The Comparison of Mimic Phraseological Units Based on Italian and Spanish Material

Baeva Ekaterina Igorevna PhD in Philology PhD In Philology, Senior lecturer of the Department of Romance Philology, Voronezh State University. 394000, Russia, Voronezh region, Voronezh, Lenin Square, 10 katybaev@yandex.ru

Spanish and Italian belong to the Iberian-Romance branch of languages, along with other Romance languages, which, in turn, belong to the Italic branch of the Indo-European family (Latin). Spanish has been taught in Italy for many centuries, although its spread has sometimes experienced long unfavorable periods due to historical events and cultural dynamics. In fact, the idea that Spanish was extremely easy for Italians to learn prevailed for a long time in Italy. Phrases such as "Basta aggiungere una -s e il gioco e fatto" (Eng. "Just add an ‘s’ and you’re done"), "Io parlo lo spagnolo, tre anni fa sono stato due mesi a Madrid!" (Eng. "I speak Spanish. Three years ago, I was in Madrid for two months!") or the most common: "No, se il cliente e spagnolo ci capiamo, non c'e bisogno dell'interprete" (Eng. "No, if the client is Spanish, then an interpreter is not needed. We will understand each other"). Of course, it cannot be denied that an Italian, at least at the initial stages of learning Spanish, has an advantage over a Chinese or a German learner. But, on the other hand, this is often a misleading factor. To achieve a good level of language proficiency, Spaniards must make additional efforts to "break away" from the structure of their native language. The presence of not only similarities but also specifics is manifested at all levels of the language, in particular in phraseology, which will be demonstrated in this article.

The object of consideration is non-verbal means of communication in Spanish and Italian. The subject of the analysis is Spanish and Italian phraseological units (FE), which serve for the verbal transmission of the meanings of facial gestures with various connotative signs.

The data from explanatory dictionaries, sign dictionaries of Spanish and Italian languages, and phraseological dictionaries served as the material for the study. To describe the similarities and differences in the phraseology of two closely related languages, we will use the methods of contrastive lexicology described in the MA dissertation by I. A. Sternina, "Comparison as a Linguistic Methodology" [see: Sternina, Sternin, 2021].

The phraseology reflects the cultural and historical experience of the people and the peculiarities of the members' relationships in society. Phraseological units, having in their internal form figurative representations with ethnocultural content, become models of perception of the surrounding world and standards of any manifested qualities [Sternina, Sternin, 2021, p. 53].

The nomination "sign phraseology" was proposed by G. E. Kreidlin. In his opinion, which we share, "a gesture is a movement of the hands, feet, head, facial expressions or facial expressions, poses and sign gestures" [Kreidlin, 2004, p. 10]. As the results of the preliminary analysis showed, Kreidlin's classification correlates with the verbal explication of certain elements of communicative behavior, which can be most vividly and figuratively conveyed by phraseological units.

According to the results of the analysis of phraseological units, several groups can be distinguished. We attributed symptomatic FE to the first group. Depending on the manifestation of emotion, we divided them into two subgroups:

1) units expressing negative emotions;

2) units that have in their content the characteristic of positive emotions of the subject.

It was noted that the paralinguistic ways of transmitting information in the two languages under consideration are expressed through FE associated with eye dynamics and gestures, which are most actively manifested in the process of both verbal and nonverbal communication. Facial expressions play a significant role in communication and represent a necessary stage in the development of iconic human behavior. According to I.N. Gorelov, the system of these signs has remained unchanged in its universal manifestations and represents "the external motor skills of the functional basis of speech" [Gorelov, 2009, p. 2]. The main similarity between Spanish and Italian facial expressions is that they are expressed openly and convey the emotional part of communication, unlike, for example, the countries in the East, where it is customary to hide and control their facial expressions.

Sign language is less redundant than natural language. The point, of course, is not only in the absence of signs in it at the level of inflections or prefixes but in specific capabilities. Modality, for example, is expressed comprehensively, together with the subject designation—through facial expressions and movement; prepositional constructions are depicted "objectively" without distinguishing between "basic" and "service" [Gorelov, 2009, p. 52].

