Linguoculturological analysis of English and Russian idioms with ornithonyms

Abstract

In the modern conditions of globalization, there are new requirements for university graduates. They should not only know a foreign language, but also a well-formed intercultural competence. The authors distinguish cultural interpretation as one of the ways of forming intercultural competence. Cultural interpretation helps to identify the national and cultural specifics of idioms, in which there is information about the world of a particular country, its lifestyle, and traditions. The internal form of idioms contains a set of cultured ideas about the world picture of a particular society. The idioms with the ornithonym component reflect the specific division of this sphere of reality. This language layer has not been sufficiently studied. The authors give the linguoculturological analysis of the Russian and English idioms with the components “swallow” and “peacock”. Culture codes and sources of cultural interpretation are analyzed from the cultural and linguistic points of view. The Russian and English idioms with the ornithonyms are compared. The authors conclude that the comparative analysis of idioms shows the difference in the linguistic world views and sheds light on the ethnic logic. The research findings can be used in teaching a foreign language to comprehend the culture of native speakers.

Keywords

• linguoculturological analysis
• cultural interpretation
• culture code
• ornithonym