PROVERBS AND SAYINGS ABOUT WEALTH AND POVERTY IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN PICTURES OF THE WORLD

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of proverbs and sayings in domestic and foreign linguistics. Here they are defined, their linguistic status is established, and their place in phraseology is outlined. A particular thematic group of English and Ukrainian proverbs and sayings denoting wealth, material well-being and poverty, material disadvantage is also considered and their linguistic and cultural characteristics are given. Proverbs and sayings reflect the rich historical experience of the people, ideas related to labor activities, everyday life, culture, relations between people and their attitude to certain things and circumstances. Correct and accurate use of proverbs and sayings gives the language a unique originality and special expressiveness. Proverbs and sayings very often transfer from one language to another. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a folk proverb or a saying from a borrowed one, because they often have a supranational character and reflect the “laws of nature”, including the human one. However, a significant part of them correlates with the facts and laws of socio-historical development, social consciousness, mental composition of a certain ethnic group, that is, it belongs to this ethnic group. It is interesting, and nowadays even necessary, to study the culture of ethnic groups through the study of the linguistic embodiment of the experience of peoples. Through the prism of its worldview, each nation perceives life in its own way and transmits its cultural features in language. After all, we live in a time when the mixing of languages and cultures has reached an unprecedented scale, intercultural communication has become relevant, and the problem of understanding actions, deeds, attitudes, assessments, and not just words of representatives of foreign cultures, and fostering tolerance for them through understanding has come to the fore. Proverbs and sayings as a separate layer of folklore, which really embody the thoughts of the people, are fertile material for this. All of the above and even more contribute to a person’s interest in studying this priceless treasure, a whole folklore layer. Many scientists from different countries of the world studied them, but a lot still remains unsolved until the end. That is why our study of the peculiarities of the linguistic embodiment of human thought in the form of proverbs and sayings continues to be relevant.