Most studies of the expressive structure were carried out based on the works of R. Woodworths and H. Schlosberg. In the first edition of Experimental Psychology in 1938, an American psychologist proposed dividing facial expressions into six types. His linear scale went from love, happiness, joy, fun (I) through surprise (II), fear (III), suffering, anger, determination (IV), and disgust (V) to contempt (VI) [Woodworths, 1950, p. 150]. Later, in 1941, H. Schlosberg added images of facial expressions [Pease, 1992].

Repeatedly expressive Italian and Spanish facial expressions have been noted in cinema. Most often, actors resort to hypertrophied gestures and facial expressions, which can sometimes reach the grotesque [Arsentieva, 1989, p. 100]. Depending on the internal state, changes in the expression of the eyes are systemic in nature: wide open from anger or fear, extinguished from sadness, the shine of the eyes from excitement, etc. Let's see how such changes are verbalized in Spanish and Italian FE.

Joy:

Discontent and anger:

Aggression:

Indifference:

Surprise:

Fright:

Excessive interest:

Self-presentation of the individual:

Some eye movements may be accompanied or duplicated by eyebrow movements:

In the course of the study, all the selected phraseological units can be conditionally divided into three groups according to the immediacy/mediateness of the transmission of emotions.

The first group includes FE, based on real facial gestures:

In the second group of FE, there is a rethinking of these movements, the symbolization of the gesture, but the actual gesture remains at the heart of the nomination:

The third group consists of phraseological units/metaphors:

Positive emotion in Italian and Spanish is expressed by the adjective buono/buenos:

Positive value:

In Italian and Spanish, the relationship between people in a negative sense is characterized by the following semes, which for the most part, are exact equivalents:

1. With the testa/cabeza component (head): "lose your head" — perdere la testa (it.), perder la cabeza (Spanish); "fool your head" — fare a qd la testa come una campana (un cestone, un pallone, un tamburlano) (lit. "turn your head into a bell, basket, ball, tambourine"); poner/tener la cabeza como un bombo (Spanish. "turn the head into a big drum); "knock off the pantaloon" — scombussolare la testa (it. lit. "flip"), etc.

2. With the component "occhi": "to show off, to deceive" — gettare (buttare) la polvere negli occhi a qcn (it.); "open your eyes to anything" — aprire gli occhi alla verit? (it.); "close your eyes to anything" — siudere gli occhi a qualcosa (Italian); "to see a straw in someone else's eye" — vedere la pagliuzzane gli occhi altrui (Italian), ver la paja en el ojo ajeno (Spanish); "not to sleep all night" — non chiudere occhio (Italian), no pegar ojo (Spanish letters'. "not to close one eye"); "to be beside yourself" — avere gli occhi fuori delle testa (it. lit. "the eyes go out of the head"); "close your eyes to anything" — avere gli occhi foderati di prosciutto (it. lit. "eyes closed with ham"); "look into both eyes, be alert" — aver un occhio alla gatta e uno alla padella (alla pentola) (it. lit. "keep one eye on the cat, and the other on the pot"); "give your head on the cut, bet" — scomettere un occhio (it. lit. "bet on the eye").

Thus, the analysis showed that the mimic phraseological units found in Spanish and Italian have a large number of identical equivalents. Based on the analysis, an attempt was made to classify the mimic FE of Italian and Spanish people by their expressed meanings and functions in communicative behavior.

Compared with sign FE with the "hand" component, there were slightly fewer units with the "eye" component in the phraseological systems of the Spanish and Italian languages [Sukhanova, 2021, p. 53]. In general, all units are able to express a wide variety of relationships and the whole palette of emotions (love, happiness, joy, fun, surprise, fear, suffering, anger, determination, disgust, and contempt). The predominance of FE with a positive connotation with the "hand" and "eye" component explicates the positive attitude of both peoples to diligence and skill, as well as one of the main dominant signs of their communicative behavior—theatricality and publicity. Therefore, gestures and facial expressions are an indivisible component of it and often complement the utterance or function as independent deictic elements of speech. The equivalence of most FE is explained by the universality of their meanings and the similarity of the main features of the communicative behavior of Italian and Spanish people.