Semantic Condensations in French and Russian Proverbs Based on the Thematic Group Family

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of semantic condensations in French and Russian proverbs from the point of view of family values perception by native speakers of French and Russian. The analysis was carried out based on a study of a card index of proverbs extracted from paremiographic sources that offer a presentation of the material on a thematic basis and contain headings and subheadings related to family and family relations. In order to achieve greater objectivity of the results, the authors carried out a selection and counting of the number of identical proverbial units of the studied thematic group both in French (114 units) and Russian (270 units) paremiological dictionaries. A quantitative and semantic analysis of the key lexemes associated with family presented in the titles of headings, subheadings and proverbs of the card index allowed identify semantic condensations, which most clearly reflect behavioural priorities and peculiaritites of values comprehension. Proverbial semantic condensations are understood as the main meanings and moral and ethical formulations, containing in a condensed form the meaning of a proverb and excluding its figurative component, which may differ in various languages. A comparative analysis made it possible to identify both universal and specific components in the considered French and Russian proverbial condensations, as well as values and anti-values adjacent to the family, which enables us to characterize their perception and functioning in the system of value coordinates of the studied ethnic groups. The presence of significant similarities is explained by the universality of family values and their understanding. Differences mainly lie in the fact that in the French material there is a more individualistic and pragmatic-everyday orientation, while in the Russian material there is a tendency towards the collective (family) and an emotional-sensory orientation. Russian proverbs are distinguished by a greater degree of concentration of thematic key lexemes. The differences in semantic condensations, the value perception of the family, and their representation using units of different linguistic levels, the functioning of which is explained by a combination of typological features of the compared languages, once again demonstrated the connection between the latter, the uniqueness of the world perception and the way of thinking of individual ethnic groups.