Culturological Characteristics of Phraseological Comparative Units in Indo-European Languages (English, German, Russian, and Urdu)

Abstract

The present research featured the semantics of expressivity of comparative phraseological units (CPU) in English, German, Russian, and Urdu. The authors studied the lexical components of comparative constructions in order to define the universal and the national in these languages. Comparative idioms can be described as the core of evaluativity. They were divided into groups, which revealed the cognitive stereotypes in the linguistic cultures under analysis. The thematic classification made it possible to analyze the productivity of meronyms in CPU and compare the basic images of the English, German, Russian, and Urdu national linguistic cultures. The national specificity of comparative phraseology appeared to depend on the national-specific vocabulary, i.e. lexemes with special linguacultural significance or national realia. As a part of a phraseological comparative unit, realia lose part of their meaning, while maintaining the national aspect. Most CPU demonstrated negative evaluativity, which confirmed the universal semantic asymmetry of phraseology.

Keywords

• comparative phraseological unit
• semantic group
• meronym
• universal linguacultural symbol
• national linguistic culture
• semantic category
• associative image