Concepts “mother” and “father” in the prism of Buryat, Russian and Chinese phraseology

Abstract

The article examines the concepts “Mother” and “Father” in Buryat, Russian and Chinese phraseology, which constitute the basic and most culturally significant fragment of the linguistic picture of the world, which records the spiritual and moral experience of a person and the nation as a whole. The gender approach to the kinship terminology study significantly enriches and expands the phraseological unit boundaries containing the lexemes mother and father, which are the starting point and core of family-kinship relations. The study of the family institution seems to be especially relevant for the Buryat, Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures increasingly interacting on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia. The results of investigating the corresponding phraseological units enable to indicate the following features common for the three languages: 1) setting authoritarian family model headed by father; 2) key role of concept “Mother” having unbreakable physiological ties with child, giving love, warmth and forgiveness. Unique features include equal representation of father and mother in Buryat, dominating role of mother in Russian, absolute power of father particularly over son and strictness of mother in Chinese. Identification and understanding the universal and unique mentality features of closely contacting ethnic groups will help implement effective and competent intercultural communication.