THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE ZOONYM “OWL” IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE LINGUISTIC CULTURE: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY

Abstract

Zoomorphic vocabulary is the most important layer of any language, which is used by all peoples of the world for the emotional and evaluative characteristics of people. Since the creation of the language system, birds have been of great importance in the economic and everyday life of the speakers of the Russian and Chinese languages. For many millennia, zoonyms denoting birds have become an integral part of the linguistic picture of the world and the cultures of Russia and China. The purpose of the article is to study the national and cultural specifics of the symbolic meaning of the zoonym “owl” and its linguistic representation in Russian and Chinese linguistic culture. The scientific novelty of the study is that, based on its results, the cultural connotations of the Russian and Chinese peoples that characterize the image of an owl were identified; the contrastive features (similarities and differences) of the attitude to the animalistic image of the “owl” from the point of view of the Russian and Chinese national language picture of the world are highlighted. As a result of the study, examples of the phraseological use of the zoonym “owl” in two languages are given; it is revealed that the symbolic meaning of the zoonym “owl” in Russian and Chinese linguistic culture has changed depending on the historical era and events taking place in the everyday life of the two peoples.