Specificity of Value Orientations of Native Speakers of French and Russian and Their Representation in Proverbs (Based on Dictionaries)

Abstract

This paper presents a linguo-axiological analysis of French and Russian proverbs based on identifying value orientations and creating their hierarchy by studying the names and quantitative dominance of various thematic groups in authentic paroemiological dictionaries. Identification of value orientations allows us to reveal both common features of ethnic groups, which are of interest in the era of globalization and mutual influence of languages and cultures, and specific ones, contributing to the preservation of national identity. The novelty of this research compared to the author’s previous studies lies in the use of two additional lexicographic sources (one French and one Russian). The examined material of the four dictionaries includes more than 30,000 proverbial units. The analysis revealed the presence of a large number of common topics (which can occupy different positions in the value hierarchy of the ethnic groups under study) not only in dictionaries of the same language, but in all four sources. The names of the categories and their quantitative composition allow us to define French culture as individualist, while Russian culture, as collectivist. When constructing a hierarchy, it is important to turn to a larger number of dictionaries and identify common proverbial units in them to avoid the influence of the subjective factor, which is the case when naming and forming categories, as well as of the researcher’s individual approach to the proportion of category names to their corresponding values. The expanding vocabulary and studies on evaluativity in proverbs aiming to identify value and anti-value components within various topics can be used for further research.