ZERO EQUIVALENCE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE COMPONENT OF COLOR (IN ENGLISH, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE AND RUSSIAN)


EQUIVALÊNCIA ZERO DE UNIDADES FRASEOLÓGICAS COM O COMPONENTE DA COR (EM INGLÊS, ESPANHOL, PORTUGUÊS E RUSSO)


EQUIVALENCIA CERO DE UNIDADES FRASEOLÓGICAS CON EL COMPONENTE DE COLOR (EN INGLÉS, ESPAÑOL, PORTUGUÉS Y RUSO)


Oksana Vladimiovna PRATCHENKO1 Ekaterina Sergeevna KHOVANSKAYA2


ABSTRACT: The relevance of the problem under study is due to the multicultural situation in the modern society, as well as the need in understanding between peoples. The object of the study is to analyze the factors that cause the development of phraseological units with the component of color in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. The methods used in the work include the descriptive-comparative methods, as well as the method of analysis. The results of the article allow to see the zero equivalence of phraseological units with this or that color component and to understand the reasons of it. The materials of the work can be useful for the further comparative, typological, linguistic-cultural and ethnic-linguistic studies of the other languages, for making of various phraseological dictionaries of color terms etc.


KEYWORDS: Phraseological unit. Zero equivalence. Comparative analysis. Color component.


RESUMO: A relevância do problema em estudo se deve à situação multicultural da sociedade moderna, bem como à necessidade de entendimento entre os povos. O objetivo do estudo é analisar os fatores que provocam o desenvolvimento de unidades fraseológicas com o componente de cor em inglês, espanhol, português e russo. Os métodos utilizados no trabalho incluem os métodos descritivo-comparativos, bem como o método de análise. Os resultados do artigo permitem ver a equivalência zero das unidades fraseológicas com este ou aquele componente de cor e compreender as suas razões. Os materiais do trabalho podem ser úteis para os estudos comparativos, tipológicos, linguístico-culturais e étnico-linguísticos das outras línguas, para fazer vários dicionários fraseológicos de termos de cores etc.


PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Unidade fraseológica. Equivalência zero. Análise comparativa. Componente de cor.


RESUMEN: La relevancia del problema en estudio se debe a la situación multicultural de la sociedad moderna, así como a la necesidad de entendimiento entre los pueblos. El objeto del


1 Kazan Federal University (KPFU), Kazan – Russia. Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and Practice of Translation. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5047-3127. E-mail: oksana.oksana@mail.ru

2 Kazan Federal University (KPFU), Kazan – Russia. Associate Professor of the Department of the Foreign Languages. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8372-8616. E-mail: info@prescopus.com




estudio es analizar los factores que provocan el desarrollo de unidades fraseológicas con componente de color en inglés, español, portugués y ruso. Los métodos utilizados en el trabajo incluyen los métodos descriptivo-comparativo, así como el método de análisis. Los resultados del artículo permiten ver la equivalencia cero de unidades fraseológicas con este o aquel componente de color y comprender las razones de ello. Los materiales de la obra pueden ser útiles para futuros estudios comparativos, tipológicos, lingüístico-culturales y étnico- lingüísticos de las otras lenguas, para la elaboración de varios diccionarios fraseológicos de términos de color, etc.


PALABRAS CLAVE: Unidad fraseológica. Equivalencia cero. Análisis comparativo. Componente de color.


Introduction


In modern linguistic studies a tendency can be noted for revealing the linguistic phenomena connected with the national peculiarities of peoples, for their comprehensive analysis. Phraseological fund of the language is the most valuable source of information about the culture and mentality of people, it is like the storage of people’s ideas, their myths, traditions, rituals, habits, moral aspects, behavior, etc. (ANDREYEVA; KORNEVA; SAKHIBULLINA, 2019; PRIETO, 2006; SANCHO-CREMADES, 2019; VERESHCHAGIN;

KOSTOMAROV, 2005). Phraseological units are like the mirror of the people that reflects everything that happens in the society during all its history (BARTOLOMÉ SUÁREZ, 1993; KUNIN, 2005; NACISCIONE, 2010; VASILOVA et al., 2019). The elements, which are in the basis of any phraseological unit and all meanings of the words, are mainly very clear for the definite linguistic-cultural society as far as they reflect the people’s understanding of the world and life , and this allows to outline language and culture character through phraseological units which reflect cultural-national specific more clearly than its vocabulary.


