Phraseological Units Denoting Human Feelings in Ukrainian, English, and French: Structural and Semantic Aspects.

Abstract

The thesis is devoted to the comparative study of phraseological units denoting human feelings in Ukrainian, English, and French which gives opportunity to determine their ideographic, structural, semantic, linguistic, and culturological peculiarities.

The complex methodology of the phraseological units analysis consists of six successive stages: selection and compilation of the empirical body of the research; using predominantly general scientific methods in order to form the theoretical and methodological database for further research; ordering the empirical material with the help of ideographic model of the phraseological units; description of structural and grammatical, semantic peculiarities of the phraseological units; identification of common and distinctive features in contrasted languages; defining more productive models and lacunae specific to evry language.

Phraseological units denoting human feelings comprise formations whose general semantics implies feelings (eyesight, hearing, scent, taste, touch, hunger, cold, tiredness, etc.). Such language combinations characterize internal and external processes of the person’s world cognition, reveal the person’s attitude to this world.

The ideographic description allowed to distribute phraseological units into 4 isomorphic groups («Exteroceptive Feelings», «Interoceptive Feelings», «Proprioceptive Feelings» and «Mixed Feelings»); to identify common, cultural and specific properties of their functioning; to quantify the results.

Three types in the structure of phraseological units have been determined: 1) phraseological units with the phrase structure; 2) phraseological units with the sentence structure; 3) phraseological units with one full word. The most productive structural models are verbal phraseological units – phrases in contrasted languages which are characterized by isomorphism. Allomorphism is found in adjectival phraseological units of English and French (dominated by comparative models) which contain an image-standard inherent in a certain national community. In the languages contrasted, within phraseological units with the sentence structure units with the structure of simple sentences dominate. They are characterized by figurative perception, connected with cognition by man the surrounding reality and internal state of organism. The most productive complex models are phraseological units with subordinate type of syntactic connection in all the languages contrasted. The Ukrainian phraseological units-sentences are characterized by more complex structure. The lacuna «conjunction (as, as if, like, though) + noun + verb» is more characteristic to these phraseological units. Phraseological units of one full word exist in all languages studied being formations with rethought full component which in every language analyzed has a different grammatical expression.

Metaphors dominate among types of the rethought meaning formation in phraseological units denoting human feelings, less often a type of metonymy – synecdoche. Isomorphism is manifested on the level of «animal – human» rethinking where the traits of an animal, bird, insect, etc. are transferred to the person by likening. Phraseological units denoting organic feelings dominate and they are characterized by rethought images of zoosemisms on which they are based. In addition, every language has lacunae which are inextricably related to national and cultural specific features of certain ethnic group.

Metaphorical formation based on a rethinking of comparative compounds is characteristic of phraseological units denoting exteroceptive feelings. They are based on certain standards (animal, birds, inserts, plants) which determine the internal form of the unit. In the minds of native speakers of Ukrainian, English, and French, these images are perceived as those determining acute / poor eyesight, hearing; pleasant / unpleasant taste; excellent / bad smell.

Phraseological units denoting mixed feelings are characterized by the influence on human body through factors which can have both benefitial and harmful effect. The figurative base of the compared phraseological units is often formed by comparison with animals on the basis of metaphorical and metonymic transference; also synecdoche plays an important role in the formation of the phraseological units.

Phraseological units denoting human proprioceptive feelings are characterized by metaphorical formation «physical state, in which the person is in a motionless state – the person in the state of equilibrium», where the main functional load if performed by verbs.

The systemic relations in phraseology are presented by variability, synonymy, and antonymy the brightest; their lesser manifestation is recorded on the level of polysemy and homonymy, which is connected with the complexity of their semantic structure. They are isomorphic in the languages contrasted and they function both at intra- and interlingual levels.

The phraseological units with culturally specific semantics reflect and convey the way of life and way of worldview, characteristic of a particular linguacultural community. The allomorphism of the analyzed compounds in the languages contrasted lies in a partial coincidence of fragments of different world pictures, because of the people’s ability to have the same perception of the world which is based on similar mental and physiological.