Сетевое издание

Международный студенческий научный вестник

ISSN 2409-529X

Sayings, which are complete sentences, occupy a special place among various linguistic clichés. They are specific units of language, containing ethno-cultural information on the definite situations. With all the nations of the world, these situations are similar in their logical content, but different in detail and realities [1]. Sayings are endowed with such pronounced independent structural plans as compositional and linguistic structure, semiotic and logical structure and realities. Science singles out seven important functions of sayings which are aimed at achieving communicative goals [2]: 1 a modeling function, shown in the portrayal of the layout of a certain life situation; 2 an instructive function, serving as a means of instilling certain indispensable skills; 3 a prognostic function, aimed at prophecy; 4 a magical function, calling the desired effects or actions; 5 an entertainment function, used for amusing the listeners; 6 an ornamental function, «decorating» the speech. The identity of cultural knowledge, sealed in sayings, is based on the fact that they reflect the rules, norms and patterns of thinking, in which a certain culture is encoded. Sayings are able to form a national picture of the world as a specific intralingual reality, working both in individual and mass consciousness. Therefore, its study is related to the study of the certain concepts which are specific for each particular language [3]. The notion of the concept is also interconnected with the concept of «cultural memory». A word can «remember» what is essential from the point of view of new linguistic relations because the mechanisms of memory are selective and based on cultural mediation of linguistic consciousness bearers. Thus, the study of saying in the study of concepts allows drawing new data on universal and national specifics of perception of various cultural phenomena by the representatives of Russian and Chinese linguocultures. But it should be borne in mind that the study of saying must be supplemented by the data received from the interviewing the present day language speakers as some saying may have become obsolete.