summary
Phraseology is justly considered to be one of the most prolific areas of research, which explains why its systematic investigation started to gather momentum in the second half of the 20th century. According to the most conservative estimates (Deignan 2005, Fiedler 2007), every fifth uttered expression is to a greater or lesser extent idiomatic. This suggests that speakers heavily rely on prefabricated items in conveying factual, and evaluative and expressive information. No principal distinction is drawn between the terms idiom, idiomatic expression, set expression and phraseological unit, which are used interchangeably as their differentiation is not the priority of the research. The term idiom will be used by default because it is short, preferred in English, and is frequently used in research on phraseology
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