СONCEPT АRGENT (MONEY) IN THE FRENCH PICTURE OF THE WORLD

Abstract

This research is based on the French synonymic and explanatory dictionaries. Concept ‘argent’ (Money) was reconstructed in the French picture of the world. Lexical and phraseological view of the concept in the literary and spoken language is analyzed. Some peculiarities of formation of this concept as well as its etymological connection with the other theme groups are revealed. Synchronous-diachronic approach to the concept ‘argent ‘ allows the author to state that lexical and phraseological view of the concept is stable, however, some nominations are being lost because of archaization. New separate titles for money which reflect the development of commodity-money relations appear instead. They are formed on the basis of metaphor and metonymy. The metaphorical expression of the concept is based on the associative links inherent for different languages but they have cultural and national features in the French language. For example, battant m ‘free money’, ‘subcutaneous fat’ or oseille f pop ‘money’, ‘coins’. Metonymy as the way of the concept development is less representative. These nominations are also culturally-caused: napoléon m, louis m, Monaco m. Lexical and phraseological nominations omnibus, bonjour d’Alfred have a humorous hint. Significance of the concept ‘argent’ for the French society is supposed to be revealed through verbal phraseological units in further investigations.