Linguistic and cultural potential of phraseological units with foreign anthroponymic element

The article focuses on the phraseological units with anthroponymicelement, not related directly to the Russian cultural field, but obtained from the onomastic frame of a foreign culture, e.g. Balzac age(balzakovskiy vozrast), Buridans ass (buridanov osyel), Hamlets question (gamletovskiy vopros) etc. Such units with an anthroponym-element of a foreign culture has not been a subject of the complex linguistic and cultural analyses by now, which provesthe urgency of this topic. According to our research the highest fixed phrase formational activity is characteristic of anthroponyms, denotinghistoric persons: Archimedean lever (Arkhimedov rychag), Pythagors trousers (Pifagorovy shtany), the last of the Mohicans(posledniy iz Mogikan), Hannibals oath (Gannibalova klyatva), platonic affection (platonicheskaya lyubov), etc. Phraseologicalunits with a foreign anthroponymic element, referring to the literary source, form the smallest group: poor Yorik (bedny Yorik),Baron Munchausen, Homerik laughter (gomericheskiy smekh), Pandorra box (yashchik Pandory) etc. A special group is formed byphraseological units, which we nominally called phraseological anthroponymic diads, combining two personal names: Dr. Jekyll andMr. Hyde, Montecchi and Cappelletti, Romeo and Juliet. Contrary to an ethnic and cultural anthroponym, which can become a commonname of objects and persons according to any features (e.g. to act dumb/idle) within the structure of a phraseological unit, anthroponymicelements of a foreign culture do not lose the animateness seme, keeping the semantics of an individuality. E.g.: The cognitivecore of the expression Diogenes barrel (bochka Diogena) or to look for somebody or something with Diogenes lantern (diogenov(diogenovskiy) fonar) is just an anthroponymic element, due to which the precedents - legends, which the name of an old Greekphilosopher Diogenes is mentioned in, - become actual in the linguistic consciousness. Thus, the expression Diogenes barrel datedback to one of the legends, after which the philosopher, proving the negligence of the culture and considering a house to be luxury, livedin a barrel. In our opinion the solid requirement of fixing the dominant role of a particular anthroponym in the formation of a phraseologicalunit of a language is the availability of expressions, associated semantically with an equal common element, but different anthroponym-elements, compare: Hannibals oath - a firm decision to fight with somebody or against something till the end; a promiseto follow ones ideals all the time and Hippocrates oath - for intern doctors: a formal oath of fidelity to the duty of a doctor. Phraseologicalunits with a foreign anthroponymic element appear in a language during the symbolization of the images of a foreign culture.The appearance of such units in the Russian linguistic and cultural sphere is followed by the explication of cultural meanings, hiddendeeply in the layers of phraseological semantics, but being urgent and important for the ethnic and linguistic consciousness of nativeRussian speaking persons.

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