Research methodology


A lot of phraseological units with the component of color are “derived” as far as they occurred due to the absence of the phenomenon, notion, etc. in the life of people, speaker of one of the languages under study. The article defines the lacunar unit as a unit that lacks in the other language, it contains the so-called lacuna, i.e., lack, zero correlative element of the laminar unit (KUNIN, 2005). Zero equivalence presupposes the presence of lacunar units in some language in comparison with the other languages. Lacunar units revel the specific unique contrastive character of the language in relation to the other languages (TELIYA, 1996). And




zero equivalence appears exactly on the phraseological level. Lacunar phraseological units are the phraseological units that correlate with the phraseological units of the other languages under studies. Phraseological lacunar unit is defined as the phraseological correlative unit of the lacunar phraseological unit. Some researchers connect the appearance of the lacunar units with peculiarities of the linguistic segmentation of the world by every language (KOSTOMAROV, 2005).

Two kinds of factors influence the appearance of lacunar units, these are linguistic factors (peculiarity of the linguistic segmentation of the world and dissimilarity of the systems of languages) and extra-linguistic factors. Among the linguistic factors we can emphasize the following ones:


  1. Incongruence in the structure of naming (spanish ni blanco, ni negro – neither fish, nor meat).

  2. Difference of the semantic volume: sometimes the semantic volume in the phraseological units of the compared languages is not the same if both phraseological units are poly-semantic, for example: in the well-known in all languages phraseological unit which consists of the elements white (Russian белый, Spanish blanco, Portuguese branco) and night (Russian ночь, Spanish noche, Portuguese noite) in different Grammatical variants there is some difference and partial difference of meanings depending on the language, which allows to speak, in its turn, about the phenomena of equivalence, as well as of zero equivalence depending on the language: in Russian, speaking about white night (often in plural) we mean the phenomenon of nature when in summer during several days (and in the North – even longer) night in our traditional understanding as dark time of the day becomes “white” for some time – with unfading dawn (белые ночи); in English the phraseological unit white night, in Spanish l noche blanca/ en blanco and in Portuguese languages noite (passada) em branco the phraseological units that contain the components “white” and “night” have two meanings:


    1. (fig.) ‘sleepless night’ (this meaning of the color element – ‘sleepless’ – etymologically comes from the French phrase passer une nuit blanche – ‘to spend the sleepless night’; thus, all phraseological units of the compared languages are the loan translation (linguistic calque) of the French expression);

    2. ‘white night’ (with unfading dawn) (in the North); Spanish pasar(se) la noche en blanco – Portuguese passar a noite em branco – “not to get a wink of sleep”; pasar algo en blanco – a) ‘to spend (some time) without sleeping’; b) ‘doing nothing’. It is possible to make




    a conclusion that the meaning “sleepless night” is connected with the already mentioned meaning of the white color as absence of something, in this case – of sleep (as far as the Spanish and Portuguese phraseological units can be translated word-for-word as “night spent ‘in vain’”).


    The image of the black flag presents in phraseology of Russian, English and Spanish languages as poly-semantic phraseological unit, and some meanings are typical for only one language, thus, there is the difference of the semantic volume:


    1. Russian черный флаг – English the Black Jack – Spanish bandera negra – ‘pirates’

      flag’;


      Tthe English phraseological unit also has other meanings:


    2. soldier sleeveless leather jacket;

    3. (Amer.) a loaded stick;

    4. card game Black Jack;

    5. (histor.) high beer mug (made of tarred leather); jar for beer;

    6. expression of extreme hostility, deadly struggle;

    7. flag above a prison as a sign of executed capital punishment;

    8. zinc ore.


