The National Identity of Spanish Color Phraseological Units

Abstract

The terms of color have long attracted researchers, their evolutionary, psycholinguistic and a number of other aspects have been studied. Currently, there is an increased interest in ethnolinguistic, linguocultural and other socially important aspects of color. N.G.Kulpina notes that \"there is still no comprehensive consideration of color terms in terms of their semantics and functioning, depending on the type of object of designation...The place of color lexics in society, in the description of a person, the world of his feelings and the world of nature is not described\"

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The national originality of phraseological units of any language is most clearly manifested when comparing them with phraseology of another language, while the further genetically languages are separated from each other, the more significant the differences between phraseological systems. This idea has been repeatedly emphasized by many scientists (V.G.Gak, A.G.Nazaryan, A.V.Kunin, etc.). It should be noted that E.I.Levintova and E.M.Wolf demonstrated on the material of the Spanish and Portuguese languages, which are characterized by close kinship, that: "The concentration of grammatical and lexico-semantic discrepancies between languages in phraseological units," the authors write, "leads to the fact that even with significant proximity of systems of related languages, their phraseological systems never overlap each other".

The national identity of the Spanish phraseology was repeatedly emphasized by X.Casares. So, in his work "Introduction to modern lexicography" the author writes: "Vanished traditions, eradicated prejudices, rituals, customs, folk games, decayed crafts, rivalry between neighboring villages, insignificant events memorable in the life of only one village or one family..., all psychology, all the unaccountable history of our ancestors left a mark in these el Casares optical formulas that were minted and left in the inheritance to descendants" .

In November 2004, the Third International Congress of the Spanish Language was held in Rosario (Argentina), organized by the Spanish Royal Academy, the Cervantes Institute and the Royal Couple of Spain. The Congress, which was held at the highest level, was opened by King Juan Carlos I of Spain and President of Argentina Nestor Carlos Kirchner. Most of the speakers were famous Latin American writers. According to experts, nowadays people of one Spanish-speaking country often have difficulty understanding the spoken language of another Spanish-speaking country. As King Juan Carlos stated, "The Spanish language is a single but polyphonic voice. This is a single voice consisting of many voices that have moved away from the original configuration to varying degrees".

Thus, speaking about the national and cultural specifics of the Spanish language, it should be borne in mind that it is spoken by a large number of peoples, each of which has its own national culture, history, ethnic composition, mental makeup, moral norms, beliefs, as well as traditions and habits. According to N.M.Firsova, "the national and cultural specificity in the Spanish language (as in a number of other multinational languages) is two-dimensional" [Firsova 2000, 24]. N.M.Firsova identifies "interlanguage national and cultural specifics" when comparing Spanish with other languages and "inter-variant national and cultural specifics" when comparing individual national variants of the Spanish language. Our observations have shown that even such a universal feature as color, due to extralinguistic factors in various national variants of the Spanish language, gives rise to a wide variety of meanings-associations.

Russian russians compare the list of Russian and Spanish words involved in the formation of FE on a thematic basis, then the degree of their activity differs. A.V.Werner notes that in Russian numerals, names of body parts are used in phraseological units much more often than in Spanish, and in Spanish - the names of saints, biblical names and religious terms: como Santiago for los moros is to live in constant hostility, like a cat with a dog; como Don Pedro is about a bald man .

The national identity is also manifested in the FE with a component- the zoonym. Since the biological picture of the world differs from one nation to another, national ideas about the properties of animals underlying the figurative meaning of zoonyms do not coincide. Often, even on the basis of the same zoonyms, different phraseological meanings are realized in different languages.

This is due to the fact that different signs are taken as the starting point of a figurative meaning in different languages. Ignorance of the national-linguistic features of phraseological units with a zoonym component often leads to annoying mistakes in the process of communicating with native speakers. These errors occur when the translator transfers the meanings of a phraseological unit with a zoonym component peculiar to one language to another. It is unlikely that it will be clear to a Russian-speaking person if we translate literally the Spanish phraseology mirlo blanco - "white thrush", whereas its relative equivalent in Russian is "white crow". Or, for example, in English, the literal translation of the phraseology to draw (to trail, to track) a red herring across the path will look comical if you do not know that red herring [red (smoked) herring] has a figurative meaning of "distracting maneuver".

The same pattern is observed in other lexico-semantic groups: the cultural components of the compared phraseological units either do not coincide at all or exhibit different phraseological productivity.

