Сonnotational peculiarities of Еnglish and Uzbek zoomorphic phraseologisms

The article is focused on the principle of unity of people and animals in the chain of wildlife within a particular ethnic culture. Despite of the existence of similarities and structural and semantic parallels, zoomorphic phraseological units in different languages have vivid national characteristics, due to both intra-linguistic factors and features of the national – cultural environment.

Key words: Interlingua, phraseology, linguistic phenomena, cultural universals, clichés, zoonims, theory nomination and in terms of valuation connotation, archaic zoomorphism, mythic tradition.

В статье рассматривается принцип единства людей и животных в цепочке дикой природы в рамках определенной этнической культуры. Несмотря на наличие сходства и структурно-семантические параллели, зооморфных фразеологических единиц в разных языках имеет яркие национальные особенности, обусловленные как интра-лингвистические факторы и особенности национально-культурной среде.

Ключевые слова: Интерлингва, фразеология, языковые явления, культурные универсалии, стереотипы, зоонимы, теории номинации, так и в плане коннотации оценки, архаичные зооморфизм, мифических историях.

Contemporary sociolinguistic direction in the study of phraseological units put forward the need for a detailed analysis of their ethno-cultural peculiarities and interlingua relations on the basis of culturally relevant evidences. Not by chance, most domestic and foreign cross-cultural researches in the field of phraseology is not focused on the mechanical detection of parallel structures of units in different languages, and the disclosure of internal connections and interdependence of the studied linguistic phenomena. In the ethnic culture of different peoples phraseologisms including the names of animals – is primarily a statement about the human-being, his spiritual and social terms. Sufficiently a large number of English zoomorphic phraseological units have full or partial equivalents in other languages, because of the coincidence of mental maps of reality in carriers of different languages and common elements of culture the so-called «cultural universals». However due to differences in cultural factors, ethnic origin, different lingua world picture and the various literary sources, many zoomorphic set expressions contain an element of value, which is understandable only for the carriers of given culture, served by its language. For example, in English, there are such verbal cliches like «it rains cats and dogs» (a heavy rain), and «a rat race» (competition), «to suck the monkey» (about the manner of drinking from the bottle), and other. In Uzbek also such cliches are found: «qo’y og’zidan cho’p olmagan» (about quiet and mild person); «dunyoni bir chetida» (a great distance away from); «quyon yurak» (the coward). In general, the traditional choice of zoonims in phraseological fund of Uzbek and English languages has much in common both in the aspect of theory nomination and in terms of valuation connotation. Predominantly positive connotation of zoonim «horse» in semisphere of English and Uzbek ethnic culture confirmed by examples of contextual implementation, apparently goes back to ancient archaic trickster, embodied by the literary tradition. «A horse! My Kingdom for a horse!» – exclaimed Shakespeare's Richard III. Many period of evolutionary development a human-being and a horse passed together in the spiritual and physical harmony with each other. The world history has documented numerous instances of the sublime, grateful and respectful treatment of the owner to his horse. According to the testimony of Pliny the younger, a horse «sat» in the legislature such as the horse of the Roman emperor Caligula, which was «promoted to the senators and consuls». The image of a horse appears in all the world's great religions. In the Greek myth Poseidon and Medusa Gorgon had the son – winged Pegasus, a symbol of inspiration. In Buddhism it is Kantka, white horse of Gautama. In Islam – Al-Barak, in Christianity – the horses of the horsemen of Apocalypse. We observed the collection of Uzbek proverbs where were 350 proverbs about animals. Among them proverbs containing zoonim «horse» takes premier place and precisely all of them have positive connotation. Here we see the table

The highest percentage of examples with a negative evolutional connotation falls on donkey semi sphere. Paradoxical nature of the interpretation of this image in English ethnic culture is that in ancient times, a donkey was considered as a sacred animal. Certain rituals associated with the glorification of the donkey went into the use of a Catholic and the Orthodox Church. In some counties of the United Kingdom and on the west of the USA such competitions as «donkey's beauty» and «donkey's parades» still take place to commemorate of the escape of the Holy Family on donkeys to Egypt. In Russia for a long time there was a ritual-Passover detour Kremlin by Patriarch riding on a donkey in memory of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. There is a unit in folklore and in phraseology, however, a donkey – a symbol of stupidity, stubbornness, laziness. Historically it was first mean of transport, transport which was employed by prophets. However, only some settled tribes of Uzbekistan used donkey as a mean of transport. So, Uzbek set-expressions and proverbs with zoonim «donkey» always have negative evaluative connotations. In the studied English phraseological found, only one proverb contains positive evaluative component: «Asses as well as pitchers have ears» (fools and children understand much more than the speaking people think).

Studying the results of cross-cultural research in phraseology enables to make the following conclusions: Apparently, the most important legacy of archaic zoomorphism is not so much of its semantics (in most cases it is destroyed), is not mythic tradition, but the principle of unity of people and animals in the chain of wildlife within a particular ethnic culture. Despite of the existence of similarities and structural and semantic parallels, zoomorphic phraseological units in different languages have vivid national characteristics, due to both intra-linguistic factors and features of the national – cultural environment.

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