    Phraseological unit black hole – Russian черная дыра (journalistic) – has the following meanings:


    1. physical poorly studied phenomenon, space object, the result of a catastrophic gravitational contraction of stars, in which – due to anti-gravity forces and the existence of anti- matter – space and time are reversed and where the bodies disappear completely (the Russian expression is the calque of the English expression black hole; the phraseological meaning developed on the basis of the fact that in the zone of this phenomenon all other space objects are merged and absorbed);

    2. mysterious unknown sphere, lack of knowledge about something. The Russian phraseological unit also has the other meanings:


    3. (fig.) a person who always needs money and who spends it very quickly for unnecessary things or for something that cannot give adequate return;

    4. dungeon (till 1868).




  3. Linguistic borrowing or loan-word translation:


    The image of a black widow exists in phraseology of the compared languages and it means “black widow” who is suspected in the homicide of her husband: black widow Russian черная вдова – Spanish viuda negra. In Russian language this phraseological unit is a borrowing one; the origin of this phraseological unit’s figurative meaning is connected with the representative of “the fair sex” from the South America – female spider black widow.

    The well-known expression carte-blanche borrowed from French language (carte blanche (“white empty blank sheet”) – blank sheet of paper with the signature of the designated individual which authorizes or charges somebody with a task which is entrusted to write in to a person who this paper is given to. In the era of absolutism in France such cartes blanches given by the kings and their ministers entitled a person to arrest political undesirables whose names were written in here already afterwards; from here – the figurative meaning of the expression. The expression is presented in all compared languages, and in many cases we can see parallels. In Russian this phraseological unit is presented as transcription. This phraseological unit has a lot of meanings, but some of them present only in one language, for example:

    Spanish carta blanca (‘white charter, decree; playing card’) – Portuguese carta branca

    (‘white card’) – Russian карт-бланш:


    1. unlimited authorities, freedom of action;

      the following meanings of this phraseological unit are only in Spanish and Portuguese:

    2. assignment to a position (without the name of a definite person);

    3. small card (from two to ten);

    4. at random (with this meaning this phraseological unit is used only in Portuguese).


    With the same meaning there are variants of this phraseological unit only in Spanish and Portuguese languages (among the analyzed ones):

    Portuguese: assinado em branco (document signed in white color) – blank formwith signature; assinatura em branco (signature in white color) – empty form with signature; assinado em branco (signed in white color) – approved offhand:

    Spanish firma en blanco (print in white color) – 1) carte-blanche; 2) a signed empty form; firmar algo en blanco a uno (to sign something to someone in white color) – 1) to sign an empty form; 2) to give the freedom of actions; 3) to give the cheque without filling in the sum;




  4. Euphemisation: euphemisms appear because of the wish to express an idea or to denote a thing indirectly.

Among the extra-linguistic factors that influence the occurrence of the lacunar phraseological units it is possible to list the following ones: traditions, customs of the people, realities of today, a variety of cultural traditions, socio-economic, geographical features, peoples’ mentality. In many languages the lacunar units reflect the specific character of the political system of the country, historical realities. For example:


  1. Historical traditions of peoples: Russian сказка/ песня про белого бычка (‘fairy tale about the white bull-calf’) – endless repetition of one and the same thing from the very beginning; принести на блюдечке с голубой каемочкой (‘to bring on the platter with blue edge’) – to give someone what he wants without any effort from his side.

  2. Rites and religious peculiarities of the peoples: Russian красная горка (‘red hill’) –

    the first week after Easter.

  3. Beliefs: Russian черная кошка дорогу перебежала (кому-л.) (‘black cat crossed the road in front of someone’) – a person started to have a lot of problems.

