Cognitive interpretation of phraseological units

Chapter II. Analysis of phraseological units of the English language with components - zoonyms (FEZ) and their equivalents in Russian
2.1. Phraseologisms of the English language with components - zoonyms
The development of the ambiguity of zoonyms is carried out by transferring the meaning, the name. Historically, secondary meanings are figurative, often figurative, but many of them are no longer recognized in their original qualities. The semantic originality of these fusions lies in the fact that they are always dominated by the zoosemic component, standing out due to the opposition of representative and figurative meanings. For example, in zoonyms :

Let sleeping dog lie

Do not wake famously while it is quiet

sleeping dog in English means an unpleasant secret, something to be feared. In this case, the denotative meaning remains unchanged, while the imagery changes depending on what associations this or that animal evokes in the native speaker. The same image of a hidden threat finds expression in phraseological units

1. Beware of a silent dog & still water 2. Dumb dogs are dangerous

Still waters run deep

In English, a latent threat is associated with a sleeping dog, and in Russian - with evil spirits, which goes back to folklore, which reflects the picture of the world in different ways.
The complete coincidence of the zoonym in the two languages is consistent with the proverbial eternal enmity between cats and dogs.

Agree like cats & dogs

Lead a cat and dog life

The English dog represents a specialization and a narrowing of the meaning ( OE dogga ) meant a certain breed of dog and a characteristic action with it - hunting. Although now the word hound is more familiar , as in the proverb,
which is an example of the development of meaning, the logicization of a motive. Initially, this proverb was used in the slang of hunters, and then, due to the expansion of the figurative meaning, it acquired a more abstract meaning.

Run with the hare & hunt with the hounds

Serve two gods

In the phraseological unit Sleepadog - sleep - To sleep sensitively, the zoosemic component dog in the context of a human -meaning metaphor reflects a sensitive sleep characteristic of dogs. There are no analogues of this association either in Spanish or in Russian, because the category of figurativeness is not linguistic, but logical-psychological, therefore the particular elements that make it up do not always find adequate expression in different languages.
If the semantic system of a zoonym includes both historical and figurative transfers of meaning, then the coincidence of images in two languages means a single archetype of thinking, for example :

1. Die like a dog 2. Go to the dogs

1. Die like a dog.

pejorativity of a figurative meaning follows from the general abstract meaning of zoonyms . This leads to the fact that, in general, many zoosemisms, as human- meaning metaphors, have a pejorative coloring.

Look like a starved cat

tattered cat

In this case, the cat carries the meaning of an evil woman. This image is common for two languages, because. it is logical and based on real associations, because witches in folklore often appear in the form of a black cat. Its meaning is figurative insofar as the emotive function predominates.
zoonym arose in English , denoting despondency.

As melancholy as a cat

Fall into despair

It is not difficult to explain the connection between these phenomena. The cat is associated with calmness and a tendency to solitude. A person seeks solitude when he falls into despondency.
An example of an illogical comparison is seen in English:

No room to swing a cat

Nowhere to turn

There is nowhere to turn a cat tied by its tail - the image is, of course, bizarre, but it is high subjectivity that maintains the brightness of the saying. A fantastic comparison makes the saying a very expressive emotional tool, endowed with semantic and stylistic shades of irony, playfulness, hyperbole. The same stylistic function is performed by a clear exaggeration, hyperbolization in the following zoonym :

Enough to make a cat speak

You wonder

The image of a cat here is relevant to the image of an animal, a dumb creature that can suddenly speak if a miracle happens.
Some zoonyms were created by writers. For example, in L. Carroll 's fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland”, the Cheshire Cat says the phrase:

A cat may look at a king

No one is allowed to look

In this case, the word cat takes on the meaning of each, any.
Another expression was borrowed by the method of tracing from French from the fairy tale by Ch. Perrault

Puss in boots

Puss in Boots

In general, in English, the vast majority of zoonyms are associated with images of animals such as a dog and a cat. This is due to the fact that these animals were tamed first and were constantly close to humans. Therefore, the development of meanings began with the gradation of concepts on a scale of abstraction. The semantic process was a direct response to the logical, cognitive process and went along with it.