СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ КОНЦЕПТА «ВОЛЯ» / “SOUL”/ “ÂME” В СОВРЕМЕННОМ РУССКОМ, АНГЛИЙСКОМ И ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ

Introduction

The term “concept” in linguistics is traditionally associated with conceptualization and categorization, other words, with a scientific understanding of the world on the basis of the concept, as the idea of ​​European culture, put forward as far back as Ancient Greece. Many researchers identify a concept with the notion, but in recent studies an attempt is made to distinguish a notion in the traditional sense as a category of logic and a concept. A concept can be defined as a notion, but a notion is expanded as a result of the whole modern scientific situation. The notion without such an extension is an object of the science of logic, a description of the most common and essential features of an object, an indication of its closest genus and differences in its type, i.e. generic differences. The concept, on the other hand, is the subject of another science – cultural studies and the description of a typical situation of culture. Today, the spread of the term concept, as we see it, is related to some extent to the “information boom”, mental evolution (revolution), and the need to streamline the social world constructed by a man.

The aim of this work is to make the comparative typological analysis of the concept «Воля» / «Soul» / «Âme» in the modern Russian, English, French languages.

The concept “Soul” belongs to the category of basic concepts of the psychological class, which form the concepts of the inner world. However, it stands to mention that the boundaries between the classes of concepts are not clear. The centre of any concept is always value, since the concept serves the study of culture, and the basis of culture is precisely the value principle.

The concept “Soul” is widely considered in the works of the researchers (for example: Bazylev; Grebenshchikov; Uryson; Khizhnyak), some comments on this concept can be found in their books.

V.A. Maslova relates the concept “воля” to specific Russian national concepts along with the concepts “душа”, “желание”, “дом”, “жизнь” [9, P. 71]. Whereas, T.V. Bulyginа and A.D. Shmelev distinguish the concept “воля” as one of the most significant for the Russian national consciousness. [1, P. 485]

Often, the study of concepts is based on the study of the semantics of a linguistic sign. Since the meanings of the words “are the most important constituents of consciousness: it is in them that the ideal form of the existence of the objective world, its properties, connections and relationships” is transformed and folded into the matter of the language” [5, P. 141]. An analysis of the vocabulary reflection and the embodiment of the concept is necessary, since the system of definitions in dictionaries provides the threads for understanding the essence of popular consciousness, the specifics of the picture of the world. Interpretation of dictionary definitions makes it possible to identify a generalized prototype of a concept, its substantial minimum, which creates the basis for further study of the concept based on other techniques.

As it is known, the word «воля» is polysemantic. Among the meanings of the word «воля», two semantic invariants can be purely singled out:

The duality of understanding the will in Russian consciousness – as the beginning of the organizing and destroying organization, as desire and ability, as power and weakness, as aspiration and result – provides this concept in ethnic consciousness with a contradictory assessment. [6, P. 21]

The analysis of words (based on the material of the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language by V.I. Dahl, D.N. Ushakov, S.I. Ozhegov and N.Yu. Shvedova) showed that the seme of the word “воля” unites the seme “желание”, “выбор”, “власть”, “право”, and is defined as “состояние, характеризующееся отсутствием стеснений, ограничений”. The dictionary of S.I. Ozhegov interprets the word “воля” as “способность осуществлять свои желания”. [11, P. 99]

The etymological dictionary of M. Fasmer gives the following reference:

Воля 1 <…> // Связано чередованием гласных с велеть, довлеть. Родственно лит. valia “воля”, лтш. vala “сила, власть”, д.-в.-н. wala (ж. р.) “выбор”, нов.-в.-н. wahl - то же, wollen «хотеть», др.-инд. varas “желание, выбор”, авест. vara – “воля”, “отбор” [11, P. 347].

Велеть, велю; чередование гласных: воля, довлеть // Родственно лит. velti, pavelti “хотеть” “позволять” <…> лат. volo “хотеть”<…> др.-инд. vrnati “выбирает себе, что предпочитает” [11, P. 288].

