Матасова И.Н.

Карагандинский государственный университет им. акад. Е.А. Букетова,

г. Караганда, Казахстан

Some theoretical provisions on the concept of “beauty” in the English and Russian languages

Beauty is one of the key concepts in a culture, which has an existential significance both for an individual person and for a lingual-cultural community. The concept of “beauty” can be found in every ethnic culture, its existence is universal. However, the conceptual representation of beauty draws on local, national, cultural, and historical traditions, and the religious beliefs of ethnic groups.

A concept can be viewed as the structure with its core, periphery and far periphery. The core characteristics are most commonly used notions about the concept, and the farther from the core, the more rare they are. To determine the conceptual aspects of the concept of beauty in the Russian language it can be useful to study the explanatory articles for several entries in the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language by Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. (1986), Ushakov D.N. (2003), Dahl V.I. (2005).

The analysis of the articles’ dictionaries showed that the main meanings expressed by the concept are:

- a characteristic feature, ornament, delight;

- something that gives pleasure and joy to senses or mind;

- an abstract notion;

- attractiveness due to pleasant appearance or inner world.

These characteristics are the conceptual core of the concept of “beauty” in Russian.

Other features make up the periphery of the conceptual core of the concept of “beauty”, such as

- beauty as an interjection expressing feelings;

- beauty referring to a girl;

- beauty as a young female.

Most Russian speakers define “beauty” as harmony, a kind of feature that causes a person to experience positive emotions, satisfying the aesthetic needs of the person. People often mention a person’s appearance, nature, or works of art [1, P. 15].

At the same time, the conceptual meanings comprising the concept can be divided into three groups according to their relation to the core component:

- those that specify the features contained in the conceptual core, detected by the analysis of dictionary definitions (referring to the nature or works of art that delight the senses and the mind);

- those that coincide with the nuclear conceptual features – something that satisfies the aesthetic needs of a human, brings delight and pleasure;

- those that comprise new conceptual features such as harmony, certain perceptions of the world, perfection, or ideal happiness [2, P. 28-33].

It is the third group of meanings that constitutes the far periphery of the conceptual aspects of the concept of “beauty”.

To identify the conceptual aspects of the concept of “beauty” in English, the entries of the following four dictionaries can be reviewed: “Chamber’s Dictionary” edited by W. Geddie, “Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary”, “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English” edited by Hornby A.S; “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language” edited by W. Morris.

All these dictionaries determine beauty as the combination of qualities that give pleasure and joy to the senses and mind; as a set of qualities glorifying the soul; as an especially good feature; as an elegant, superb quality.

These characteristics are the conceptual core of the concept of “beauty” in English.

Such meanings of beauty as proportion, symmetry, “beauty spot” meaning a mole, “beauty shop” meaning a beauty salon make up the periphery of the conceptual core of the concept of “beauty”, as they do not occur that often [3, P. 55].

The British people consider the following things to be beautiful: nature, flowers, children, women, relationships, architecture.

The conceptual meanings revealed correspond to the conceptual core of the concept being analyzed. Thus, nature, flowers, architecture are classified on the basis of the beautiful – “combination of qualities that give pleasure and joy to the senses, intellect” and the children, women – on the grounds of “an especially good feature” (as both are often objects of love and adoration) [4, P. 23].

The far periphery of the concept of “beauty” in English is “the beauty of relationships”. But these signs of the concept are not the only ones in the English language and culture.

Thus, the comparative analysis of conceptual aspect shows that the conceptual core of the concept of “beauty” in Russian and English match on the grounds of the properties and qualities that bring delight to a person. However, it should be noted that the “internal” beauty, representing the inner, spiritual nature of a person is accompanied by ethical evaluation.

Also in the conceptual core of the concept expressed in English there is a sign of the intensity of the ethical evaluation of this phenomenon (as especially good feature), which is absent in the conceptual core of the Russian concept.

Peripherals and the far periphery of the conceptual aspect of long-range concepts of “beauty” do not match. But the far periphery of the conceptual aspect of the Russian concept is richer than the far periphery of the English concept, indicating a diffuse structure of the conceptual aspect of the Russian concept of “beauty”.

Literature:

1. Dahl V.I. Proverbs of the Russian nation: Collection in 2 volumes. Vol.1. – M., 1984.

2. MacMillan Dictionary. Complete and Unabridged 10^th Edition, 2009.

3. Cambridge Dictionary. Complete and Unabridged 8^th Edition, 2002.

4. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Complete and Unabridged 11^th Edition, 2008.