The idea of lying in Russian, French and Chinese

Golovanivskaya Mariya Konstantinovna Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of Area Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 golovanivskaya@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Efimenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-4003-5887 Student, Department of Area Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 efimenko200205@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The idea of lying in Russian

Russian Russian lexicography traditionally understands a lie as an intentional distortion of reality, as a spoken or written untruth, as the realization of an intention to mislead (Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language). Thus, a lie is thought synonymous with deception, a lie told. The word truth has the antonyms deception, lies, and truth has the antonyms lie. The described antonymic pairs go back to the most ancient twin myths and fully reflect the peculiarities of human cognition through opposition.

Truth in the modern interpretation is a divine attribute, a judicial verdict; falsehood, deliberate deception is an attribute of the devil. Not only a person can lie, but also the whole mortal world ("The thought spoken is a lie"). Fallen away Christians tell us that they live from God in lies, but not only in verbal lies, but also in universal lies.

Epistemologically, the false is connected with a delusion, which, returning to the religious point of view, is from the devil, from the eternal imperfection of man, rooted in his nature, and by no means only in intentions.

Indeed, the word truth is not etymologically related to any verb, just like the word truth (to justify does not mean "to tell the truth", but "to remove an accusation from someone"). The truth can be told, but the verb to speak does not reveal to us the specifics of this concept: you can say a lot. The noun lie has a verbal correlate – to lie. Interpretations of the etymology of the noun lie, linking it with the verb lie, differ in Russian science. So, for example, I. M. Stepanova in her report "If it's not a lie, it's the truth" (Stepanova) argued that lying, being a nominal formation from the verb to lie, is etymologically connected with the idea of "lying on the surface", "hiding the truth". A more traditional view of the maternal idea associated with the concept of lying, which comes from the meaning of the etymon "lying down, being sick, weak". In Russian, the word lie is used like this:

wallow in lies, drown in lies, drown in lies, drown, the element of lies, the sea of lies;

to catch someone in a lie, to expose them in a lie, to catch someone in a lie, to punish someone for lying;

something may contain an element of lies; something may be mixed up in lies;

lies can be shameful, outrageous, demonic, arrogant, vile, innocent, for salvation, etc.

The compatibility of the word lie with some adjectives indicates the ethical aspect of lying, interprets lying as something reprehensible, negative, punishable. At the same time, there is an idea of lying for the good, justifiable and saving.

The inevitable conviction The lie is reflected in the saying "everything secret will become clear", and in the centuries-old tradition of punishing a child for lying. This is also confirmed by the corresponding verbal compatibility – to catch in a lie, to catch in a lie, etc. The differentiation of lies into saving and criminal lies is obviously related to the nature of the motive that the liar is guided by – if he lies for the benefit of himself, it is bad, if for the benefit of another, then his lie can be justified.

On a figurative level, a lie is embodied as water, and as bad, dangerous water. Slavic and many other cultures and mythologies contain the idea of living and dead water ^[2]. Living water moves, it gives life, dead water is static, it destroys. The association of lies with a swamp, tightening, sucking, in which you can wallow, on the muddy waters of which you can mix something is a rich image that summarizes many other ideas not only of Russian, but also of wider Indo–European ethnic groups.

Thus, the concept of truth and honesty in many cultures and languages are associated with the idea of clarity. When the explanation, the story, the speech are clear, both the Russians, the French, the Germans, the Italians, and the British speak clearly (clearly, claire, clear, ciago, and so on).

Nebula, turbidity, opacity both in the air (to let the fog in, I vaguely understand) and in the water symbolize the impurity of the narrative, the presence of impure intent in it, behind which there is temptation or other evil.

The activity of the swamp-lie once again emphasizes the idea that lies are not just stagnant, fetid, dangerous water, but a tightening force; it is not for nothing that devils, and goblins, and kikimora are found in swamps, in Russian mythology.

According to the development of the image, a lie is also dirt (and mud in the swamp, you can get bogged down), you can get dirty in it, you can stain yourself with it. Dirt is a universal image associated with black, blackness, darkness, evil.

Hence the difference between untruth and falsehood. We cannot say * vile, vile, demonic untruth, wallow in untruth, punish for untruth. But all these concepts are perfectly combined with the word lie.

The Russian word deception, interpreted in modern language as a deliberate misleading of someone, an untruth expressed, is associated with malicious intent and the evil will of a person. We have no objections to this interpretation with two clarifications: everything personified can also deceive, for example, the weather, a sign, since deception can be involuntary, that is, not malicious. Therefore, you can deceive yourself ("I am glad to be deceived myself"). Self–deception is associated with the concept of illusion - a word that has no negative connotation and is rather interpreted in the Russian mind as a manifestation of dreaminess and personal weakness.

Dahl suggests such synonyms for the word deception ^[3]: cunning, cunning, duplicity, that is, he interprets deception as a kind of behavioral tactic negatively assessed by modern morality. In the contexts given by him, the instrumentality of deception is revealed: The trapper takes it by deception, they take the city by deception, you can't get away from deception.

