A comparative analysis of the usage of Greek and Russian proverbs in everyday communication

Theodoridou Eirini ORCID: 0000-0001-7688-3952 Postgraduate student; Institute of Foreign Languages; Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 6 Miklukho-Maklaya str., Moscow, 117198, Russia eirinitheo03@gmail.com

Introduction

Culture as a human activity and as a set of spiritual and material values, norms, ideals and behaviors participates in the multifaceted process of structuring social space and creating society. Culture is people's thoughts, as well as their actions and the results of these actions. Beliefs, knowledge and life values are part of culture. Culture concerns all members of society and is passed on to subsequent generations; it has an internal logic and helps people adapt to the environment, both natural and social ^[7].

Paremias are the most widespread genre of folklore, which is the heritage of an entire nation and embodies the national identity of the speakers. Paremias live in speech and with its help acquire a specific meaning ^[3]. In semiotic terms, proverbs and sayings are linguistic signs of a metaphorical nature used by native speakers to denote situations and relationships that take place in human society and in nature. Paremias studied from the standpoint of etymology and ethnolinguistics provide diverse material for understanding the culture of a particular people ^[6].

It is possible to classify and group different types of paremias according to the following characteristics:

1. A parody is a part of a statement that the speaker completes at will. The use of these units does not depend on the previous context and does not disrupt the conversation.

2. The paremia is integrated into the conversation, unlike other linguistic units such as riddles, fairy tales or anecdotes, which are used in addition to the content of the conversation.

3. Paremia has been traditionally used and spread throughout the history of language development. This feature makes the time factor one of the key properties.

4. Paremia is a component of spoken, not official or literary language.

5. Paremia sometimes has instructive or informative characteristics. However, the didactic tone is not applicable to all examples.

6. Some parodies have either a literal or metaphorical meaning, while others may combine both of these properties.

7. A parody can be humorous. But this is an optional characteristic ^[13].

Everyday sayings and proverbs passed down from generation to generation play a key role in preserving cultural heritage and shaping the spiritual and moral image of society. They, like folk commandments, regulate people's behavior, embodying wisdom and experience accumulated over the centuries. Although these statements may be in the nature of instruction, they are not always moralizing. It is important to note that each saying contains a lesson worth thinking about. The present study is an attempt to determine the functions of paroemias in modern everyday communication and describe how native speakers of Greek and Russian use paroemias in everyday communication. Analyzing paroemias from a cognitive-discursive point of view means determining their role in the communication process, since proverbs and sayings can only be fully described against the background of discourse. The cognitive-discursive paradigm acts as an integral approach aimed at combining different points of view on the subject of research ^[8]. The diversity of cultures is manifested in sayings concerning various spheres of life, including love, friendship, family, health, as well as spiritual and material well-being ^[14].

The main research method is the method of interviewing respondents. The survey was attended by 50 Greek-speaking and 60 Russian-speaking respondents, aged 19-55+. The comparative method was also used in the work, aimed at identifying differences characteristic of the Greek and Russian language material.

Scientific works were used as the theoretical basis of the study, in which paremias are considered within the framework of the theory of knowledge, making up a paremiological picture of the world. ^{[1, 9, 12]}.

Ethnolinguistic and ethnocultural analysis of the formation of proverbs and sayings indicates that these expressions are based on specific life situations. The content of the paremias reflects the cultural heritage, geographical location, religious beliefs and worldview of a certain ethnic group.

The practical significance of this research lies in the possibility of using its results to develop educational programs for the development of students' linguistic and intercultural skills, including the creation of appropriate educational materials and conducting general cultural events.

The main part

The study is based on the following hypothesis that speakers of both Greek and Russian are familiar with a variety of parodies, but do not use them in everyday communication. The study began with the following assumptions:

- "Transparency", clarity -understanding of common paroemias (i.e., how obvious their meaning is, arising from the words they consist of), according to native speakers, may vary and correlate with knowledge previously existing among native speakers.

- The research is based on the results of a survey of respondents conducted in order to identify the understanding and interpretation of the paroemias given to different groups of native speakers from different regions and with different demographic characteristics.

