Linguistics and literary studies department

2.3 Proverbs and sayings with the realias of spiritual culture
Proverbs and sayings, being folk creations, could not ignore spiritual culture as an important element of human existence. In this group, it is legitimate to single out proverbs and sayings related to the history of the people, its writing, as well as rituals and traditions. These realias refer to the extra-linguistic type of the prototype, which emphasizes the huge role of extralinguistic factors in the formation and development of proverbs and sayings, as well as the need to consider them when comparing with equivalent foreign-cultural texts.
English proverb "When Adam delved and Eve span who was then the gentleman?" arose in connection with certain historical events. Phraseological dictionaries provide information that this linguistic unit is used in an ironic sense in relation to a person who boasts of his ancestry. The motivation of the proverb becomes clear only when referring to its internal form. Its prototype is the slogan of a peasant war led by W. Tyler (XIV century), attributed to the monk John Ball. This slogan becomes clear when referring to the reasons for the uprising, which are as follows: in England there was a strong difference between the nobility and the common people who worked for the rich to exhaustion, but received practically nothing for their labor. The years 1380-1381 were years of economic hardship for the people, which were further exacerbated when King Richard II introduced a poll tax on people over 15 years old. The impossibility of a simple human existence led to the fact that the people did not want to endure humiliation and began to think about their single origin from a single father and mother, Adam and Eve. These popular aspirations were vividly and succinctly expressed in his sermons by the Kent priest John Ball. One of his expressions was included in English phraseology. The historical significance of the event of 1381 made this proverb-slogan universally known. However, in Russian, this language unit is not a literal translation of an English proverb. It exists only as a conceptual equivalent of the original - “Когда пахал Адам и пряла Ева, где родословное тогда стояло древо?”. This is explained by the fact that a literal translation of an English proverb would lead to a misunderstanding of this linguistic unit due to a different worldview of reality by representatives of two cultures: the concept of "gentleman" is not native and familiar to the Russian people, therefore it is almost impossible to grasp all the connotations of this word. Despite the fact that the concept of "gentleman" is not lacunar for a Russian-speaking recipient, it is perceived in a completely different way than by the bearers of English culture, for whom this concept is a reality. So, in the minds of a Russian person, a "gentleman" is a person with good manners. For the British, however (at the moment of consolidation of this linguistic unit in the language), this is a person of good upbringing and education, belonging only to the nobility. If we consider the concept of "gentleman" from the point of view of the British, then the meaning of the proverb becomes clear: all people are equal from birth, and the principles of inequality (for example, difference in origin) are invented by the people themselves. Since the Russian person puts a completely different meaning into the concept of "gentleman", the translation of this proverb could not remain in the arsenal of Russian proverbs and sayings as an international one (ie, proverbs or sayings, foreign-cultural in origin, but familiar and widely used in another culture ). Therefore, having adopted a proverb of a foreign language origin in their arsenal, the Russian people “Russified” it, making it accessible and visual, for which they excluded from the text the foreign cultural reality “gentleman”, which he understood not quite accurately, and therefore complicating the understanding of the English proverb, giving the Russian language unit , realizing the same concept, a completely different look, but, nevertheless, retaining the rhyme inherent in the original text (English, "span -gentleman"; Russian "Eve - tree"). In the Russian text, instead of the word "gentleman", the phrase "family tree" is used, which is a more generalized linguistic unit in comparison with the word "gentleman". An analysis of this pair of proverbs allows us to conclude that to express the same concept, different peoples really operate with concepts well-known to its representatives and, for greater accuracy of expressing the concept, they can change concepts even in borrowed units.
Rituals and traditions are truly folk phenomena, passed down from century to century. Their inseparability from folk life has led to the fact that many of them are reflected in proverbs and sayings, acting as their prototype scenes.
The English proverb "Lead apes in hell" is a very figurative and metaphorical text. The vivid metaphor has as its prototype a peculiar and unfamiliar belief for the Russian recipient, according to which old maidens are destined to nurse monkeys in hell after death, since they did not have their children during their lifetime. There is a saying in Russian, with pairing the English version, " Умереть старой девой." It can be seen from the examples given that in this case the English and Russian texts coincide only in their concept - a negative and ironic attitude towards women who do not have families, but do not coincide in their lexical expression. So, in the English language there are lexical equivalents to the Russian expression " старая дева " - "old maid", "spinster", but they are not used in an English proverb with the same concept due to the fact that in English culture, unlike Russian, there is a national belief about old maidens. Due to the fact that beliefs, rituals and traditions represent real reality more figuratively, they represent the best material for such units of the secondary nomination as proverbs and sayings. This fact explains the choice of beliefs as the prototypical scene of an English proverb instead of using the existing individual lexical units. For a foreign cultural recipient, the concept of an English proverb becomes clear only if the recipient is familiar with the association caused by this metaphor. If such information is not included in the background knowledge of the recipient, then the concept expressed by this text remains incomprehensible, the ironic connotation inherent in it is not captured.
