General symbolic meanings of the zoonym "dog" in the phraseological units (provrbs and sayings) of the Russian and Persian languages in the linguo-cultural aspect

Golami Hosein PhD in Philology Professor, Department of Russian Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Faculty of Foreign Languages and literature of Tehran University 1439813164, Iran, Tehran region, Tehran, Karegar str., 1, Faculty of Foreign Languages of Tehran University hgholamy@ut.ac.ir

Mahmoodi Amirabad Faranak Ali Postgraduate student, Department of Russian Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Faculty of Foreign Languages and literature of Tehran University 1439813164, Iran, Tehran region, Tehran, Karegar str., 1, Faculty of Foreign Languages of Tehran University mahmoodi71@ut.ac.ir

Introduction

This research paper is devoted to phraseological units (proverbs and sayings) with a zoonomic component in the Russian and Persian languages: their symbolic meanings and linguistic and cultural aspect are considered.

Phraseological units have different connotations. These connotations express a positive or negative assessment of some cultural and social features of human society, thoughts and customs. 

The symbolic image of phraseological units contributes to the possibility of expressing reality, habits, human characteristics, time-tested judgments, ways of worldview and perception of native speakers.

In this work, adhering to the classification of N.M. Shansky, who divided phraseological units into four groups: 1) phraseological fusion; 2) phraseological unity; 3) phraseological combination; 4) phraseological expression ^{[12, p.65]}, we consider proverbs and sayings as linguistic units within the phraseological system of the Russian language, which are included in the last group of N.M. Shansky's classification.

Russian Russian phraseological units make the speech of Russian people bright, imaginative, expressive, I.O. Cherpakova writes that phraseological units in the Russian language make the speech of Russian people vivid, imaginative, expressive. ^{[8, p.4]}

The Russian literary critic V.G. Belinsky believed that phraseology is nothing but "the folk physiognomy of the language, its original means and native wealth" ^{[1, p. 407]}.

There are also different opinions about phraseological units among Iranian linguists, including Shakurzade Bloori believes: "A proverb is one of the popular literary genres that reflects the culture and thoughts of native speakers of any language, and people have chosen it as the best way to express their common thoughts, and this is a diagram of his moral traits, thoughts, imagination and customs of that people" ^{[11, p. 7]}

Phraseological units are a wonderful source of collective wisdom and point to the values, beliefs and long-standing experience of each society. In fact, phraseological units are a short stable expression in rhyme or prose, sometimes containing great moral and social advice, which, despite the brevity of words and simplicity, plunges the listener into deep thought and transfers this sentence from his ear to his heart. Phraseological units reactions and excitement arise in the human soul. ^{[3, p. 5]}

In the linguistic picture of the world, the comprehension of human qualities is manifested through proverbs, sayings, quotations from fiction and the figurative use of various zoonyms. ^{[4, p. 4]}

A significant place among Russian and Persian phraseological units is occupied by units that include zoonyms.

Currently, the term zoonym in the scientific literature exists in two interpretations: narrow and broad. In a narrow sense, zoonyms are proper names (nicknames) of animals (Murzik, Burenka, Sharik, etc.). Zoonyms in a broad sense are common nouns that are the names of animals (cat, cow, dog, etc.) ^{[2, p. 56]}. A zoonym should be understood as a metaphorical transfer of animal qualities such as appearance, mental abilities, character traits, actions and behavior to a person ^{[9, p. 3]}. The term "zoonym" first appeared in the field of linguistics in the 60s of the twentieth century, comes from the Greek ( - animal + — name). In the dictionary of Russian onomastic terminology, N.V. Podolskaya emphasizes that a zoonym is a nickname of animals assigned by people, a sequence of characters ^{[10, p. 58]}

Phraseological units with a zoonymic component appear as a result of centuries-old human observations of the environment, the appearance and habits of animals. Animals are an integral part of our world. Both in Russian and in Persian there are quite a lot of legends, fairy tales and phraseological units with an animalistic component, each of which has a pronounced national-cultural semantics.

The purpose of this work is to identify the common symbolic meanings of the image of "dog" in Russian and Persian phraseological units in the linguoculturological aspect.