- The study was based on a content analysis of the material of a specific questionnaire, which represents 30 paroemias in Greek and, accordingly, 30 paroemias in Russian, recorded in phraseological dictionaries ^{[4, 5, 10, 15-17]}. Also, the questionnaire contained not only parodies, but also questions aimed at obtaining certain information, such as the frequency of using parodies in everyday communication, the level of understanding of Greek and Russian-speaking informants, etc.

The survey consisted of two parts. At the first stage, the task was set to assess the degree of ease or complexity of interpretation of 30 paroemias by native speakers of Greek and Russian. Based on the results of the first part, a list of paremias was compiled, in which the paremias were arranged according to the degree of ease /difficulty of their interpretation by native speakers. Thus, 844 paremias were selected, which formed the basic material of the study.

During the survey, we recorded the degree of transparency of the meaning of 30 Greek and 30 Russian paroemias for 50 Greek-speaking respondents and 60 Russian-speaking respondents.

The survey material is formed in a logical sequence, starting with literal paroemias (which are easier to understand, even if the respondent has never heard them before) and ending with metaphorical paroemias (if the respondent has never heard them before, then there may be confusion about their meaning).

50 participants participated in the survey on Greek paremiology, of which 31 were female (62%) and 19 were male (38%).

Age of participants: out of 50 respondents, 26 were aged from 19 to 34 years (52%), 12 were aged from 35 to 54 years (24%) and the last 12 were over 55 years old (24%).

Level of education: out of 50 respondents, 30 participants had I degree higher education (bachelor's degree, 60%), 15 participants had II degree higher education (specialty, master's degree, 30%) and 5 participants had III degree higher education (postgraduate, doctoral, 10%).

To the question "Do you know any proverbs and sayings?" 8 participants replied that they know a lot of paroemias (more than a hundred, 16%), 34 participants replied that they also know a lot of paroemias (more than fifty, 68%) and 8 participants replied that they know several paroemias (16%). It is interesting to note that none of the participants replied that they did not know any parodies at all.

Figure 1. Knowledge of proverbs and sayings by Greek-speaking respondents

To the question "Do you use proverbs and sayings in your daily life? If so, how often do you use proverbs and sayings to make your speech more convincing?" 3 participants answered very often (6%), 14 participants answered sometimes (28%), 32 participants answered rarely (64%) and 1 participant answered never (2%).

Figure 2. Frequency of use of proverbs and sayings by Greek-speaking respondents in everyday life

To the question "Do you agree that proverbs and sayings are useful for communicating messages in everyday life?" 10 participants answered completely agree (20%), 28 participants answered agree (56%), 11 participants answered undecided (22%) and 1 participant replied disagree (2%). It is interesting to note that none of the participants replied that they strongly disagree.

Figure 3. The degree of agreement of Greek-speaking respondents with the statement about the usefulness of proverbs and sayings for communicating messages in everyday life

To the question "For what purpose do you use proverbs and sayings?" 24 participants answered to facilitate the understanding of information (48%), 23 participants – to make an argument (46%), 20 participants – to give advice (40%). And only 3 participants answered: another reason (6%).

Figure 4. The purpose of using proverbs and sayings by Greek-speaking respondents

To the question "Do you agree that proverbs and sayings teach us life lessons?" 9 participants said they completely agree (18%), 27 participants agreed (54%), 13 participants were undecided (26%) and 1 participant disagreed (2%). It is important to note that none of the participants replied that they strongly disagree.

Figure 5. The degree of agreement of Greek-speaking respondents with the statement that proverbs and sayings teach life lessons

Regarding the second part of the survey in Greek, as it turned out from the answers of the participants about the use of parodies in everyday communication, the "transparency" of 30 Greek parodies shows fluctuations.

Let's look at some examples in Greek:

Paroimia room 1 of the survey,"As έστρωσες, will κοιμηθείς" (end-to-end translation: how will lie down and sleep) has obvious value, estimated 92% of the participants. In particular, 46 out of 50 participants replied that the meaning of the paremia is absolutely obvious (92%), while only 1 out of 50 participants replied that the paremia has no obvious meaning (2%).