In modern language, the instrumentality of deception is visible from its compatibility. We speak Russian:

· to achieve something by deception;

· commit, discover, uncover, expose deception;

· to cheat; decide to cheat;

· punish for cheating;

· deception is obvious, shameless, arrogant, sneaky, insidious, conscious, involuntary, etc.

Adjectives that are combined with the concept of "deception" reflect not only a negative assessment of this phenomenon from the point of view of prevailing moral norms, but also an obvious transfer of this assessment from a person to his act. "Deception" is no longer just a verbal statement, but an action that goes beyond verbal communication, which is confirmed by the impossibility of combining it with verbs of speech (for example, it is impossible * to say deception). Deception, being generated by words or actions, is an act that is committed, which is opposed to verbal as something light, elusive and frivolous. This understanding of deception is characteristic of everyday consciousness, in contrast to the scientific approach of linguists who develop a theory of speech acts.

Deception cannot simply be "done"; it can only be "committed" or a person can "commit deception". These verbs emphasize the importance of this action from the point of view of the internal moral control exercised by the human conscience. In addition, deception related to the manipulation of material values is subject to criminal punishment, which underlines its seriousness and social unacceptability. Lying in its widest possible meaning is a property of the mortal world, expressed in appearance or in words and is not prosecuted according to state laws, but only according to human ones.

The idea of lying in French

Now let's turn to the French concept. Mensonge (n.m) is the antonym of verite. In Cesare Ripa ^[11] we find the following allegorical image of this concept:

"A young ugly woman, elaborately dressed, her clothes are iridescent, she is all painted up, as she seeks to hide herself behind false appearances. She is lame, as one of her legs is wooden. In her left hand she carries a bundle of burning brushwood. She is so dressed up because she asserts what is not there, creates an empty appearance. Iridescence symbolizes the impermanence of lies. Burning brushwood is the speed of her life: it quickly lights up and quickly goes out. Both her legs are short."

"Lameness" is a sign characterizing imperfect reasoning or knowledge in both French and Russian. Lameness is immediately visible, lameness indicates unreliability of support, lameness is associated with ugliness, lack of integrity and is one of the portrait characteristics of the devil. Hobbles and other imperfections, as well as imperfections, defects, which we also often associate with lameness. We often say, "Your knowledge is lame" or "He's lame in math." The motif of lameness in mythology is associated with the image of the blacksmith Hephaestus, as well as with Satan, who was often imagined visiting the blacksmiths living on the outskirts ^[5]. This transfer will contain, perhaps, a causal hint: lies are from the devil, as well as bad knowledge, flaws.

The word mensonge was borrowed from folk Latin (* mentionica), which in turn came from late Latin (mentio - deception). This word, recorded in the sixth century, seems to be a continuation of the classical Latin mentio — mention, which developed through the meaning of "false mention" - mention mensongere.

Until the 17th century, this word was feminine, which explains the fact that Cesare Ripa's mensonge is a woman. Since the XIII century, the word denotes a statement contrary to the truth, made for the purpose of deception, a little later it also has a more general meaning – an act of lying. In modern language, there are still some traces of the medieval classification of lies, in which mensonge par omission, mensonge effectif, made with the help of a statement, mensonge joyeux (lies in jest, theological meaning), mensonge officieux (unofficial lies) and le pieux mensonge (lies for salvation), mensonges pernicieux (malicious lies). These expressions continue to actively exist in the language to this day. By extension, this word meant everything illusory, deceptive (since the XII century), continuing the confusion between lies and imagination accepted in antiquity ^[11]. That is why mensonge was used to refer to fiction in art.

It should also be noted that the mixture of deception and fiction, the first associated with the intention to deceive, the second, not related to the intention to deceive for profit, but perhaps even just to entertain, by virtue of its ancient origins, has found its reflection in many European languages.

In modern French, there are four meanings of the word mensonge:

1. The statement, according to the will of its author, contradicts the truth, uttered for the purpose of deception.

2. The act of lying, committing forgery, forgery, deception.

3. The illusory nature of art.

4. What is deceptive is an illusion.

The word mensonge is not rich in compatibility. They speak French:

Tissu de mensonge;

Bourrer le cerveau de qn de mensonges;

Prendre qn en mensonges;

Vivre dans le mensonge;

Esprit de mensonge;

Pere du mensonge;

Mensonge gros, grossier;

Mensonge nait, grandit, grossit.

From the above compatibility, we see that mensonge has a number of associations in the French language that are not too developed and strengthened quantitatively, but in the form in which they exist, they are fixed quite reliably. There is also an association of lies with fabric in the Russian language, and if we consider that the image of fabric is one of the oldest, then, obviously, there are analogies in other languages ^{[6, p. 98]}. We talkThis is sewn with white threads, implying that the deception is too clearly visible.