The goal assumes the formulation and solution of the following tasks:

- compare the figurative meaning of this zoonym, recorded by dictionaries of two languages;

Russian Russian and Persian dictionaries should be used to identify phraseological units with the zoomorphic component "dog" by a continuous sampling method; To collect the material, the results of two dissertations existing in Russian and Persian languages were used. Russian Russian Dictionary of the XX-XXI centuries (component and contextual analysis), Yablonskaya O. G. in her dissertation "Phraseological units with a zoonym component in the structure of Russian literary texts of the xx?XXI centuries" considered 763 phraseological units extracted from the following dictionaries: "Mikhelson's Great Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language", "The Great Dictionary of Russian Sayings" by V. M. Mokienko and Russian Russian Phraseological Dictionary" by A. I. Molotkov, as well as "Ideographic Dictionary of Russian Phraseological Units with Animal Names" by T. V. Kozlova. According to her, domestic animals and wild animals living next to humans have the highest frequency: sheep / sheep (27), bull / cow / calf (28), wolf (35), goat / goat (22), horse / mare / gelding / horse / pegasus (42), cat / cat (26), fly (22), rooster / chicken / chicks (33), bird / chick (29), pig (22), dog / dog (48) ^{[13, p. 10]}. Nahavali F. in her work, she considered 12,000 Persian phraseological units, among which 1771 phraseological units had the name of animals. According to the results of this dissertation, the following lexemes have the highest frequency: donkey, donkey (347), dog (207), camel (102). Based on these studies, it is possible to understand the zoonym "dog" in the composition of Russian paremias takes the first place in frequency, and in the Persian language the second place. ^{[7, p. 26]}  

– to identify and characterize the common connotations of the lexeme "dog" in the phraseological units of the Russian and Persian languages

Further, the authors considered the symbolic meanings of zoonyms, including the lexeme "dog".

The main part

          Russian Russian Russian Russian zoonym "dog" was studied by such researchers as A.V. Medvedeva "Cat and dog in Russian proverbs and phraseological units", Yum Thi Van An "national-cultural specificity of phraseological units with a component-zoonym "dog" in Russian and Vietnamese languages", Beecher Omer "Zoomorphic images in Russian proverbs and sayings: linguoculturological and lexicographic aspects", etc. In the Persian language, the zoonym "dog" has been more widely reflected in research papers compared to others. Kosar Salimi Abdolmaleki in her article "The concept of "dog" in proverbs and phraseological units of the Russian and Persian languages" described this zoonym in detail. Fakhte Nahavali in her dissertation "The study of the metaphorical use of animal names in Persian proverbs and the analysis of some of their syntactic properties" described the frequency of zoonyms in the Persian language, including the dog. Negabi Ahmad also described the zoonym "dog" briefly in his dissertation "The use of animal names in phraseology in Russian and the ways of their expression in Persian".

In this article, the authors attempt to describe the general symbolic meanings of the zoonym in question as fully as possible. Referring to the existing paremias, different connotations of the mentioning zoonym are considered.

Connotations of the zoonym "dog":

Having studied the most vivid images of a dog in Russian and Persian paroemias with a solid sample from phraseological dictionaries, the authors identified the following general connotations of the zoonym "dog":

1. Unclean creature:

Religion is one of the factors that influences the proverbs and sayings of all societies. (it is necessary to decide on phraseological units, proverbs and sayings, there is a frequent change of terms in the article, and these are different linguistic units) in Islam, a dog is an animal of najis (unclean), and this belief is revealed in some Persian proverbs, of which there are few and only 7 out of 207 expressions with the lexeme "dog". In Iran, according to religion, there is a negative attitude towards dogs. This animal is an unclean creature from the point of view of Islam, and even some people in Iran say the Koran states such a fact. Although based on the following verses, it can be understood that the uncleanness of a dog is not mentioned in the Quran, but, according to traditions and hadiths, its uncleanness has been proven. In the Holy Quran , the dog is mentioned in three cases:

Surah of the Fence, verse 176: "... He is like a dog: if you drive him away, he sticks out his tongue, and if you leave him alone, he also sticks out his tongue"

Sura Cave, verse 18: " ... . Their dog was lying in front of the entrance, paws outstretched"

Surah Meal, verse 4: "They ask you about what they are allowed. Say: "Good things are permitted to you. And what trained predators have caught for you, whom you train like dogs, parts of what Allah has taught you, eat and remember the name of Allah over it" ^{[5, p. 808]}

There is a statement from His Grace Ali (the first Imam of the Shiites) about a dog in the book "Neshan az bineshanha" (but this statement is not recorded in reliable sources and reliable books of hadith).