Paroimia number 24 from the survey,"Αλλούτακακαρίσματακιαλλούγεννούνοικότες" (end-to-end in one place, "crow", and the other chickens give birth) is completely transparent value estimated 44% of the participants. In particular, 22 out of 50 participants replied that the meaning of the paremia is absolutely obvious (44%), while only 4 out of 50 participants replied that the paremia has no obvious meaning (8%).

The parody number 21 from the survey "ΔεματιάζΕι αβγά" (end-to-end translation: lay eggs in a sheaf) has an absolutely obvious meaning, according to estimates by 10% of participants. In particular, 5 out of 50 participants replied that the paremia has an absolutely obvious meaning (10%), and 17 out of 50 participants replied that the paremia has no obvious meaning (34%).

Moreover, a statistically positive relationship has emerged between the "transparency" of 30 Greek paroemias and their interpretation by native Greek speakers: the more obvious the meaning of the individual components of the paroemia, the easier this paroemia is to understand.

60 participants participated in the survey on Russian paremiology, of which 39 were female (65%) and 21 were male (35%). Age of participants: out of 60 respondents, 49 participants were aged from 19 to 34 years (81.7%), 10 participants were aged from 35 to 54 years (16.7%) and the last participant was over 55 years old (1.7%). Level of education: out of 60 respondents, 31 participants had I degree higher education (bachelor's degree) (51.7%), 26 participants had II degree higher education (specialty, master's degree) (43.3%) and 3 participants had III degree higher education (postgraduate, doctoral studies) (5%).

To the question "Do you know any proverbs and sayings?" 6 participants replied that they know a lot of paroemias (more than a hundred, 10%), 28 participants replied that they know a lot of paroemias (more than fifty, 46.7%) and 26 participants replied that they know very few paroemias (43.3%). It is interesting to note that none of the participants replied that they did not know any parodies at all.

Figure 6. Knowledge of proverbs and sayings by Russian-speaking respondents

To the question "Do you use proverbs and sayings in your daily life? If so, how often do you use proverbs and sayings to make your speech more convincing?" 7 participants answered very often (11.7%), 30 participants answered sometimes (50%), 19 participants answered rarely (31.7%) and 4 participants answered never (6.7%).

Figure 7. Frequency of use of proverbs and sayings by Russian-speaking respondents in everyday life

To the question "Do you agree that proverbs and sayings are useful for communicating messages in everyday life?" 15 participants answered completely agree (25%), 28 participants answered agree (46.7%), 9 participants answered undecided (15%) and 8 participants replied disagree (13.3%). It is interesting to note that none of the participants replied that they strongly disagree.

Figure 8. The degree of agreement of Russian-speaking respondents with the statement about the usefulness of proverbs and sayings for transmitting messages in everyday life

To the question "For what purpose do you use proverbs and sayings?" 38 participants answered to express irony (63.3%), 32 participants – to relieve tension in communication / to relieve tension (53.3%), 25 participants – to facilitate the understanding of information (41.7%). Interestingly, 2 participants answered: another reason (3.3%).

Figure 9. The purpose of using proverbs and sayings by Russian-speaking respondents

To the question "Do you agree that proverbs and sayings teach us life lessons?" 16 participants said they completely agree (26.7%), 30 participants agreed (50%), 7 participants were undecided (11.7%) and 7 participants disagreed (11.7%). It is important to note that none of the participants replied that they strongly disagree.

Figure 10. The degree of agreement of Russian-speaking respondents with the statement that proverbs and sayings teach life lessons

Russian Russian paroemias: Regarding the second part of the survey, as it turned out from the answers of the participants about the use of paroemias in Russian in everyday communication and in Greek, the "transparency" of 30 Russian paroemias shows fluctuations.

Let's look at some examples in Russian:

The parody number 4 from the survey "Visiting is good, but home is better" has an absolutely obvious meaning, according to estimates by 88.3% of participants. In particular, 53 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has an absolutely obvious meaning (88.3%), and only 2 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has a moderately transparent meaning (3.3%).

