NATIONAL UNIQUENESS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN THE LINQUISTIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD

Abstract

The article represents an overview of the basic concepts that represent what has been introduced by W. von Humboldt as a general concept and further developed into related concepts of the scientific and conceptual worldview. The basic characteristics of the term “linguistic picture of the world” and its relation to the national-cultural sphere of a particular language are analyzed. The general “linguistic picture of the world” for a particular linguistic community, as a way of conceptualizing the world around human activity, manifests itself in pragmatics, that is, in the use of language by the language speaker. The national language is the most important ethnogenic factor, only because of its acquisition it is possible to become ethnic. Intercultural communication can be adequate only if its participants are most aware of the national-specific features of the national mentality of communication partners. Phraseological units of one language or another possess national and cultural specificity as well as they reflect traditions, customs, realities related to legends, historical facts, literary sources, which determines their national-cultural semantics, local color as a whole.

It is necessary to know the phraseological unit, to know what it means, to consider it in connection with country’s culture, history of the people. It is well known that the phraseological material of any language in the most visual form reflects the life peculiarities, centuries of accumulated wisdom, clot of thoughts existing in society, that is, expresses an ethno-specific way of thinking, which forms national mentality. Phraseologists give an opportunity to understand more deeply the history of the people, their attitude to human merits and disadvantages, the outlook specificity. The expedient and appropriate use of phraseological units in their original form invigorates the language of works and makes it emotional. Using of comparative, interpretative methods, component-semantic and contextual analysis enabled us to establish that phraseological foundation of language is the most valuable source of cultural information and people’s mentality, where the people’s ideas about myths, rituals, customs, habits, morals, and behavior are concentrated. Given that, phraseological fund is not only a linguistic but also a cultural and historical treasure trove of every nation, we set out to analyze the national and cultural specificity of phraseological units in English and Ukrainian. The main purpose of the analysis is to show how the coincidence between culture and pragmatics affects the pragmatic potential of phraseologisms and the pragmatic value of their translations.