Keyword: «phraseology»

Abstract: Idioms represent an essential segment of the lexical system of any language, as they reflect both specific and universal ways of conceptualisation and patterns of thinking. Phraseology largely indicates the connection between culture and language. Indeed, idioms express various cultural contents, including the spirit, tradition, and history of a nation, making phraseology an important resource for reconstructing the linguistic pictures of the world. Phraseological meanings often rely on metaphorical structures and cognitive mechanisms that can explain their motivation and facilitate the acquisition in the context of foreign language learning. The aim of this study is to identify the cognitive mechanisms and cultural aspects underlying the phraseological meanings of the expressions containing components (Ser.) mačak/mačka / (Fr.) chat/chatte / (Engl.) cat in Serbian, French, and English. Through a comparative-contrastive analysis, we will explore similarities and differences in the ways the observed lexemes motivate phraseological meanings in Serbian, French, and English. Lexical-semantic analysis will be used to determine the equivalence between the observed idioms across the three languages. Additionally, we will suggest potential multimodal representations of the chosen idioms, with possible applications in (foreign) language teaching and lexicography. The corpus is excerpted from general and phraseological dictionaries of the Serbian, French and English languages, as well as from school textbooks, daily and weekly newspapers, digital publications, etc.

The present study is devoted to a linguoculturological comparison of the dichotomy «individualism – conciliarity» based on the phraseological corpus of the Russian and English languages. It has been revealed that stable paremiological units function as concentrated models of ethnic worldview, fixing historically conditioned axiological priorities. Using proverbs and idioms, it is demonstrated that the Anglophone tradition is dominated by the cult of personal autonomy, self-sufficiency, and the inviolability of private space, whereas the Russian linguistic worldview represents ideas of spiritual community, mutual support, and the subordination of personal interests to collective ones. Particular attention is paid to how linguistic opposites serve as a tool for intercultural dialogue, allowing the decoding of deep mental attitudes and minimizing communication barriers in the context of globalization.