The World of Animals through the Prism of Folk Wisdom: a Comparative Analysis of Russian, Chinese, Tuvan and Sami Proverbs and Sayings about a Horse/Deer
The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of Russian, Chinese, Tuvan and Sami proverbs and sayings about paired and ungulate animals (horse / reindeer). The novelty and purpose of the study is to identify the prototypical structure of proverbs and sayings with the keyword horse / deer, as well as to study the isomorphism and allomorphism of the studied language units. Russian, Tuvan and Chinese dictionaries of proverbs and sayings, as well as a sample from the Sami-Russian bilingual dictionary, were the material of the study. The analysis of the material showed the presence of two groups of proverbs and sayings of the studied languages: similar in their semantic content and different in their prototypical meanings. The result of the study was the identification of three prototypical plots in the structure of the studied proverbs and sayings - Space, Values and Destiny, presented in the thematic groups "Road", "Work", "Home", "Happiness", "Traditions" and "Predictions". It is noted that the analyzed language units emphasize not the characteristics of animals, but the experience of a person in interaction with them, namely: the special relationship of an animal and a person in different spheres of his life (family, home, work). It is argued that in the prototypical representations of a horse / deer in these cultures, the mentality of a rural worker is revealed, in contrast, for example, to English proverbs and sayings, where the worldview of broad social strata is represented.