Heuristic potential of proverbs in the linguistic picture of the world description (based on the data from the russian and german languages)

Abstract

The article deals with the linguistic picture of the world in a comparative aspect on the material of the paremiological fund of Russian and German languages. The choice of material for the analysis is due to the ability of proverbs to reflect the stereotypes of the consciousness of a particular people, patterns, norms of behavior, as well as moral values. The described units carry a large semantic load, clearly showing the dominant culture. As a manifestation of the accumulative function of language, proverbs summarize the centuries-old life experience of a particular nation and form the life and behavior rules, proverbs have a heuristic function in describing the linguistic picture of the world of a particular nation. The empirical base consists of data obtained by continuous sampling and lexical-semantic analysis of the presented units. The units representing “poverty” and “wealth” are considered as absolute opposites, describing the living conditions of people of the two groups, appearance, impunity of the rich and their injustice towards the poor. Speaking about personal qualities, Russian folk sayings emphasize the resourcefulness and vivacity of the mind of poor people. In German proverbs rich people are characterized as very stupid one. The results of the work are the conclusions that for the Russian mentality spiritual values are important, incalculable in monetary terms. Thus, friendship, love, happiness, honesty and the opportunity to live come to the fore, and material goods come to the second. Giving the poor exclusively positive qualities determines the fact that such people in Russia have always been treated with pity and understanding. German linguistic culture evaluates the lack of money negatively, sharply condemned and wastefulness. Great respect is not wealth as a final result, but the process itself, the ability to earn it and multiply.