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THE FUNCTIONING OF LEXICAL ITEMS RAIN AND SNOW IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE FOLK OMENS
Abstract
Current linguistics investigates the way human knowledge is reflected in the language. Owing to this fact it has become very acute to explore folklore as a mean of reflecting human knowledge. We concentrate our attention on folk omens, because we take it for a special and very unique genre of folklore. Folk omens represent human observation of nature, the relationship of some natural phenomena. In this article the authors compare the peculiarities of a lexical items rain and snow in Russian and Chinese omens. We turn to the study of these tokens, because we assume that the different climatic conditions, different ideas about the world will be presented and folk superstitions. The generalizing word unifying tokens snow and rain in the Russian language is the word precipitation, which means the atmospheric moisture that falls to earth as rain or snow. Practically the same meaning we find in The Chinese language, because the generalizing word й™Ќж°ґ(jiangshui) means moisture that falls to the ground in liquid or solid forms: rain or snow. In both definitions the idea of some process and its result are touched. But the difference is that in Russian folk omens the generalizing word is used, but in Chinese folk omens the word is not used. But the way of description rain in compared languages is different. In the Russian language the meaning of a lexical item rain is the following: precipitation in the form of water droplets, jets. This description differs from the Chinese one: water that falls from the clouds. In both languages we meet the combination of tokens with temporal characteristics of rain. There general characteristics such as the name of a month, a season in both languages. Also there are specific temporal characteristics. In Russian there is pointing to the days of Menologion. In Chinese omes there is pointing to the days of special Moon calendar. According to the degree of intensity rainfall produced gradual opposition: heavy rain (shower) - light rain. It should be mentioned that in both languages rain characteristics are transmitted by using descriptive phrases. Among other rain characteristics there are duration, temperature, presence of wind. The next item that has been analyzed is snow. The description of snow is also differs in compared languages. As for temporal characteristics we should say they are more of them in Russian thanks to the mention of a special day or month. In Chinese omens a great attention is paid to the interrelation between snow and harvest. Thus, our research has shown that the natural conditions, had the greatest influence on the formation of the national mentality , were reflected in folk omens, in which unscientific approach to the categorization of reality was recorded. Comparison of omens systems clearly demonstrate the similarities and differences of naive meteorology.
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