Отражение особенностей национального менталитета в английских пословицах

Likewise, the meaning of respectful or deferential attention associated with red in ‘role out the red carpet’ and ‘give somebody a red carpet treatment’ is based on the custom of laying a red strip of red carpet for important visitors to walk on.In much the same way, the meanings of ‘be in the black’ and ‘be in the red’ are derived from the habit of recording profits and losses in bank accounts in black and red respectively.The actual meaning of ‘red herring’ (a diversionary topic to deflect attention from the truth or main subjects) results from the pickled herrings used in a drug hunt to destroy the scent and confuse the hounds.Last but not least, the meaning of red-letter day (a special occasion) is linked to the custom of painting saints’ days and holidays red on calendars.Another set of culturally-based idioms draws on knowledge about the symbolic value of colors.Blue – sobriety, conservatism, sadness;Red – violence, passion, eroticism;White – pureness, virginity, truth;Green – immaturity, freedom, changeability, ecology;Black – austerity, elegance;Yellow – deception, treachery;Pink – Gentleness;Grey – Intelligence.Black occurs in a symbolic function in the following idioms:Meaning ‘bad, evil’: black list, black sport, get a black mark, black humor, black sheep, give somebody a black look.Meaning ‘unhappy’: black day.Meaning ‘wrong’: black market.White is another culturally-relevant symbol for ‘good’, ‘correct’, as shown in the idiom ‘white lie’, where it attenuates the meaning of the kernel constituent.The different types of motivation overlap in some idioms. Thus, the idiom ‘in black and white’ has two meanings: the meaning ‘in print/writing’ obtains via a metonymy, whereas the symbolic function of these colors (white=good, black=bad). A metaphoric and symbolic reading can also be suggested for ‘black sheep’ (undesirable person). On the one hand, the idiom instantiates the metaphor people are animals. On the other hand, ‘black’ is a symbol for ‘bad’ in the expression.The same holds for the idiom ‘have green fingers’, where the part-for-the-whole metonymy (the finger standing for the person) intermingles with the symbolic link between this color and nature.The communicative effect of idiomatic expressions has been highlighted by several authors (e.g. Herrera and White2010). The high occurrence of color idioms in the pass. To give but one example, The Times has listed 1,272 tokens of ‘red carpet’ in the last eight years. The frequency of occurrence of color idioms in British newspapers is evidenced in the following examples:Service industries were in the black and capital flowed in Britain from abroad.This is not just a stain on the face of football, it is a blakmark against society as a whole.The European Commission has produced its own black list of airlines it considers unsafe.But we can not yet quantify the impact of cultural on grey matter.Many investors who followed the bellwether felt blue about a blue chip that seemed more institution than enterprise.Armstrong will not give an interview to The Times, and that is despite swearing that he no longer has a black list of the newspapers and journalists to whom he will and won’t speak.Example 5 illustrated the use of a color idiom to present a contrast with another color idiom. Example 6 points to the ideological value of idioms since the expression ‘black list’ is used to assess Armstrong’ attitude to the press.Interestingly enough, many colors idioms appeared in headlines. This fact supports the communicative impact of idiomatic constructions, since headlines aim to draw reader attention.The following headlines exemplify the use of color idioms in actual discourse:Troublesome tourists blacklisted by hotels.Red-letter day for village that has won back its beloved phone box.Jim Cahill refuses to feel blue as Everton’s poor start to season.President rolls out the red carpet for rescued miners.Faster help for patients as red tape is cut.No black spot.Black day for Wales as they lose their way again.New Cambridge website makes Oxford feel blue.Green groups see red as BP plans the closure of its alternative energy office.Hamilton’s red-letter day.Why pink makes me feel blue.A black mark for senator White.The communicative impact of the idiom in the past example is enhanced through contrast with the name of the politician involved in the event being discussed.A point worth mentioning is the high degree of variation with which color idioms in our sample. Such variation has a communicative potential deriving from two factors:The modification makes the presence of the underlying canonical idiom more strongly felt;The variation calls reader attention, thus contributing extra communicative impact.Some color idioms deviate from the canonical form by introducing a new lexeme. Such addition is meant to intensify the idiomatic meaning, thus enhancing the idiom’s communicative effects, as illustrated by following example:“During our conversation she tells an utterly harmless white lie.The positive symbolic meaning of ‘white’ is highlighted by he addition of the modifying phrases ‘utterly harmless’.Conclusions The relation between the idioms and the cultural identity of a given ethnic community should be described as a complex phenomenon, viewed in different perspectives, i.e. European/ international, national, local.Proper names perform a very important function in the phraseological units in particular languages, since they express socio-cultural knowledge of a given community. Likewise the stereotypical pictures existent in the language, which differ greatly in particular languages.The research of the idioms, apart from the semantic, structural and pragmatic aspects, has to include the cultural analysis, both of the idioms themselves and their components of cultural reference, focused on the relation of the language and the identity understood as a complex phenomenon and presented in a variety of perspectives.The analysis of idioms should be of interdisciplinary character, giving an insight into the Idiomacity as a universal phenomenon.We have addressed two issues: the semantic motivation underlying idiomatic expressions and the use of idioms in actual discourse. The semantic analysis of a small corpus of English color idioms has yielded two types of motivated idioms: metaphorically-motivated and culturally-motivated. The pragmatic analysis has shown the communicative impact of color idioms in the British press, as evidenced in their high occurrence and degree of variation. At the same time, such variation bears on the semantic motivation of idioms by triggering a different type of motivation. The scope of essay being limited, it appears that the interdependence between the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of idioms should be further investigated in studies.ReferencesKramsch C. Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.Телия В. Русская фразеология. Семантический, прагматический и лингвокульторологический аспект. Москва, 1996. С. 222-224.