  4. Realities of today: English white collar workers (AmE) – managers, office employees; blue-collar workers – workers of physical labor; pink-collar workers (AmE) – women who do low-paid job (in the restaurant, etc.); immigration is associated with the image of whole wheat (black) bread: Spanish comer el negro pan de la emigracion (to eat the black bread of immigration) – to live in a strange land. This phraseological unit etymology is quite clear: in a strange land, without friends and relatives it is difficult to afford something extra, you have to be satisfied with the most necessary things, and whole wheat bread helps in the most hard time.

  5. Loan translation, borrowing: black box – Russian черный ящик – Spanish caja negra

  6. Literature: Blue beard – Russian Синяя борода – symbol of jealous husband, as well as a husband who kills his wives.

  7. Folklore: Russian море синее (‘blue sea’) (poetical) – very far place.

  8. Historical realities: to be born into (the) purple – to be born in the royal family.

  9. National peculiarities of denotation of something: Spanish miel negra (‘black honey’)

    1. Existem as seguintes unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor

      gray/ серый/ gris/ borralha, ruço:


      Em inglês: the gray mare (a égua cinzenta) – mulher tirânica cujo marido é dominado;

      Em português: doutor da mula ruça (doutor da vaca cinzenta) – charlatão; calma borralha (calma cinza) – muito calmo;

      Em russo: серая кошка пробежала между ними (“Gato cinza correu entre eles”) – eles se desentenderam.

      Os seguintes grupos fraseológico-tópicos são os lacunares:

      Em inglês: 1. Estado deprimido da pessoa: to look gray (estar cinza) – para desanimar, ficar triste; gray thoughts (pensamentos cinzentos) – pensamentos sombrios; to go to a gray gate (ir para um portão cinza) – estar deprimido. 2. Pertencer à sociedade religiosa: gray friar (frade cinza) – monge franciscano; gray monk/brother (monge/irmão cinza) – representante da organização religiosa (a batina cinzenta dos clérigos é a razão pela qual essas unidades fraseológicas apareceram);

      Em russo: 1. Baixa qualidade do material: серые нитки (linha cinza) – linha rústica; серая бумага (papel cinza) – papel de baixa qualidade. 2. Pessoa de baixo nascimento: серый валенок (bota de feltro cinza) – pessoa sem instrução; серая кость (osso cinza) – homem de origem humilde.

    2. Existem as seguintes unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor

      violeta, morado/ roxo:



      Em português: andar roxo por alguém (Brasil) – se apaixonar por alguém intensamente (componente de cor serve como indicador de fortes sentimentos, emoções); no Brasil as pessoas dizem fome roxa sobre fome aguda, usando o componente de cor para aumentar o nível de intensidade da fome;

      Em espanhol: estar morado (ser roxo) – ficar bêbado; ojo morado (olho roxo) – russo подбитый глаз (olho preto machucado); na Colômbia as pessoas dizem verle a uno el morado (ver algo como roxo) caracterizar uma pessoa que vê através de outras pessoas.

      A análise dessas unidades fraseológicas evidencia pequenas características combinatórias da cor roxa na fraseologia das línguas comparadas.

    3. Existem as seguintes unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor

brown/ коричневый/ pardo/ pardo:


Em inglês: brown goods (bens marrons) (BrE) – produtos elétricos em casa para entretenimento (TV, PC etc.); brown stone (pedra marrom) – 1) pedra especial para construção;

  1. prédios com a frente feita dessa pedra em Nova York; to get brownie points (ganhar pontos amarronzados) – ganhar a simpatia das pessoas; brown ware (louça marrom) – utensílios de argila/barro;

Em espanhol: gramatica parda (gramática marrom) – a capacidade de se estabelecer. Os seguintes grupos fraseológico-tópicos são os lacunares:


Em inglÇes: 1. Comportamento irregular: to do somebody brown (fazer alguém marrom) (BrE) – 1) enganar; 2) bater preto e azul. 2. Abordagem cuidadosa: to do something up brown (fazer algo marrom) (EUA) – to terminar, fazer tudo corretamente.

