National and cultural specificity of lexemes with the semantics ‘curiosity’ in Russian, English and Italian languages

Nosenko Natalia Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0001-6366-8823 PhD in Philology Head of the Department; Department of Language Theory and Intercultural Communication; Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University 630068, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Ushakova str., 20/1 nnossenko@mail.ru

Savina Mariya Antonovna ORCID: 0000-0003-4121-5633 PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Department of Language Theory and Intercultural Communication; Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University 630060, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Zelenaya Gorka str., 4, sq. 3 anivas_m@mail.ru

In psychology, curiosity and curiosity are defined as intellectual feelings, emotions, or states ^{[1, 2, 3]}. One of the distinctive features of emotional concepts is ethnospecificity, which is determined by the "national index of a given culture" ^{[4, p. 87]}. According to V. I. Shakhovsky, a mismatch of cultural concepts can lead to a communicative failure, and speakers will fall into "cultural traps" in the process of communication. The researcher notes that in order to overcome this, "gaining knowledge about the content of the national and cultural component in the meaning of words" is of particular importance ^{[5, pp. 71-72]}.

A special interest in studying the semantics of lexemes describing the emotional state of curiosity and curiosity in Russian, English and Italian is caused by the lack of complete equivalents, which creates difficulties in translation. So, according to our observations, native speakers of English, French and Italian languages find it difficult to use the Russian adjectives inquisitive and curious, mixing them, saying, for example: You read so much, you're so curious, Ann has two degrees, she's so curious.

The situation is complicated by the fact that pragmatically labeled fragments of the connotations of these lexemes are practically not reflected in dictionaries. The scientific novelty of our work is that it attempts to compare the semantics of lexemes explicating "curiosity" in Russian, English and Italian.

The research is based on the method of identifying the nationally universal and nationally specific components of the semantics and lexicography of lexemes, described in the works of T. A. Tripolskaya and E. Y. Bulygina ^{[6, 7, 8]}. In order to identify differences in the lexical meaning of the words curiosity, curious, inquisitiveness, inquisitive, curiosity, curious, curioso, we first use data from monolingual explanatory dictionaries, then turn to bilingual dictionaries. These sources give us an idea of whether there is a difference in the lexical meaning of the words we have chosen. To understand the logic of the development of secondary meanings and connotations, we turn to etymological dictionaries and, where possible, to the data of the National Corpus of the Russian Language (NKRR) ^[9] and the British National Corpus (BNC) ^[10]. After working with dictionaries, a contextual analysis is carried out based on the material of national corpora and contexts of the ContextReverse resource ^[11].

Let's clarify the semantics of Russian words in lexicographic sources.

In the new edition of the Large Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language, the word inquisitive is described as follows: "striving to acquire new knowledge; inquisitive", curiosity is "a property of meaning. adj. inquisitive" ^{[12, p. 365]}.

The word curious is defined in the first sense as "distinguished by curiosity, showing curiosity", in the second – "worthy of attention, interesting; entertaining" ^{[12, p. 366]}, "curiosity" is defined as "the desire to find out, to hear from someone, something. in all (even insignificant) details; showing interest in everything, even small details" ^{[12, p. 367]}. In the definition and examples, we find no indication that curiosity can be a negative quality (unlike curiosity).

In our opinion, one of the key difficulties in using the words curious and inquisitive is the juxtaposition of healthy and unhealthy interest. The adjective curious in Russian can acquire negative connotations, this is confirmed by examples from the corpus: he threatened to punch a curious Moscow brainiac in the face, which turned him to flight (A. Azolsky. Lopushok // "New World", 1998). In addition, an illustration of the attitude of native Russian speakers can be considered the proverb of a curious Barbarian in the bazaar, whose nose was torn off, which has an English equivalent of Curiosity killed the cat ("Curiosity killed the cat," hereafter our translation). Note that the phrase Curious Barbara occurs 12 times in the corpus, in some cases becoming a household name.

The adjectives curious and inquisitive can act as synonyms in different contexts, in which case they are united by the seme "thirst for knowledge", for example: What did the new edition offer to the younger generation, to all the curious and curious? (On the anniversary of "Knowledge is Power" // "Knowledge is power", 2005).

In some contexts, these lexemes may enter into an antonymic relationship: I am not a curious person, but I am inquisitive, which has helped me out more than once on hikes (V. A. Marushin. Along the Belaya River to the pearl of the Urals, the Shulgan–Tash cave. 2016). The grounds for such contextual antonymy may be axiological: in order to avoid condemnation, the speaker clarifies that his interest in the surrounding reality is not idle. Let me give you another example from the corpus: The first is good-natured, ready (if there is no party) to talk as much as you like, very happy, as they say here, to "gossip" and gossip, at the same time extremely curious (not inquisitive, but curious) and almost from the very first day of acquaintance enters the It was so intimate that I used to be amazed, but then I got used to it (K. M. Stanyukovich. Letters of a "notable foreigner. 1897). This example shows that the opposition between curiosity and curiosity began to take shape at least as early as the end of the 19th century.