"A dog has ten characteristics, and the one who possesses these characteristics is a believer: firstly, she has no home, and this is one of the characteristics of independent people. Secondly, she is awake all night, and this is one of the signs of the pious. Third: When she travels, she does not take anything with her, and this is one of the signs of hopefuls. Fourth: When you give her something, she takes it and eats it, and this is one of the characteristics of modest. Fifth: If she is beaten and rejected, she returns without delay, and this is one of the signs of Murids. Sixth: She never leaves her owner in difficulty in trouble, and this is one of the signs of the patient. Seventh: When she dies, she leaves no inheritance, and this is one of the signs of ascetics. Eighth: She is constantly hungry, and this is one of the signs of the Mujahideen. The ninth: She is always in fear, and this is one of the signs of the virtuous. Tenth: She is satisfied with the most insignificant things in the world, and this is one of the signs of lovers." ^{[6, p.310]}

The following proverbs prove that a dog in Persian is considered an unclean and dirty animal or an animal of najis:

· (sag be haft darya pak nashavad), D.P.^[1]: "A dog is unclean, even if it is washed in the seven seas"

·(Darya be dahane sag nages key gardad?), D.P.: "A dog's mouth cannot defile the sea", L.K.^[2]: The meaning of this F.E. is that you cannot discredit and defame a respected person by saying bad things for his with my back. The word najis (unclean) in this F.E. indicates that a dog in Iran is considered an unclean animal.

· ? (daryaye mohit ra ke pak ast, az puze dahane sag che bak ast), D.P.: "If the sea is clean, you can not be afraid to get dirty with a dog's muzzle", L.K.: the meaning of this F.E. is the same as the previous one, but in Persian it is expressed by other words, so it is considered as another example.

·         And you'll get fleas from a good dog.

·         If you lie down with a dog, you will get up with fleas.

·         A dog can be kissed on the muzzle, and not on the fur – a cat on the contrary

2.      Barking and empty-mouthed:

· The Russian equivalent to this proverb is a stupid dog and barks at the sky.

· (ke noore mahtab pak darad az bange sagi che bak darad), D. P.: (the moon, whose pure light, is nothing to be afraid of dogs barking)

· The phraseology has a full equivalent in the Russian language: "The dog barks, and the caravan goes" (sag layad va karvan gozarad).

· The phraseology also has an equivalent in Russian: "Not the dog that bites that barks, but the one that is silent and wagging its tail".

·         There's nothing to blame for dogs barking.

·         The dog barks – the wind carries.

3. Wildness and danger:

The characteristic of savagery, predation and immortality is the most noticeable and most common connotation of the name of this animal in proverbs in Persian.

· The following is true: (ba sag be javal nemitavan raft), D.P.: (it is impossible to fight with a dog)

· ? (mesle sag pache ye ham era gereftan), D.P.: (catching everyone in a row, like a stray dog)

· ? ? (pa ru dome sag magozar), which in Russian coincides with this phraseology: "do not wake up a sleeping dog"

· An angry dog is not afraid of a stick

· A nearby dog is more likely to bite

4.      Loyalty and a man's friend:

For centuries, dogs still remain faithful companions of man and symbolize protection, devotion and endless love. This characteristic of dogs is reflected in many Russian and Persian proverbs.

· (vafadari ra bayad az sag amukht), D.P.: (Devotion should be learned from a dog)

· (sag vafa darad nadarad zan vafa), D.P.: (The dog is devoted, but not a woman)

· (sag az mardom, mardom azar beh), D.P.: (A dog is superior to a person who upsets others)

·         A dog is a constant friend to a person.

·         The dog is a friend, and the horse is a vorog

·         The dog remembers the old stuff

5. Vanity and diligence:

The "vanity and diligence" of dogs is sometimes reflected in proverbs and sayings that convey the wisdom and experience of generations. In these proverbs and sayings, you can see the mentioned connotation. Thus, dogs in some Russian and Persian proverbs and sayings symbolize both vanity and diligence, two opposite traits that can be both positively and negatively evaluated depending on the context.

· (mesle sag jan kandan), D.P.: (to work like a dog)

· ? ? (mesle sage suzan khorde), D.P.: (like a dog that swallowed a needle). This phraseology has such a meaning: A restless person who is in constant worries, troubles, trying to do everything in time.

