Yulia Kolodii
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: PhD, Kryshtaliuk A. A.
CONCEPTS OF JOY AND SORROW IN ENGLISH PROVERBS
The article is devoted to the study of the emotional concepts JOY vs. SORROW represented through paremias with the key words joy / sorrow, extracted from phrase dictionaries and dictionaries of proverbs and sayings of the English language. The article analyzes the common and distinctive features of English and American proverbs.
Keywords: paremias, English and American proverbs, concepts JOY / SORROW.
The basic unit of paremiology is a proverb. It is a great and valuable legacy of our ancestors, which is passed down by word of mouth for generations. These small expressions contain profound wisdom that can reveal the content of many things. A proverb is an apt figurative folk saying, often rhymed in structure, which in a concise form generalizes, synthesizes various phenomena of life and has an instructive and philosophical character [2, p. 482 – 483].
According to V. Dahl, a proverb is a short parable in which judgments, sentences, and teachings are expressed [1, p. 345]. In English-language encyclopedias, the term “proverb” is defined as a well-established expression with the characteristics of brevity, allegoricity, anonymity, metaphoricity, transmission and retention of life experience [4; 6; 8]. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs states that a proverb is a traditional statement that offers advice or determines morality in a short, meaningful, concise form [7, p. 11].
English proverbs verbalize different concepts. The two of them are concepts JOY and SORROW. British and American linguistic cultures have shaped their perceptions of JOY and SORROW, which are reflected in both their common and distinct stereotypical values.
In English, the concept of JOY is expressed in a synonymous series, which is realized in the tokens bliss, contentedness, delight, elation, enjoyment, happiness, among which the word JOY is dominant. The token JOY is interpreted as “feeling great happiness and pleasure” [3].
The concept of SORROW is expressed in a synonymous series consisting of the tokens sadness, unhappiness, grief, regret, depression, misery, among which the word SORROW is dominant. The token SORROW is interpreted as “a feeling of great sadness, usually because someone has died or because something terrible has happened” [3].
Joy is described as the results of the own person’s efforts in the proverbs with an active position towards joy. For example, a British proverb says that “Every man is the architect of his own joy” [8] and an American proverb has it that “Happiness is for those who make it and for those who search for it” [5]. The words “architect”, “make it”, and “search for” manifest that joy does not fall on us from above, we must seek it ourselves and work on it.
Negative consequences (for example, negative emotions as a consequence of uncertainty and inconstancy of joy), which is sometimes connected with joy experience, manifest a negative side of joy. For instance, a British proverb states: “If you are happy, this annoys everyone” [8]. The word “to annoy” signalizes about envy and negative emotions that are displayed by other people in response to your happiness. Also, joy is described as the absolute good in the positive estimation of joy experience. An American proverb says: “Joy is the best reward” [5]. The phrase the “best reward” manifests a positive tonality in happiness perception.
English proverbs emphasize that it is important for people to experience the emotion of SORROW together or to share it with others: “Joy shared, joy doubled: sorrow shared, sorrow halved”; “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow” [10, p. 249].
It is known that the American attitude to life is optimistic, and in the UK, on the contrary, argue that it is impossible to enjoy life constantly. The dialectical view of life is reflected in the proverbs with the contrast of joy – sorrow, unhappiness, worry, and so on. In lexicographical sources of the English language found proverbs with this binary opposition, the structure of which is based on the opposition: “No joy without annoy”; “Sorrow remembered sweetens present joy”; “The remembrance of past sorrows is joyful”; “Joy was born a twin”; “After joy comes sorrow” [9, p.249].
Thus, a significant number of proverbs with the concept of JOY / SORROW are evidence of the important role of the emotions of joy and sorrow in the English culture.
References
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