Representation Features in the National Cultural Content of Concepts Good and Evil

Kanykey Boronova,Aiburak Shaimkulova,Gulzat Bolotakunova,Toichubek Kabylov,Gulipa Madmarova,Gulmira Ergeshova,Zhypargul Abdullaeva,Roza Mashieva

doi:10.4236/ojml.2021.114048

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of verbal representations in the concepts of good and evil in Russian and Kyrgyz linguocultures. Proverbs, as one of the basic units of the culture of the people, allow analyzing basic concepts, which precisely explain concepts of good and evil. In most occasions, the concepts of good and evil are same among all people understanding in the world. Some differences can arise in the cultural and historical traditions of the ethnos: lifestyle, historical development, religion, culture and mentality. These differences make it possible to explore specifics in a particular ethnic group, to penetrate mentality, to determine priorities and stereotypes. Of course, this is revealed only in comparison with the linguistic material of other people. The conceptual analysis allows us to make detailed descriptions of concepts in different languages. We believe that a person is initially inclined to do good, about which paremias in all nations are talking about. Humankind can create evil under the influence of any circumstances or difficulties. The borderline between good and evil is rather arbitrary: what is good for one person may turn out to be evil for other people. We believe that good and evil are not two opposed concepts, but one antonymic concept, where the corresponding concepts are not always strictly delimited. Most of the proverbs based on people’s ideas are about good and evil. Over time, new values appear in the consciousness of a person and society. What was good a hundred years ago may be evil today. Each person has his scale of values, which is determined by belonging to a particular nation’s mentality. The values and priorities of nomadic people often do not coincide with the values of sedentary tribes. Proverbs can also become outdated. The basic fund of paremias remains unchanged since universal human concepts of good and evil are one and eternal, they are dictated to us by the concepts of culture, religion and ethics.

Highlights

Modern linguistics is characterized by the growing role of anthropocentric, cultural and cognitive approaches in language studies (Alefirenko, 2008; Bender & Beller, 2013; Yanmurzina, 2014), which acts as a source of information about the conceptual structures of the consciousness of an ethnic group
The opposition “good-evil” chosen for this study is included in the system of basic moral and ethical values of any nation
Paremias verbalizing this opposition are frequent in fiction, some of them are actively used in colloquial speech

Summary

Introduction

Modern linguistics is characterized by the growing role of anthropocentric, cultural and cognitive approaches in language studies (Alefirenko, 2008; Bender & Beller, 2013; Yanmurzina, 2014), which acts as a source of information about the conceptual structures of the consciousness of an ethnic group.Concepts can get different representations in the language using words, phrases, sentences and texts. Modern linguistics is characterized by the growing role of anthropocentric, cultural and cognitive approaches in language studies (Alefirenko, 2008; Bender & Beller, 2013; Yanmurzina, 2014), which acts as a source of information about the conceptual structures of the consciousness of an ethnic group. Attention to proverbs and sayings has always been enormous since they enrich our life understanding, characters, worldview and system values of this or that nation. These small genres of folklore express folk wisdom, the life experience of an ethnic group, which is in general common to most people’s worldview. Dahl noted that the proverbs are “means and sighs, crying and sobbing, joy and fun, grief and consolation in faces” (Dahl, 1957: p. 4)

Methods

Results

Conclusion