Attention is drawn to contexts in which it is clarified that curiosity is good: Let this word seem a little mouldy to someone, but it is enthusiasts, curious and curious people, who are able to enthusiastically and, as they say, with full dedication to doing what they love (V. Nevolin. The technology theorem. Zelenograd experience // "Science and Life", 2009).

In our opinion, the development of negative connotations in the adjective curious may be related to the etymology of this word. According to the dictionaries of P. Ya. Chernykh and I. I. Sreznevsky, the word torture had the meaning "to ask, to pry", no later than the 15th century the meaning "to interrogate the accused" appeared ^{[13, p. 88; 14, p. 1759-1760]}. Perhaps it was the semantics of the intensity of the verb "torture" that led to the development of a negative connotation.

Consider the semantics of the translational equivalents curiosity, curious in English. According to Russian-English dictionaries (which are usually used by students of foreign languages), the English semantic analogue of curious corresponds to the adjective curious ^{[15, p. 330]}.

Consider the semantics in the Collins English dictionary and Thesaurus explanatory dictionary, in which curiosity has the following meanings:

1. The desire to learn; curiosity. 2. The property of being curious; strangeness. 3. Something strange or fascinating ^{[16, p. 282]}.

The adjective curious in the aforementioned dictionary is interpreted as:

1. Aspiring to knowledge; inquisitive.

2. Overly curious; annoying.

3. Interesting because of its strangeness or novelty ^{[16, p. 282]}.

Russian Russian dictionary Treccani (explanatory dictionary of the Italian language) defines the word "curioso", which usually translates to "curious" and "inquisitive" (according to the National Corpus of the Russian Language, a parallel subcorpus).:

1. Someone who wants to know, see, or hear because of education or a love of truth, or, more often, because of a light nature and a penchant for gossip: being curious about the affairs of others; I would be curious to know how it would end; you shouldn't be so curious; he was curious to constantly learn new things. It can be used as a noun (substantive).: You're curious; often in the plural: The curious always annoyed me; a group of curious people stopped to watch.

2. The book. Who cares about something, diligent: these are writers who are more curious about words than thoughts (Foscolo); greedy, greedy: curious about land grabbing.

3. The one who attracts attention to himself because of some kind of strangeness or extravagance is the only one who is unusual: what a curious person! He's a curious guy; he talks and behaves in a curious way; a curious story happened to me. It can have a neutral meaning: it is interesting to see how deftly he climbs trees ^[17].

From the definition and examples, we can see that the Italian "curiosity" is associated with "caring" about the affairs of others: etymologically, the Italian curioso, like the English curious, goes back to the Latin word curiusus ^{[17; 18]}, which could have the following meanings: "1) caring, diligent, thorough, attentive; 2) interested, interested; 3) inquisitive, inquisitive; 4) curious; 5) pedantic, exaggeratedly petty" ^{[19, p. 280]}.

Note that this word could be used in the meaning of "spy" ^{[19, p. 280]}. The word cūriōusus, in turn, was formed from the Latin word cūra ^{[17; 18]}, which had the meaning:

"1) care, care, diligence, effort;

2) curiosity, inquisitiveness;

3) Research;

4) work, care, writing;

5) breeding;

6) care;

7) treatment;

8) reverence;

9) supervision;

10) pet, pet;

11) management, management, management;

12) guardianship, guardianship;

13) worry, anxiety, chores, business;

14) love, passion;

15) beloved" ^{[19, p. 279]}.

Let's note a common feature in the development of the lexical meaning of the words curious in Russian, curious in Italian and curious in English: in all the languages we have chosen, there is a meaning of "interesting". In this sense, the words will be combined mainly with inanimate nouns: un tono curioso (curious tone); curiosa lingua (curious language), curious fact (205 examples), curious case (105 examples), curious case (curious case, 8 examples), curious book (curious book, 2 example).

The word inquisitive in the parallel case of the NKRJ is translated by the Italian curioso. The Internet resource ContextReverse also offers the word curioso as a translation of the word inquisitive (33 examples). In the English parallel corpus, the word inquisitive is often translated as curious (in 9 out of 33 contexts), as is the word curious in 183 out of 482 contexts.