Thus, it is clear that the word “воля” belongs to the Indo-European Dictionary Fund. In its lexical meaning, the semes “желание”, “выбор”, “власть” are integrated. In the Old Russian language “воля, волити – это скорей обозначения усилий разума, предполагающих рациональный выбор между несколькими возможностями” [3, P. 51]. The meaning of the word “воля”– “is formed clearly only in the Old Russian language, when socially dependent people begin to be perceived not only as working or not mature (slaves, lackeys, children, calves, etc.) in relation to the strong subject, but also as deprived of freedom”      [7, P. 56].

V.V. Kolesov wrote in this case: “Speaking of power and law ... <...> ... as well as personal will (“own will”), until the end of the XVI century Russian people did not connect the concept of “soul” with an independent state; the word “воля” was not a social term” [8, P. 56].

The concept “воля” has the following semantic characteristics: “spontaneous”, “bringing a person into the sphere of instincts, depriving him of the human appearance”, “manifesting openly”, “having a destructive effect on someone”; “causing any negative consequences”; “necessary for life, representing value for a person”, “beloved / dear”, “involved in the rebellion”, “characterized by the strength / power of manifestation”, “related to the soul”, “implying poverty”, etc.

It bears mentioning that the concept “воля” is one of the most complex and polysemantic element of the conceptosphere of Russian language culture; this is one of the oldest concepts of the Russian language, which, as well as the concept “душа” is based on the concept of a thing from the world of the “ideal”, and not the “mundane” material.

In the English-language picture of the world, “soul” does not play such a role as “воля” in the Russian language, and some of its functions are performed by other organs, in particular, the heart (it contains many emotional states) and the mind (it is connected with thought processes).

The ethnocentric nature of the concept “soul” is manifested primarily in the fact that the development of the spheres of this concept is associated with the colloquial speech and, therefore, has a broad phraseological paradigm in the language. Let’s consider the reflection of the concept “soul” in English and Russian phraseological units, based on special and explanatory dictionaries to identify common and special meanings of words that represent this concept in English and Russian.

From the comparison of dictionary meanings, it can be seen that the source of differences in the use of the concept “soul” in Russian and English is that for Russians the soul is primarily “spirituality”, vague and metaphysical, while for the English, the soul is consciousness and rationality.

According to L.V. Vardanyan, phraseological units containing the component “душа” in Russian are often translated into English by phraseological units with the components “heart” and “mind” [2, P. 12]: в душе - at heart; в глубине души - at the back of one's mind / in one's heart of hearts; открывать душу - open/ uncover one's heart to smb.; прийтись по душе - lose one's heart to smb./smth.; по душе - after one's own heart; вкладывать душу во что-нибудь - put one's heart into smth.; всей душой - heart and soul; продать душу - sell one's soul; быть бездушным, безразличным - to have no soul; спасите наши души - save our souls; душа нараспашку - wear one's heart on one's sleeve; брать за душу - to pull at smb's heartstrings; запасть в душу - sink into smb.'s memory/ mind/ heart; камень с души свалился - take a load/ weight off smb.'s mind; душа в пятки ушла - smb has his heart in his boots; камень с души свалился - it was a load odd smb's mind; надрывать душу - to break smb's heart; отводить душу - to relieve one's feelings by doing smth to unburden one's heart; поговорить по душам - to have a heart-to-heart chat with smb; сколько душе угодно - to one's heart content; чужая душа - потемки - аnother man's soul is always dark.

On the contrary, the expressions related to the meanings “смысл”, “рассудок”, “жизнь”, “человек”, contain the component “soul”: не обольщай себя надеждой - lay not that flattering unction to your soul; сходиться во взглядах, разделять мнение - to possess one's soul in patience; душа компании - the life and soul of the party; ни души (человек) - not a soul; in whose hand is the soul of sbd. - в чьих руках находится жизнь; быть хозяином жизни - to be the captain of one's soul.

