Comparative Analysis of the Phraseological Units Representing the Concepts of OLD AGE and VEJEZ in Russian and Spanish

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of phraseological units representing the concepts of OLD AGE and VEJEZ in Russian and Spanish languages, in psycholinguistic, linguocultural and structural-semantic aspects. Considering the fact that the concept of OLD AGE as the personification of experience, the passage of time, physical and mental withering of a personality is a universal phraseological constant of almost every language, the authors found it expedient to compare phraseological and thematic fields of Spanish and Russian, where, as a hypothesis, it is assumed to identify different historical and cultural approaches to the definitions «age», «old age», «aging», etc., and to the corresponding social group. The key methods of linguistic science used in the work are descriptive, linguogenetic and comparative methods. The article provides a scientific justification for the differences in the definition of the phenomenon of OLD AGE in the Spanish and Russian languages, due to the peculiarities of perception of the national linguistic picture of the world by native speakers of Russian and Spanish. The general, universal images of OLD AGE associated with the final period of a person’s life, the weakening of his body, the presence of a certain life experience are revealed. In addition, the provisions on the predominance of phraseological units with pejorative coloring nominating an old person in the Russian language are substantiated, while phraseological units with reclamation coloring prevail in Spanish. Note that for native Spanish speakers, OLD GAE is primarily associated with centenarians, people who have overcome the age of 90, while in Russian such associations are of a singular nature. The argumentation base of the study is based on a wide list of linguistic and lexical-phraseological sources used by the authors while preparing this article.