Phraseological euphemisms about bribery in the Russian and Arabic languages: Pragmatic aspect

Mohammed Hassan Sammani Mansour

St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 199034 Russia

E-mail: hassen@bk.ru

Received June 28, 2018

Full text PDF

Abstract

The paper discusses phraseological units that are used as euphemisms when describing bribery in the Russian and Arabic languages. The contextual use shows that the euphemistic meaning of the set phraseological expressions under study is justified. Their functional and pragmatic potential has been considered taking into account the national and cultural specifics. The linguistic and cultural analysis of these units has been performed: the cultural interpretation of their word components that acquire an appraisal value on the basis of associative symbols, models, and perception stereotypes that exist in the general world image of the two societies has been carried out. The analysis of the phraseological euphemisms in the Russian and Arabic languages has demonstrated that the spiritual and moral motives of human experience are reflected in the language and determine the ethical view and the phenomena of life. Idiomatic and stable expressions successfully function in the contexts with implicit information about negative, socially condemned, phenomena of reality. The semantics and pragmatics of the phraseological euphemisms is defined by both the linguistic and social and cultural background, all playing an important role in revaluating the phenomenon of bribery.

Keywords: euphemisms, phraseology, pragmatics, national and cultural stereotypes, Arabic language, bribery

References

1. Arapova N.S. Euphemisms. In: Lingvisticheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, Sov. Entsikl., 1990. 683 p. (In Russian)
2. Katsev A.M. Yazykovoe tabu i evfemiya [Taboo Language and Euphemisms]. Leningrad, LGPI, 1988. 80 p. (In Russian)
3. Kovshova M.L. Lingvokul’turologicheskii metod vo frazeologii: Kody kul’tury [Linguoculturological Method of Phraseology: Cultural Codes]. Moscow, LENAND, 2016. 456 p. (In Russian)
4. Teliya V.N. Russkaya frazeologiya. Semanticheskii, pragmaticheskii i lingvokul’turologicheskii aspekty [Russian Phraseology. Semantic, Pragmatic, and Linguoculturological Aspects]. Moscow, Yaz. Russ. Kul’t., 1996. 288 p. (In Russian)
5. Gak V.G. Yazykovye preobrazovaniya [Language Transformations]. Moscow, Yaz. Russ. Kul’t., 1998. 768 p. (In Russian)
6. Baskova Yu.S. Euphemisms as a means of manipulation in the mass media language (based on Russian and English languages). Extended Abstract of Cand. Philol. Sci. Diss. Krasnodar, 2006. 23 p. (In Russian)
7. Lakoff G., Johnson M. Metaphors We Live By. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003. 256 p.
8. Vol’f E.M. Funktsional’naya semantika otsenki [Functional Semantics of Evaluation]. Moscow, Editorial URSS, 2002. 280 p. (In Russian)
9. Larin B.A. On euphemisms. In: Larin B.A. Istoriya russkogo yazyka i obshchee yazykoznanie: Izbranye raboty [History of Russian Language and General Linguistics: Selected Works]. Moscow, Prosveshchenie, 1977, pp. 101–114. (In Russian)

For citation: Mansour M.H.S. Phraseological euphemisms about bribery in the Russian and Arabic languages: Pragmatic aspect. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 5, pp. 1122–1131. (In Russian)

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.