Typological, etymological and cognitive aspects of comparing phraseological units of military topics in Russian and Chinese

Abstract

Phraseology is part of the cultural heritage, reflecting the peculiarities of the worldview and the value system of a particular people. In this regard, phraseological units of military topics can give an idea of the perception of war and the army within the framework of individual cultures and languages. Since war is an integral part of life in most countries of the world, the peculiarities of the attitude towards it embodied in the language make it possible to understand its significance for the bearers of a particular culture. The aim of the study is to compare the phraseology of the military theme of the Russian and Chinese languages in the typological, etymological and cognitive aspects. This is the first time such a study is being conducted. The research material was Russian (284 units) and Chinese (3773 and 290 units) phraseological units extracted from various Russian-language and Chinese lexicographic publications (11 titles). In the course of the study, methods of continuous sampling, directional selection and simple probabilistic sampling, methods of linguistic observation and description, systematization and classification, comparative analysis, interpretation of data and their statistical processing, synthesis, abstraction and generalization were used. The types of phraseological units of military topics in the Russian and Chinese languages were established; the sources and time of origin of phraseology of military topics were described; the main mechanism for the formation of phraseological meanings of military idioms was identified; semantic groups of metaphorized images of phraseological units of military topics in the two languages were identified; the differences and similarities of the named semantic groups were indicated. The study concludes that the Chinese military phraseology is more anthropocentric and anthropomorphic in comparison with the Russian military phraseological system. In general, the results of the study allow characterizing the military phraseology of the Chinese language as having emerged in an earlier period and having a greater number of units. This is explained both by the longer period of existence of the Chinese civilization and the typological features of the system of Chinese hieroglyphic writing, which has preserved written monuments containing phraseological units for thousands of years, and by the importance of war and the military sphere in Chinese culture.