Obraz człowieka w polskich, angielskich i włoskich leksykalnych i frazeologicznych jednostkach faunicznych

Abstract

The book is devoted to Polish, English and Italian units with animal names as their components. The aim is to compare the units excerpted from mono- and bilingual dictionaries, so that the differences and similarities between the pictures in particular languages could be discussed. The units chosen for the analysis are single-word faunal metaphors and phraseological units with the exclusion of proverbs. The book is composed of three chapters. Chapter one titled Faunal phraseology as the object of contrastive research contains the presentation of basic terms used in Polish, English and Italian studies. Selected contrastive studies on faunal phraseology are also discussed. Chapter two Faunal phraseology in a contrastive perspective: selected theoretical issues contains four subchapters. The first of them is devoted to the imagery of faunal units, while the focal issue of the second is the cultural character of the units analyzed. The symbolic value and evaluative connotations of faunal units are discussed. They are also presented as part of the linguistic picture of the world. In the third subchapter the origins of faunal units are outlined, with the emphasis on the international, national and local character of the units at issue. The last subchapter is devoted to their linguistic features. The third chapter, The picture of a man in faunal phraseology, contains a brief presentation of the description of a man in thematical dictionaries. The anthropocentric character of faunal units is also discussed. The picture of a man reflected in faunal units is composed of several fields. The first of them is the appearance of a man, which covers general description of height and weight as well as the description of particular body parts. The evaluation of human appearance is also presented as well as the description of outfit worn by a man. Another field encompasses sensory activities and activities received by human senses. The next field is the one of movement. It encompasses the notions of speed, various kinds of movement, such as jumping, climbing, swimming etc., agility and awkwardness. The physical charateristics of a man constitutes the next field, i.e. age, sleep, strength and weakness, illness, death, eating, addictions, sexual life. Another field, a man perceived as a social being, contains human relations (family, good relations, bad relations), education, business, art and entertainment, crime and situations (poverty / richness, safety / freedom, freedom / captivity). The intelectual potential of a man constitutes the next field, covering stupidity, intelligence, memory and concentration. Two more fields comprise the characteristics of a man (meekness, faithfulness, patience, shyness, cowardice, courage, meanness, generosity, reserve, cleverness, vanity, stubornness) and emotions (love, happiness, anger, fear, shame). The last one, the human world, comprises its selected elements, such as the number / amount, places, weather, colours and time. The conclusion of the analysis is that the majority of fields are covered by faunal units in a similar way in three languages compared, but it should be stressed that significant differences are also observed. Some faunal units convey very specific meanings, not found in faunal lexis and phraseology in the two other languages.