The parody number 21 from the survey "The mouse's tears will flow to the cat" has an absolutely obvious meaning, according to estimates of 36.7% of participants. In particular, 22 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has an absolutely obvious meaning (36.7%), and 9 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has no obvious meaning (15%).

The parody number 30 from the survey "Like Martin, like Altyn" has an absolutely obvious meaning, according to estimates by 28.3% of participants. In particular, 17 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has an absolutely obvious meaning (28.3%), and 19 out of 60 participants replied that the paremia has no obvious meaning (31.7%).

Moreover, there was a statistically positive relationship between the "transparency" of 30 Russian languages and their interpretation by native speakers. That is, the more obvious the meaning of the individual components of the paremia, the easier this paremia is to understand.

Conclusion

The study determined the linguistic status of proverbs and sayings in the everyday speech of native speakers of Greek and Russian languages. The survey showed that the majority of participants, both among Greek and Russian speakers, know many proverbs and sayings (more than 50), but use them in everyday communication only occasionally.

Greek-speaking respondents are more likely to use proverbs and sayings to make it easier to understand information and make an argument. Russian-speaking respondents, on the contrary, use them mainly to express irony and relieve tension in communication. Thus, the purposes of using proverbs and sayings differ between these two groups.

The pilot study conducted on the example of 30 Greek and 30 Russian proverbs and sayings allowed us to draw several conclusions:

Background knowledge, or the cultural and linguistic context in which a person grew up, significantly affects how easily they can understand a proverb or saying. The "transparency" of a proverb means how obvious the connection between its elements is and how easy it is to understand it without additional explanations.

If a native speaker has never heard a certain proverb before, but its meaning easily follows from the words that make it up, then such a proverb can be called "transparent". Take, for example, the Greek proverb "Φ φτώχεια θέλει καλοπέραση" (literal translation: poverty wants to have fun). Here, two concepts – poverty and fun – are connected, and their relationship is clear. A person can easily guess that the proverb implies that even poor people want joy and pleasure.

The Russian proverb "There is no smoke without fire." The connection between smoke and fire is obvious: smoke always indicates the presence of fire. This metaphor is easy to understand, since the concepts of "smoke" and "fire" are included in the everyday vocabulary and have an understandable connection.

If a proverb has no obvious connection between its elements or includes cultural concepts unfamiliar to a native speaker, its meaning is more difficult to understand. For example, in the Greek proverb "ΈΓιναν vερό κι αλάτι" (literal translation: became water and salt), the words "water" and "salt" are part of the everyday vocabulary, however, the semantic connection between them in this context is not obvious. Without a cultural or contextual explanation, the meaning of this proverb is difficult to understand. The Russian proverb "Found a scythe on a stone." Here, the concepts of "scythe" and "stone" have no obvious connection, and without knowledge of the cultural context, it is difficult to understand the meaning of this proverb.

Thus, the degree of "transparency" of proverbs and sayings affects how easily they can be understood and used in everyday speech. Proverbs with an obvious metaphorical connection are easier to interpret and more widely used. On the other hand, proverbs with less obvious semantic connections require additional knowledge and context for proper understanding.

Thus, the transparency of the meaning of parodies affects their understanding and use. The more obvious the meaning of the paremia, the easier it is for native speakers to interpret it. For example, paremias with transparent connections between components are easier to understand than those where the connection is less obvious.

It should be noted that people's ability to understand and interpret figurative speech is part of their ability to think abstractly ^[11]. However, an inability to understand and interpret paremiology does not necessarily mean an inability to think abstractly. This may mean difficulty in dealing with metaphorical structures by some people for whom specific parodies are not particularly "transparent".

The above pilot data helped us realize that understanding and interpreting paroemias point to a way to use metaphor in everyday communication. That is, we express our linguistic experience in a unique way, having access to metaphorical meanings, which indicates a non-literal way of our thinking ^[2]. Proverbs and sayings serve as an example of how a person uses language to convey complex ideas and values through metaphorical constructions. They help not only to communicate, but also to understand the world through the prism of culture and language, which is an important aspect of human thinking and cognitive abilities.