Linguocultural value of the element water as a component of Russian and English idioms

The research is devoted to the analysis of phraseological units of Russian and English which include the name of the element water. The beginning of the paper represents a review of research works devoted to the investigation of the element. Most of the works appear to be cognitive studies of the element water making use of the field method in considering material by forming semantic fields which include a certain number of language units. The specific feature of the present paper consists in analysing the name of the element water itself. The aim of the present paper is to distinguish semantic (semiotic) manifestations of the element water as part of idioms; to reveal the aspects of human life the element correlates with; to consider the image potential of the element water in its phraseological embodiment, to reveal its cultural connotations. The empirical material includes 39 Russian and 33 English idioms from reliable lexicography sources which were analyzed. To achieve the aim the introspective method together with the parallel analysis of the actual idiom meaning and its inner form, taking into consideration historical etymology data, was applied. Methodology of the paper rests upon the generally accepted fact that meanings of idioms are based on connotations (particularly cultural) of their parts or situations described in them. It is obvious that cultural connotations can be revealed from a word and serve as a motive to the appearance of an idiom in case the word is a symbol recognized in this culture. To determine the notional characteristics of the term "symbol", analysis of the works devoted to symbol and symbolic meanings of words (A.F. Losev, Yu.M. Lotman, N.D. Arutyunova, M.L. Kovshova, Ts. Todorov, A.V. Medvedeva, D.A. Tarakanova) was undertaken. According to the analysis the basic and interconnected characteristics distinguishing the notion of symbol are: 1) sign nature, 2) belonging to the sphere of culture, 3) generalisation, 4) similarity between form and content, 5) ability to be recognised by native speakers. Sharing ideas of A.N. Bara-nov and D.O. Dobrovolsky who consider the "property" feature, i.e. direct or indirect belonging to the world of things, to be the most important feature of a symbol, the author agrees with their classification that includes four groups of symbol categories in language and culture: 1) symbols of culture, 2) symbols of language, 3) cultural and language symbols simultaneously, 4) non-productive language symbols. Based on the described methodology analysis of the material made it possible to identify classes of phraseological units including the component water joint with symbolic / property meanings. Section of phraseological units including idioms with symbolic representations of the element water consists of four main groups and four subgroups. Section with non-symbolic ("property") representations of the element water consists of seven main groups and three subgroups. According to the results of the research a conclusion about the high degree of semantic development of the element water in Russian and English language cultures was made. In its symbolic and non-symbolic aspects the element water reflects various spheres of human existence such as: "Life", "Time", "Truth", "Space", "Purity"; it corresponds with the ethic, aesthetic values of people, with some aspects of agricultural activities, with features of human character. Specific for Russian language culture are the images of water connected with where evil spirits live, for English language culture the images of water as material values and the water body to travel in a vessel.

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