Em português: 1. Título alto: cavaleiro pardo – cavaleiro enobrecido. 2. Tempos difíceis: calças pardas – dificuldades;

Em espanhol: 1. De nascimento humilde: gente de capa parda (pessoas da camada marrom da sociedade) – roturier.

2 Para TANGO, procure nos instrumentos de NLP3. 3 Agora acessível online 4.

4 Utilização chama/luz para login, escolha palavras equivalentes em WriteBetter do segmento "Composition" 5.



3 Disponível em: http://candle.cs.nthu.edu.tw. Acesso em: 15 jun. 2020.

4 Disponível em: http://www.sinorama.com.tw/en. Acesso em: 15 jun. 2020.

5 Disponível em: http://candle.cs.nthu.edu.tw. Acesso em: 15 jun. 2020.


Rev. EntreLínguas, Araraquara, v. 7, n. esp. 3, e021062, set. 2021. e-ISSN: 2447-3529



Conclusão


A análise comparativa permitiu-nos revelar as principais razões de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares nas línguas comparadas. Em geral, as unidades fraseológicas de equivalência zero são as mais contrastantes nas línguas comparadas. O artigo estudou a situação da equivalência zero da unidade fraseológica de uma língua em comparação com as outras línguas. A análise dos fatores linguísticos e extralinguísticos de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares permitiu concluir que exatamente diferente “percepção étnica” e “percepção social” de cores por diferentes povos e sociedades é o fator específico de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor. Em geral, as razões de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor são as mesmas que para as outras unidades lacunares: assim, em relação aos fatores linguísticos de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares, a diferença no volume semântico (Inglês white night – Russo белая ночь – Espanhol noche blanca – Português noite em branco) e empréstimos e tradução de empréstimos (Inglês black widow – Russo черная вдова – Espanhol viuda negra) desempenham um papel especial no que diz respeito às unidades fraseológicas com lexemas de cores. Quanto aos fatores extralinguísticos de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares, as tradições históricas (Russo красный угол (canto vermelho); Inglês white feather (pena Branca)), realidades históricas (Alferes Vermelho), crenças de diferentes pessoas (Russo черная кошка дорогу перебежала), costumes, tradições religiosas (Красная горка), realidades de hoje (trabalhadores de colarinho branco/azul/rosa), etc. desempenham um papel especial no que diz respeito às unidades fraseológicas exatas com lexemas de cores.

Diferente “percepção étnica” e “percepção social” de cores por diferentes povos é o fator específico de aparecimento de unidades fraseológicas lacunares com o componente de cor. Com a ajuda de unidades fraseológicas, incluindo o componente de cor, é possível estudar muitos fatos interessantes sobre tradições e costumes dos povos, sua história.

As unidades fraseológicas analisadas com o componente de cor são parte inseparável da cultura europeia. Sem o conhecimento do contexto histórico-cultural é impossível interpretar seu conteúdo significativo e usar tais unidades fraseológicas na língua.


AGRADECIMENTOS: O trabalho é realizado de acordo com o Programa do Governo Russo de Crescimento Competitivo da Universidade Federal de Kazan.




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Como referenciar este artgio


PRATCHENKO, O. V.; KHOVANSKAYA, E. S. Equivalência zero de unidades fraseológicas com o componente da cor (em inglês, espanhol, português e russo). Rev. EntreLínguas, Araraquara, v. 7, n. esp. 3, e021062, set. 2021. e-ISSN: 2447-3529. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29051/el.v7iesp.3.15733


Submetido em: 10/01/2021

Revisões requeridas em: 20/03/2021 Aprovado em: 23/06/2021 Publicado em: 01/08/2021


Rev. EntreLínguas, Araraquara, v. 7, n. esp. 3, e021062, set. 2021. e-ISSN: 2447-3529