The view of the marriage through the prism of russian and chinese phraseology

Abstract

The article discusses phrasemes reflecting the idea of the marriage in Russian and Chinese cultures. The purpose of the current study is a comparative analysis of the Russian and Chinese idioms containing in their semantic structure the component “marriage” («婚姻» – in Chinese respectively). Through the comparison we were going to identify similarities and differences in the ideas of the marriage existing in studied linguocultures. As a methodological basis we used comparative, linguocultural and cognitive approaches. As a material for analyzing Russian phrasemes we used “Dictionary of Russian Phraseology, Historical and Etymological Reference Book” by A. K. Birich and collections of proverbs and sayings by V. I. Dahl and M. A. Rybnikova. The source of Chinese idiomatic phrases was “Russian-Chinese Phraseological Dictionary” by O. M. Gottlieb, “常用成成” (Dictionary of Common Idioms), “Dictionary of 1000 Chinese idioms”, “The Stories Behind 100 Chinese Idioms” and an electronic dictionary “BKRS”. As a result of our study, we identified some thematic and figurative features of idiomatic phrases related to the specifics of religious beliefs, philosophical concepts, traditions, customs, folklore, cultural and natural realities of Russia and China. Through the comparison of idioms, we found synonymous set expressions, as well as their analogues in a foreign language. As for comparison of the Russian and Chinese phrasemes, set expressions with both semantic and figurative identity were identified. The results obtained demonstrate the national and cultural identity of both countries and can be used as a basis for intercultural dialogue.