The national identity of different foreign languages is also revealed in the fact that they cannot be translated into Russian verbatim. As a rule, they are translated either with the help of Russian phraseological units, which are based on other images, or descriptively, when realities are the basis of foreign-language phraseological units.

For example,  negro de feria [Negro from the fair] implements in Russian the meaning of "stranger, outsider; foreign body". In Venezuela, this is used in a different meaning, namely, "smart, well-dressed black man." It should be noted that in the Ecuadorian national version of the Spanish language, negro de feria does not function, and is perceived by native speakers in the direct meaning - "Negro from the fair". The English expression to go to the greenwood [to go to the green forest] was originally used in the literal sense: "to go into the forest", i.e. to become a robber. Over time, the phraseology lost its direct meaning and began to be translated descriptively as "outlaw yourself."

The Spanish  poner a uno de oro at azul [to dress someone in gold and blue] in Russian corresponds to the expression "to chastise, butcher", in English - "to give smb. a dressing down" [to take off someone's dress]. Thus, the given example clearly demonstrates that different images are used to convey the same meaning in three languages, and only in Spanish there is a color component. Note that the indicated  value is typical only for the Pyrenean national variant, in the Latin American variants under consideration, for example, Venezuelan, "oro y azul" has the implementation of "the color of the torero's clothes", as a result of which the phenomenon of inter-variant national and cultural semantics is observed.

The Spanish príncipe azul [blue prince] is translated into Russian in a different way as "prince on a white horse". Both phraseological units are united by the presence of a color component in the CF structure, although it is different. This confirms the fact that there are differences in symbolic meanings associated with the same colors in different cultural traditions: in the Spanish tradition, the sign of royalty is "blue blood" - the blood of a person of noble origin, and in Russian this sign is "white horse".

In the Pyrenean national version of the Spanish language, the Central Committee darse un verde functions, which has no equivalent in Russian and therefore translates descriptively: "have fun, go relax." As for the cross-variant aspect, in the national variants under consideration, by interviewing informants, we found out that this CF not only remains unclear, but also does not cause similar associations. For example, in Venezuela, verde has the value "American dollar".

These facts confirm the idea that when studying phraseology and, in particular, phraseological units with a color component, one should rely on the spiritual, cultural and historical features of the development of a native speaker of a given language. And the further the languages are genetically separated, the fewer common images underlying phraseological units. And even within the same linguistic community, which are Spanish-speaking countries, there are significant differences in the formation of FE.

I would like to emphasize once again that CF is a special part of the phraseological corpus, which has a vivid national and cultural specificity. Based on the material of the Central Library of the Pyrenean national version of the Spanish language, we identify two types of manifestations of national and cultural specificity:

1. The first type includes CF, where color carries its original meaning - the color characteristic of a person, object or phenomenon, while creating a certain image in the complex: oveja negra [black sheep] - white crow, black sheep; banco azul [blue bench] - ministerial bench in Spanish courts; ir de punta en blanco [go with a white point] - dress carefully, according to the latest fashion, etc.
2. The second type includes CF, where color is reinterpreted and is an association formed in the language during cultural and historical development under the influence of extralinguistic factors. We have divided this much larger group into two subgroups:

a. color is a sign of a person, object or phenomenon: firmar en blanco [sign on white] - sign a blank sheet; dejar en blanco [leave in white] - wrap around your finger; salir en blanco [go out in white] - get upset, fail, break (about the case);  poner negro [to blacken, make black] - to anger, annoy; volverse negro [to turn black] - to pore, to struggle over a difficult task, to try to find a way out of a difficult situation; más negro que el no tener [blacker than emptiness] - 1) evil, malicious, unkind, dashing; 2) gloomy, hopeless, hopeless viejo verde [green old man] - an elderly ladies' man; poner a uno de oro y azul [to dress someone in gold and blue]- to scold, to scold someone;

b. the color itself denotes a person, object or phenomenon: tener la negra [to have this black] - to be a loser; blanco de burlas [white from jokes] - a target for ridicule; (callar) como negra en baño [(silent) like black in a bath] - with a pouty look.

It should be noted that these levels of CF do not cover the entire stratum of phraseological units with the cultural meaning of color, because not in all cases the national and cultural originality of a particular phraseological unit is obvious.

As noted above, the national identity of the FE can manifest itself at different levels of language: phonetic, grammatical, lexical, semantic, stylistic. However, the national peculiarities of phraseological units are most fully revealed at the lexico-semantic level, which is convincingly proved by the CF.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2024 Djalilova Sarvaroy Mekhrojovna. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.