Figurative Dyad TIME – MONEY in the Aphorisms of a Language as a Reflection of the Socio-Political Code of Culture

Abstract

This article discusses the national and cultural features of the perception of the world through a comparative analysis of aphorisms with the components time and money, using American, British and Russian aphorisms as examples. The authors hypothesize that the national and cultural features of aphorisms in the TIME – MONEY dyad are determined by the prevailing socio-cultural conditions, mentality and value system. The authors focus on the structural component of the metaphorical foundation TIME IS MONEY, which determines the composite content of the social and political aspects of the cultural code. Based on the analysis of the figurative TIME – MONEY dyad, as well as on the Englishlanguage and Russian contextual environment, it is established that the social code of culture in aphorisms not only conveys the material and consumer relations in society, but also motivates the creative and aesthetic potential of native speakers. The political code of culture in the figurative dyad under study is seen primarily in the people’s legal and public competence. The results are supplemented by the claim that culture in the aphoristic dyad metaphorizes, in most cases, Russian universal values in the time continuum and English-language material values that arise sporadically. This study is relevant as it considers the national and cultural features and extralinguistic factors that served as the basis for the semantic content of aphorisms in terms of the prevailing sociocultural conditions, mentality and value systems of different nations. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the denotative and, in particular, connotative knowledge contained in aphorisms with the components time and money, which served as the material for this research. The task was to determine the intercultural equivalents of the components under study and their significance within the considered linguistic cultures. The main methods used by the authors include linguoculturological interpretation of aphorisms, component analysis, analysis of the compatibility of linguistic signs as representatives of semiotic systems, and correlation analysis aimed to demonstrate the content of the composite cultural code.