Models of tolerant behaviour in phraseology: comparative aspect

Abstract

The article discusses the semantic properties of English, German and Russian idioms with the meaning of "tolerant behavior." Tolerant behavior is expressed in different languages through the prism of different images, is an important component in building relationships and communication. Tolerance encompasses such components as tolerance, respect, rules, humanity, lack of tolerance – criticism, non-compliance, impatience. The purpose of the study is a comparative analysis of the idioms of the English, German and Russian languages with the meaning «tolerant behavior», to reveal the functional equivalents. A corpus approach, comparison and classification were used as a methodological basis. The material of research is English, German and Russian idioms describing tolerant behavior and their contexts of use from the British National Corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the Corpus of the Institute of the German Language in Mannheim, the National Corpus of Russian Language, and the Parallel Corpus. The results of research show that in idioms of different languages, the cultural specificity of images associated with behavior in idioms and their different use as functional correspondences in translation are found. The analysis of dictionary entries of idioms and the contexts of their use shows that in real contexts, the semantics of idioms can vary, additional connotations are acquired, as well as meanings that may not be fixed in the dictionary. Also, the inner form of idioms imposes restrictions on the use of idioms in contexts and accordingly affects the possibility of using them as equivalents. In the contexts, the influence of the inner form on the actual meaning of idioms is found, which is manifested in their use in a direct meaning.