Judging by the definition of Treccani, the materials of the corpus and the ContextReverse, it can be said that the Italian "curioso" combines the meanings of the Russian word "inquisitive" and "curious" and can have both positive and negative connotations. In English, the word curiosity does not contain negative connotations in its lexical meaning, but curiosity can have negative definitions: I don't know whether to call this friendship or morbid curiosity. I don't know what to call it – friendship or morbid curiosity (Kurt Vonnegut. Hocus Pocus, 1990. Kurt Vonnegut. Hocus-pocus (M. Kovaleva, 1993).

Note that in Russian, English and Italian, there is a connection between the concept of curiosity and various organs of perception. This is primarily the nose and eyes, the phrase curious nose (the distance between lemmas 3) occurs 42 times in the corpus, poke your nose (distance 3) – 423 times: Oh, Asya, don't you know how people like to poke their noses into other people's affairs, ask questions ... E. Kontsarneva. A high-rise building. 2012). The eye turns out to be curious in 320 examples of the case (distance 3): Dozens of curious eyes looked at me (AA Golitsyn. Box. The story of one show // "Volga", 2009). The curious gaze is part of 329 contexts.

In Russian, ears can be curious (16 contexts): the village seems to be one big curious ear (Kir Bulychev. The rooster crows late. 2002).

In English, curious eyes are called, 14 contexts in the corpus: Homeless women used to be invisible to me but I admire them now with curious eyes, wondering if their stories started like mine. Before, I didn't pay any attention to homeless women, but now I look at them curiously and ask myself if their story began the same way as mine (Elizabeth White. An honest look at the personal finance crisis. 2017. Elizabeth White. An honest look at the personal financial crisis (Tatiana Tsys). Curious can be characterized by look (look, 16 examples), glance (look, 4 examples). The phrases curious nose and curious ear are not found in the corpus, but they are available in the ContextReverse and in many online articles. Russian Russian has a nosy counterpart, nosey, and a Russian Barbarian equivalent, Nosey Parker (Nosy Parker, curious man), cf. Russian "don't stick your nose where you shouldn't".

In addition, in the main body of the NCRE, in 9 contexts, the eyes are called inquisitive: Blue inquisitive eyes and Alyokha's devoted serious look attracted Ravich, and he decided to instill in the boy a love of geology (A. Gorodnitsky. "And still live in hope." 2001). The earliest text dates back to 1827, the latest is 2006. Inquisitive ears are found only in 2 contexts of the corpus, in the texts of 1827 and 1871: for better shelter from the curious and inquisitive ear (S. V. Maksimov. Siberia and penal servitude. 1871). There are no contexts in which the nose would be called inquisitive in the corpus.

In the Treccani dictionary of synonyms, the noun ficcanaso is given to the word curioso as a synonym – sui nose (formed according to the same model as Holding a Sword). In Dizionario analogico we find the lexeme ficcanasare, a verb derived from ficcanaso. Note that in Italian there are phraseological units ficcare, mettere il naso, il becco – to poke, put your nose, beak (meaning to be interested in what you should not and/or interfere where you should not) ^{[20, p. 236]}. The phrases orecchie curiosity (curious ears), occhi curiosi (curious eyes), sguardo curioso (curious gaze) are absent in the materials of the NCR in Italian contexts, but they are present in online articles and the ContextReverse.

The analysis of dictionary definitions and contexts suggests that dictionary interpretations do not make it possible to completely separate the meanings of the adjectives inquisitive and curious. The adjective curious and the noun curiosity, as analogues of the Russian lexemes curious and curiosity, do not contain a negative assessment in their semantics; in contexts, adjectives (morbid) can convey a negative component. In Italian, on the contrary, the words curioso, curiosit à contain a negative component.

In the Russian, English, and Italian language worldviews, the main organs of curiosity are the nose, eyes, and ears. A curious person often sniffs, looks out, and eavesdrops. In Italian, the beak can be curious.

When teaching Russian to foreigners and in the process of translation, the following features of the words curiosity, curiosity, curious, inquisitive should be taken into account:

1. The word inquisitive usually means a thirst for knowledge, a healthy interest in learning about the world around us.

2. Despite the fact that the word curious can be synonymous with the word inquisitive, it often means unhealthy interest, while the negative connotation is contained in the lexical meaning itself.

3. The combination of the words curious and inquisitive is different: The word curious is often used in the sense of "unusual" in relation to inanimate objects or abstract nouns. The word inquisitive usually characterizes only a person.

We conclude that a description of the pragmatic macro component, including nationally specific semantics, is required in active dictionaries and databases. Teachers, translators, and foreigners studying Russian could use these resources.