· Run like a dog

· tired like a dog

6.      The relationship between old enemies (dog-cat):

Interestingly, such a stereotype has entered the consciousness of the Russian and Iranian peoples that a dog and a cat are old enemies. This connotation is reflected in the paroemias of both countries and expresses the characteristics of people who live unfriendly, constantly quarreling, or often experience mutual aggression.

· ? (mesle sag va gorbe), which coincides with the Russian equivalent: "like a cat with a dog"

7. Lifestyle:

·         In Russian and Persian speech, when it comes to a person who lives a difficult and unbearable life, they say he has a dog's life, which in Persian will be a (zendegish mesle zendegi sag ast). The association is associated with stray dogs who have been experiencing hardships, hardships and humiliations all their lives. They are beaten all the time, driven away - they do not live, but simply survive.

· ? ? (sag dar khaneye sahebash shir ast), DP: (in the house of his master and the dog lion), the Russian equivalent of which will be:"there is a tiger dog in his kennel"

·         All dogs are strong in their yard

· Rich as Croesus, but lives like a dog

8.      Humiliation and neglect:

· For the emphasized neglect, humiliation of human dignity, the phraseology "to throw/ throw, throw like a dog" is used in the Russian language, the equivalent of which in the Persian language is the ? ? (joloye sag andakhtan)

9. Another proverb, which exists in both Russian and Persian languages – I I (na khod khorad, na sag dahad, gandeh konad be dahad sag), D. P.: (and he's not eating and the other does not, after the food is spoiled, he gives her dog", which coincides with the Russian equivalent of "dog in the manger attitude: she doesn't eat and the other does not". The meaning of both phraseological units is the same, and usually in two languages this expression is applied to people who do not use any benefits themselves and do not allow others to use them, but in the Russian version the lexeme "dog" expresses a symbol of greed, although in the Persian version the dog personifies an unworthy, low person.

Conclusion

To learn a foreign language outside the language environment and successfully implement communication between peoples, it is important to study not only the language of the country, but also its culture, which is unique for each human community. Cultural differences consist in history, traditions, customs, everyday life, etc. Knowledge and understanding of these cultural differences are an essential condition in intercultural communication. The study of phraseological units makes it possible to immerse yourself in the culture of the country and study it directly through the language. Like any phraseological units, phraseological units (including proverbs and sayings) with the "animal" component present a great difficulty for foreigners both in perception, understanding, and in use. This article is devoted to phraseological units, including the zoonym "dog". It should be noted that in this work, only those signs of the zoonym "dog" that were common in the paroemias of both languages were analyzed.

According to the paroemias we have considered, we can conclude that the zoonym "dog" is one of the most frequently used zoonyms in Russian and Persian phraseological units (due to the limited volume of the article, we could not write all the phraseological units associated with this zoonym). This fact can be explained by the fact that the dog is considered the closest and most devoted friend and companion of man for several thousand years, scientists claim that it was tamed in the Paleolithic era. The dog is evaluated both positively and negatively. The lexeme "dog" is associated with such connotations as: loyalty, a man's friend, barking and empty-mouthed, danger and savagery, diligence, unclean creature, etc. Despite the fact that a dog is traditionally considered a person's best friend and is valued for its loyalty and devotion ("dog loyalty", "a dog's loyalty", "a dog's loyalty", "a dog's loyalty", "a dog's loyalty", "sag be vaght vafa beh az nakas", etc.: a dog in trouble is more loyal than a person"), most phraseological units, including this zoonym has a negative subjective-evaluative connotation when transferring animal signs to a person.

The analysis of phraseological units with the lexeme "dog" in their composition showed that such signs as wildness, danger, empty-mouthed and barking, meanness and meanness are among the most frequently expressed connotations of the zoonym "dog". It should be emphasized that the positive signs of dogs (a friend and companion of a person, a beloved pet, a guardian of the house, a hunter) are reflected in the phraseological units of the Russian language more than Persian.

Thus, from the above we come to the conclusion that the zoonym "dog" plays an important role in both Persian and Russian languages. In both cultures, dogs are considered a popular animal that has a close relationship with people, and due to the popularity of the name of this animal is often used in phraseological units (proverbs and sayings) of both languages. Although there are many cultural and social differences in these two languages, the content and meaning of this zoonym are almost the same.

^[1] Literal translation

^[2] Linguistic and cultural commentary