THE STATUS OF GOOD − EVIL OPPOSITION IN ENGLISH PROVERBS

Abstract

The research of English proverbs in the basic opposition Good − Evil is dealt with in the paper. The object of the investigation is English proverbs and the subject − verbalization of their positive and negative assessment. The main purpose of the paper is to identify allonyms of such lexical units as Good − Evil, determine their common and variable features, calculate sematic distance of words-allonyms and distinguish kernel and marginal categories of lexeme Good − Evil. The material has been extracted from phraseological dictionaries, English literary and publicistic discourses. The topicality of the research is predetermined by tendencies of modern linguistics to study functional nature of communicative units, their pragmatic-semantic modus. Consideration of the object has been methodologically treated by complex discursive, distributive, definitive, contextual and explanatory analyses. Special attention is paid to transformation, reproduction, semantic shifts and textual derivations of the English proverbs. History of people, their consciousness and morality is eternally reflected in proverbs texts. Paroemiological units nominate admonitions, help and assistance; they are regulators of positive and negative behaviour. Opposite ideas, images, phenomena like Life – Death, Love – Hate, Friendship – Hostility are eternal themes, basic dichotonomies of proverbs. The comprehensive study of English modified proverbs has showed that proverbs reflecting positive connotation prevail over negative. Negative connotation includes actualization of pragmatic admonition, help and assessment in certain situations. The set of factors that have effect on proverbs transformation has been determined. They are: influence on an addressee, expressiveness, emotionality, informativity, humour, author’s individual style creation. The perspective of the elaborated problem is being envisaged in the investigation of English modified proverbs in the pollar dichotomies Life – Death, Love – Hate, Friendship – Hostility.