Structural and Semantic Features and National Specificity of English and Russian Proverbs with the Meaning ‘Old’, ‘Young’

The problem of perception of age in the folk consciousness, which is studied on the basis of proverbs in the English and Russian languages with the meaning “old”, “young”, touches on issues that are relevant for all people - awareness of the laws of human existence, therefore, turning to proverb material in the context of this issue seems relevant and productive. The main objective of this study is to compare proverbs of the Russian and English languages on this topic in the aspect of structural and semantic analysis and to reveal important features of the national and cultural thinking of both peoples. The first aim of the study is to identify and systematize the basic meanings of proverbs, which reveal a view on the accomplishments of old people and the inherent advantages of an old age; a look at the problem of the state of the body and spirit, which depends not only on age, but also on the inner determination; the disadvantages of the old age and the problem of its inevitability; the virtues and traits of the youth, as well as its weaknesses; a look at typical traits that are traditionally associated with age, but do not depend on it, and, finally, the opposition of the old age and the youth both in the context of confrontation and in the context of cooperation and complementarity. The second aim is to determine the similarities and differences in the choice of linguistic and figurative means in proverbs of the two languages. Proverbs use linguistic devices such as comparison, conformation, opposition, metaphor, metonymy, personification, gradation, hyperbole, irony, allegory, paradox. Similar means of expressive syntax are distinguished: asyndeton, impersonal sentences, syntactic parallelism, ellipsis, compression, rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of proverbs, imperative and conditional sentences, and for the Russian language - infinitive and generalized-personal sentences. Proverbs use expressive vocabulary: zoonyms, somatisms, and Russian proverbs also more often use archaisms, vernacular, words with reduced stylistic colouring and words with diminutive suffixes (diminutives). The novelty of the study lies in the choice of research methodology based on the systematization of proverbial material into groups within the chosen topic and the comparative structural and semantic analysis of proverbs in each thematic group along with revealing similarities and differences in the choice of methods of expressiveness, figurative motivation, figurative means, as well as lexical components and syntactic structure in the proverbs of two languages. The analysis made it possible to show the nationally specific features of the understanding of the main characteristics of the old and young age by both peoples, as well as to identify the role of linguistic means that reflect the specifics of their mentality.