The concept “душа”, as it was mentioned above, in English does not correspond to its “vocabulary” equivalent “soul”, but to the concept “mind” [4, P. 109-110]. Therefore, the poem of A.S. Pushkin's “Flower” was translated by Charles Wilson in the following way:

A scentless flower, with leaves all dry,

Forgotten, in a book I see;

And lo! strange thoughts to occupy

The mind arise there suddenly.

Лишенный запаха цветок, с сухими листьями,

Забытый, в книге я вижу;

И вот! Странные мысли занять

Разум возникли вдруг.

Here the word “душа” is not translated as “разум” / “mind”, but the word “мечта” was transformed into the word “мыслями” / “thoughts”. The appearance of a wilted flower evokes an experience in the author, and a reflection in the translator; «мечтанье» is something abstract, «мысли» is something concrete. Mind is the embodiment of the fundamental concept of English culture, soul – Russian. The translator demonstrated the essence of this work in terms of his concept sphere.

This principle also applies in translation from English into Russian. V.Ya. Bryusov offers the following version of the poem of D.G. Byron “I want to be a free child”:

Я изнемог от мук веселья

Мне ненавистен род людской.

My breast requires the sullen glen,

Whose gloom may suit a darkened mind.

 “Soul” is understood as the inner mental world of a person, it is the centre of the Russian picture of the world. It is interpreted as something higher than reason, intellect, common sense, as a bulwark of spirituality, which plays a key role in the system of values ​​of the Russian people. A Russian person often speaks of the soul, without thinking about the inner meaning of this word. The Englishman thinks in completely different way about the soul. As Oxford professor Karen Hewitt writes: “In fact, the most English people think ten times before pronouncing it, except, perhaps, when they are in church” [3, p. 56]. For them, the soul includes an area of something forbidden and deeply intimate. And the frequent repetition of the word “душа” in Russian lyrics becomes a problem for English translators. If they are faithful to the Russian authors, then the reader will have the impression that the Russians are too religious.

When a poem is written in the genre of prayer, the question is removed by itself. In other cases, translators seek to avoid this word, as, for example, in the following translations of two poems by F.I. Tyutchev, by the translator Beckett Nemetskiy. The first poem is “The shadows of the gray mixed ...”, where the beginning of the second line is the following one:

Twilight - tranquil, brooding twilight

 Course through me, serene and smooth…

Сумрак тихий, сумрак сонный,

Лейся вглубь моей души…

The phrase “лейся в глубь моей души” can be understood not as “лейся сквозь меня”, but as “наполни меня чувством”.

In fact, the translation is closer to the original than it might seem at first glance. The replacement in this case corresponds to some meanings of the Russian word “душа”. A. Vezhbitskaya writes that “in Russian terms, bodily processes in a typical case appear as affecting the whole person as a whole, while in English they appear as affecting certain parts of the human body, regardless of the person as such” [3, P. 89]. It is determined by the fact that the Russian man loves to describe his emotions so much through the word “душа” that it allows him to talk about himself as a whole. Therefore, in this translation we see a rare example for the English language describing the feelings of a person embracing as a whole, and here the replacement is rather not a loss, but a find of a translator.

Another example in this regard is less successful. This is “Silentium”, in which we are interested in the third line:

 Лишь жить в самом себе умей

Есть целый мир в душе твоей

 Таинственно-волшебных дум…

 Your art shall inner living be.

The world within your fantasy

A kingdom…….

 “Есть целый мир в душе твоей” means that your soul is the whole world, you are the whole world as well, unique and inexhaustible. The translator specifies what F. Tyutchev writes about. At the same time, the universality, applicability to any person of the idea expressed by the author is completely lost.

“Мир” – “the world” became an accessory only in the fantasy. It was invented by a man, moreover, not by any man - but by a creator, a poet.

