Проблема межъязыковой эквивалентности русских и китайских соматических фразеологизмов с компонентами «глаз», «рука», «нога» и 眼/目 (глаз), 手 (рука), 脚/足 (нога)

The Problem of Interlingual Equivalency of Russian and Chinese Somatic Idioms with Components Eye, Hand, Foot («Глаз», «Рука», «Нога»; 眼/目手脚/足)

The article is dedicated to the comparative analysis of Russian and Chinese somatic idioms with components eye, hand, foot («глаз», «рука», «нога»; 眼/目,手,脚/足). Somatic idioms are the core of any phraseological system and are studied in various aspects, both in monolingual and comparative works. The choice of the lexemes eye, hand, foot can be justified with their high frequency in idioms and vast system of symbolic meanings. The goal of the analysis is to compare formal and semantic features of the idioms based on the classification developed by E. F. Arsentieva, thus describing the level of the interlingual equivalency between said items. As a result, we have divided somatic idioms in 4 groups: equivalents (total and partial), analogues (total and partial), idioms with similar form but different meaning and idioms without equivalents. The biggest group is phraseological analogues (118 pairs, of which 82 pairs are partial analogues). Apart from that, we have discovered several similarities and differences between Russian and Chinese idioms. First of all, idioms often contain 2 somatic components, e.g. ears and eyes, heart and hands, etc. (though the combinations of them in compared languages don’t always match). This tendency is especially prominent in idioms with foot that usually include lexemes feet and hands. Secondly, idioms with elements eye and hand demonstrate considerably high level of interlingual equivalency, while idioms with element foot are both less frequent in these two languages and have lower level of equivalency. Thirdly, idioms with somatic lexemes have similar metaphorical meanings: eyes – vision, planning, understanding, reading, intellect, expression of emotions, sleep; hands – work, power, mastery, solving problems, possession, protection, violence, expression of emotions, measurement; feet – movement, direction, fuss, close relationship, obstacle, wealth. As for unique metaphorical models, Russian idioms have the following: eyes – attention, physical condition, measurement, source of information, hands – make and accept proposal, help, freedom, feet – confidence, stability, physical condition, measurement. Chinese somatic lexemes have developed several unique metaphors as well: eyes – appearance, order, hands – appearance, speech genre, feet – expression of emotions, characteristics of a person, critique. The results we have obtained can be used in the methodics of teaching Russian and Chinese as foreign languages, as well as applied for solving translation problems regarding somatic idioms and intercultural communication issues.