Equivalent proverbs such as the English “Good wine needs no bush” and the Russian “Хороший товар сам себя хвалит” also coincide in their concepts. Both linguistic units summarize the observations of representatives of different linguocultural communities that any good thing is visible immediately, it does not need advertising. For the correct interpretation of the concept of an English proverb, it is necessary to know the scene that represents the inner form of this proverb, associated with the old custom of English innkeepers to hang ivy branches at the doors of taverns as a sign that there is wine on sale. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand the associative relationship between the elements of the proverb "wine" (wine) and "bush" (branch). The English proverb is a kind of interpretation of an old custom, because it is based on the observation of the British that if the wine on sale is good, then people know about it, even if the ivy branches are not hung. The English proverb is more specific due to the fact that custom lies as its prototype scene, therefore specific items are mentioned: "wine", "bush". The Russian proverb is of a general nature. Its lexical unit, which verbalizes the concept of "commodity", makes it possible to understand by itself any all kinds of items to be sold. Therefore, the Russian proverb “Хороший товар сам себя хвалит” is an observation by representatives of the Russian linguocultural community about things of good properties or qualities. The brightness of the image is achieved through the technique of impersonation. In this case, the product is attributed to a human property - the ability to assess, praise. Any product sold is usually praised by the seller, but if the product is good, then the buyer immediately sees it by looking at the product. Thus, it is not the seller who praises his product, but the product itself. Due to the simplicity and clarity of expressing the truth, this expression eventually entered the proverbial fund of the Russian people.
The following sayings, which are both lexically and conceptually different implementations of one concept, are also interesting. For example, the English custom, according to which the godparents gave a silver spoon to a newborn from a wealthy family as a sign of future well-being, served as the prototype for the metaphorical saying “That be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth”. The same concept of "luck, happiness, well-being" is conveyed in Russian by the sayings "Родиться в сорочке ", " Родиться под счастливой звездой ", which no less clearly and specifically convey the idea of ​​a common Russian person about happiness. The perception of the concept conveyed by the English text does not present any particular difficulty for a Russian person, even if he does not have background knowledge of the custom used in the proverb, due to the fact that there is a proverb close to her in Russian (“Родиться в сорочке”). This pair of language units is interesting both in terms of the choice of prototype scenes and conceptually. So, carriers of both cultures put into this concept the idea that the very birth of a person predetermines his fate: if he was born under a lucky star, in a shirt or “with a silver spoon in his mouth,” then this person will be happy. But for the British, the concept of luck, happiness and well-being is based on the concept of material well-being. The choice of the custom of the rich in England as a prototype scene explains that only a person from a rich family can be happy, for a poor one it is almost impossible. For a Russian person, luck and well-being depend on chance, a predestination from above. Luck, happiness, well-being accompany not many, but only the chosen ones, and financial situation is not a condition of well-being and happiness, but only one of its consequences. Therefore wealth is not at all invested in the understanding of this concept by the Russian-speaking linguocultural community. It is no coincidence that the prototypical scene of the saying " Родиться в сорочке " is the fact of the birth of a child in a bubble with amniotic fluid, which happens very rarely, both among the rich and among the poor. This proves once again that the concept expressed by the Russian proverb is based on the concept of being chosen, chance.
Thus, proverbs and sayings containing realias based on historical events, customs, rituals and beliefs require additional historical and etymological information from the recipient of a foreign culture. Their intraphrasal context, often perceived as an ordinary unmotivated metaphor, is a reflection of certain national, historical and cultural realias that actually existed before and took place and thereby determined the features of the categorization of reality by carriers of another culture. Texts containing realias are difficult for a recipient of foreign cultures, because in the language of the latter, proverbs and sayings expressing similar concepts do not contain such realias. This observation largely changes the fact that the equivalent texts of two cultures, one of which contains an indication of realias, objects or phenomena of spiritual culture, are lexically different texts, often differing in their conceptual content.