In this poem there is another mention of the soul, in translation in this place we see the word “hear”– “сердце”:

Молчи, скрывайся и таи

И чувства и мечты свои

Пускай в душевной глубине

Встают и заходят они…

Oh, let your visions rise and die

Within your heart's unfathomed sky…

It is known that such linguists as M.K. Golovanivskaya, E.V. Uryson and some others, referring primarily to the semantics of the lexical unit “soul”, analyse its conceptual sphere based on lexicographic sources, highlighting the figurative components of this concept and its concept-forming differential features that can be described as the basis for identifying national specific characteristics. This kind of analysis is a separate issue that requires a lot of attention. If we assume that the spiritual sphere is conveyed not only by the concept “воля”, but also by the concept “сердце” (in English “soul” and “heart”), then the most superficial statistics can only сause doubt on the point of view that for Anglo-Saxon culture, this concept is less significant than for Russian [6, P. 189].

In French, the Russian word “душа” corresponds mainly to two French words: “âme”, “coeur”. The noun – l'âme,  is used as a kind of energy duplicate of the body, allowing it to function, the “spirit of the flesh”.

V.G. Guck argues that phraseological units are justly considered one of the most striking manifestations of the national-cultural specificity of the language      [5, P. 21]. Thus, it is possible to analyze the features of the use of the lexical expression of the concept “soul” in French. It should be noted that most of the phraseological units of the Russian language with the component “воля” are correlated to the phraseological units of the French language with the component “coeur”. This fact can be explained by the difference in the ethnic stereotype of perception of this concept. If a Frenchman associates a soul more often with a religious concept, then in the Russian mind it is not so much “divine” as “human”, i.e. he connects it with the psychological processes taking place inside the person himself.

I.E. Gorodetskaya argues believes that the Russian people put in the national system of values ​​in the first place the core concept that prevails over mind and common sense – spirituality, soul [7, P. 23-24].

For example:

по душам говорить, беседовать – parler, causer, etc. à coeur ouvert

у него душа нараспашку – il a le coeur sur les lèvres / la main

отвести душу – se soulager le coeur

душа моя (в обращении) – mon coeur

от всей души - de tout mon (ton, etc.) coeur

с замиранием души  –s'en donner le coeur

закрадываться в душ - dans le fond du coeur, au fond du coeur

крик души - le cri du coeur

причинить душевную боль - (crever) le coeur

рвать душу - crucifier le coeur

душа моя - mon coeur

душа болит - avoir le coeur serré

вкладывать в дело всю душу - mettre du coeur à l'ouvrage

If a Russian person prefers to define emotions through the word “душа”, the French attribute many moral judgments and emotional states to the heart. Therefore, the word “coeur” is very often found in French translations, not only in the place of “soul”, but also in other cases difficult to translate, such as impersonal utterances.

Among the phraseological units of the French language with the component “coeur”, a large number of words are included in the lexical-semantic group describing the positive characteristics of a person; among the expressions of the Russian language with the component “душа”- in the “feeling-state”, since in both languages душа / coeur is the centre of not only the conscious, but also the unconscious, not only the soul, but also the body, the centre of sinfulness and holiness, the concentration of all emotions and feelings, thinking and will. It is not only an “organ of senses” and an “organ of desires”, but also an “organ of forebodings,” therefore, the heart is, as it were, the absolute centre of everything human [9, P. 26].

A. Vezhbitskaya, discussing the typical features of the Russian national character, speaks of their excessive emotionality, which manifests itself in a strong emphasis on feelings and their free expression, in the high emotional intensity of Russian speech and in the richness of linguistic means expressing emotions and their shades. Moreover, the Russian language, unlike other European languages, is rich not only in “active” emotional verbs, but also has a whole range of tools “giving people the opportunity to talk about their emotions as independent of their will and uncontrollable by them” [4, P. 44].

