Comparative analysis of phraseological units with the lexical units existing in english and russian languages

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ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ 
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
WITH THE LEXICAL UNITS EXISTING
IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES 
Sultanov B.R. 
Sultanov B.R. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE LEXICAL UNITS EXISTING IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES
Sultanov Bekhzod Rakhmankulovich – Teacher, 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT, PHILOLOGY FACULTY,
GULISTAN STATE UNIVERSITY, GULISTAN, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
 
Abstract: the perception and interpretation of the real surrounding us is different among the 
representatives of different nations of the world. It manifests itself very clearly in 
phraseological units of the language as idioms accumulate the knowledge of the people and 
reflect culture, history, wisdom, beliefs, customs and traditions of the certain ethnic group. 
Comparative syntactic and grammatical analysis of phraseological units represented in the 
article can reveal some aspects of the national mindset, linguistic and cultural peculiarities 
of these nationalities.
Keywords: phraseological linguistic means, national mindset, language consciousness, 
linguistic and cultural community, cultural identity. 
The language systems offer an inherently different representation of the surrounding 
reality: “We know that every language divides the world in its own manner, that is, it has its 
own particular way of conceptualizing it. At the heart of each particular language there is a 
special model, or the picture of the world, and the speaker organizes the content of what 
(s)he says in accordance with this model” [11, P. 3]. Language is part of the culture of the 
nation speaking it – it preserves the culture and transmits it to other generations. Language 
is the mirror of the surrounding world “… it [the language] reflects the reality and creates its 
own picture of the world, specific and unique to each language and, consequently, for the 
people, ethnic group, speech community, using the given language as a means of 
communication” [10, P. 38].
Phraseological means of the language are one of the categories national mentality is 
manifested in. Idioms, with the imagery they contain, symbols and stereotypes of the people's 
consciousness cover the bigger part of the human experience and carry the linguocultural code of 
the nation. They reflect centuries-old history, religious beliefs, wisdom of the people, its moral 
values which comprise the main components of the national culture.
V.N. Teliya believes that phraseological units “… are associated with cultural and national 
standards, stereotypes, myths and so on and when being used in speech they reflect the mindset 
characteristic for a certain linguocultural community” [9, P. 64]. S.G.Ter-Minasova attributes 
huge role to phraseological units in the process of language and culture formation: “The 
idiomatic layer of the language, i.e. in the layer which, by definition, is specific for each 
particular nation, stores the values, public morals, attitude to the world, to people and other 
nations. Idioms, proverbs and sayings illustrate the way of life as well as geographical location of 
a nation, the history and traditions of the community united by one culture” [10, P. 80].
V.A. Maslova claims that idioms play an important role in the identification of national 
and cultural features. They are the soul of every national language; they express the spirit of 
the language and the distinctness of the people. Phraseological units do not simply describe 
the world around us – they are called to interpret it, to evaluate, to express our subjective 
attitude to it [4, P. 82]. Idioms are involved in the formation of the world outlook for an 
individual and for a community. The semantic structure of phraseological units primarily 
depends on extra-linguistic factors and phraseological units most fully and clearly reflect 
different areas of life and the living conditions of a certain people, their collective 
consciousness, centuries-old experience of the people, preserved in the form of verbal 

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utterances. The same phenomenon of the reality surrounding people can get both absolutely 
identical and completely different interpretation of the phraseological system in a particular 
language “… idioms seem to impose a particular vision of the world and the situation on the 
speaker” [4, P. 82]. For example, the idioms written in Russian and English is described in 
the same way, they are complete semantic, structural and grammatical equivalents: брать 
быка за рога – to take the bull by the horns. It is known that the bull is a stubborn and 
dangerous animal, if you want it to obey, you have to be brave and decisive. The image of 
the bull in these phraseological units is associated with an urgent matter, the task that has to 
be carried out without delay. These are such idioms as: когда рак свистнет (literally: when 
the crawfish whistles) – when pigs fly (literally: all thirty-six days of the month) are 
combined by the meaning “is not known when, in the indefinite future, never,” but the 
choice of images is different. These examples show that national and cultural identity of the 
phraseological fund manifests itself in the comparison of two or more languages.