Researchers believe that the component “душа” is universal for the French language and through gesture symbols reflects deep excitement, anxiety. The psychological state is described according to the universal model “the body as a receptacle of emotions”, allowing the possibility of linguistic, intracultural heart / soul variation [2, P. 332].

Table 1 presents the correspondence of the meanings of words used to verbalize the concept of “soul” in English, Russian and French.

Table 1– Correspondence of the meanings of words used to verbalize the concept of “soul” in English, Russian and French.

Following Vardanyan L.V. based on these meanings, it is possible to single out the verbalization models of the concept under research in each of these languages [2, P. 76].

The concept «воля» together with the word «soul» is verbalized by the words «heart» and «mind». The last two words have their own meanings, and only part of their meanings (figurative, which are correlated with the meanings of the word “soul”) participate in the verbalization of the studied concept.

In Russian language, the word «сердце» is used to verbalize the concept under research together with the word «душа». The last word, along with its own nominative meanings, has a part of figurative meanings, correlated with the meanings of the word “soul”, which reveal the concept under study.

In French, the concept under research is represented by the word “ame” in all the meanings and the word “coeur” in that part of the meanings that correspond with the meanings of the word “âme”.

The study found that the English word “soul” corresponds to the Russian word “душа” and the French word “âme”.

For example:

another person's soul is a mystery - чужая душа - потемки - l'âme d'une autre personne est un mystère;

lose one's soul - загубить душу - perdre son âme.

There are also cases when, in addition to the indicated words, the words “heart”, “mind”, “life”, “spirit” (sometimes even as different versions of one example) are used in English to represent the concept of “soul”, in Russian - the word “heart”, and in French – “coeur”. Here are the most interesting examples:

to put one's soul into smth. / to have one's heart in smth. / to put life into smth - вкладывать всю душу - mettre du coeur dans qch;

to have a heart to heart talk with smb. - поговорить с кем-либо по душам - parler à quelqu'un à coeur;

- to pull at smb's heartstrings - брать за душу - de tirer au coeur de qn;

- finger's breadth soul in the body - еле-еле душа в теле - il a l'âme sur les lèvres;

- infuse life into smth. / put spirit into smth. - вдохнуть душу  - insuffler de la vie;

- one's heart is heavy - камень на душе / камень на сердце - coeur de pierre;

- to go deep into smb's soul - западать в душу / западать в сердце - mettre de l' âme dans qch.

Thus, the verbalization of the concept of “soul”, taking into account the phraseological units of the English language, is replenished with the words spirit; life; as well as in French word vie.

Thus, to verbalize the concept of “soul” in English, the word “life” is used along with the word “soul”, in Russian the word “душа” is used, in French - in addition to the word “âme”, the words “coeur” and “vie” are used (the literal translation of which is “жизнь”). Here are a few examples:

Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it - Кто станет сберегать душу свою, тот погубит ее - Celui qui veut sauver sa vie la perdra.

To give his life a ransom for many - отдать душу свою для искупления многих - donner sa vie en rançon pour la multitude.

As one can see, the list of words representing the concept “soul” in religious sources can be replenished with one word - “vie”.

Thus, the data obtained as a result of the analysis of phraseological units and religious texts supplement the original concept models, which reflect the verbalization of the concept under study in English and French, while the model of verbalization of the studied concept in Russian remains unchanged.

Conclusion

A comparative analysis of the concept is carried out on the basis of English, Russian and French dictionaries (explanatory and bilingual), lists of meanings of words are developed that reveal the meaningful content of the concept of “soul” in each of these languages.

From the study it became clear that if a Russian person prefers to define emotions through the word “soul”, then the British and French attribute many moral judgments and emotional states to the heart. Therefore, the word “heart”, “coeur” is very often found in English translations, not only in the place of “soul”, but also in other cases difficult for translation, such as impersonal utterances.

As a result, the obtained results supplement the initial models of the concept, displaying the verbalization of the concept under study in English and French, while the model of verbalization of the studied concept in Russian remains unchanged.