The association of deception with food also seems to be more or less universal, and not only deception, but the entire conceptual nest (fiction, illusions): cf. you can't feed a nightingale with fables; he feeds me breakfast; I have your lie here (a gesture indicating "fed up") and so on.

The compatibility of the French word allows us to see in it the antonym of the Russian truth, that is, the highest cognitive principle. It is indicated by the phrases living in a lie, the spirit of lies, the father of lies - all these are contexts that represent lies not as a human speech act, but as a manifestation of the highest evil.

In this logic, the animation of mensonge is understandable: she has a devil father, she can be born, grow up, get fat. And in continuation of the described allegorical image, she may also limp.

It should be noted that in this case we are dealing with a situation in which the data presented in dictionaries and the data obtained from the compatibility analysis conflict with each other. The compatibility allows us to reveal that mensonge in French, in its highest and abstract meaning, is similar to the Russian concept of "lie" as an absolute. We believe that this duality of the French language is a consequence of the coexistence of a Christian mythological worldview and a rationalistic approach: the former is preserved in the figurative system of the language, while the latter is reflected in dictionary definitions.

The word lie has two meanings, one of which is not highlighted by dictionaries. Lying is the opposite of truth and malicious deception with the help of statements. The first value is derived from compatibility. The main connotations of lies are the water element, liquid, dirt. Lies in the Russian language consciousness are thought of inanimately, that is, they are someone's belonging, someone's tool. In the Russian semantic field describing the idea of lies and deception, there is an image of curvature-leftism, originally associated with evil (see the previous chapter), but it is not presented directly (as in French), but only in some expressions and derivative words (misinterpretations, a crooked argument, a crooked mirror distorting the truth (hence the kingdom of crooked mirrors as the kingdom of lies), a left-wing case, a left-wing proposal, that is, something that contradicts generally accepted norms and should be hidden.

Deception is a characteristic of malicious behavior of one person towards another, which aims to benefit by misleading. This concept is also thought of inanimately. Its compatibility is related to the assessment of the fact of deception from the point of view of current morality.

The Russian language picture in this area clearly demonstrates the division of the conceptual field into upper and lower, higher and earthly. The idea of a heavenly life, where good and evil, rather than a pantheon of gods, operate, shows the connection of Russian consciousness in this area with the Christian, and not with the pagan interpretation of the world. However, as we have seen, pagan contexts, both Slavic and pan–European, are present in the figurative structure of this concept. The division of the field of knowledge into higher and lower, into truth and truth, the idea of man's blindness to higher knowledge - all these are interpretations of biblical images, a reflection of its messages.

The idea of lying in Chinese

Now let's look at Chinese ideas about lying. The fundamental lexeme for the concept of "lie" in the Chinese language is the word 假 jiǎ ^[12].

The hieroglyph 假 jiǎ is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category, it consists of two components: the semantic part of 亻 rén, indicating the connection of the component with a person, and the phonetic part of 叚 jiǎ, which also has the meaning "fake" or "unimaginative". The original meaning of the token was "false" or "fake" ^{[17, p. 709]}.

However, it is difficult to say that the concept of Ji represents a clear picture in Chinese folk culture, because in Chinese mythology there is no character representing a lie. If we return to the language, the word is often used in combination with the lexeme 真 zhēn, which is its antonym ^[16] — this hieroglyph represents a common lexeme for the concepts of "truth" and "truth".

Obviously, the 假 jiǎ lexeme does not give us a complete picture of the concept, since it is difficult to identify a pattern from it. We can only say that in the modern Chinese language, the token is only used when naming the obvious untruth, for example, 假髻 jiǎjì ("wig" literal translation: fake hair) , 假音 jiǎyīn ("falsetto" literal translation: fake voice), 假面 jiǎmiàn ("mask" is the literal translation: not a real person), etc. ^[12] because Of this, we must turn to the synonymic row, identifying key synonyms, which make the understanding of the concept fully.

Speaking of philosophy, it is important to mention the Taoist Chuang Tzu. In the chapter “Carefree wandering” of the treatise “Chuang Tzu” it was clearly shown that “dream” and “reality” are very difficult to understand. “True” and “false” are also relative. As well as “life” and “death", “joy“ and "sadness", “truth" and “lie" - all these concepts are relative, which is characteristic of the Taoist worldview.

The following phrase was written in the Confucian treatise "Lun Yu": "Promises must be fulfilled, and actions must be effective.– It describes in two aspects what qualities a virtuous person should possess: 1. Through speech (to tell the truth); 2. Through actions (to perform promised deeds). It can be observed that in Confucianism, the criteria that distinguish truth from falsehood are virtue and honesty.

In Chinese, we can derive a semantic series with the following lexemes: 谎 huǎng and 骗 piàn, each of which indicates a feature of the method of committing a lie. Each token must be analyzed separately.

谎 huǎng is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category, the original meaning of the hieroglyph is "speech that does not correspond to reality" ^{[13, pp. 332-333]}. The hieroglyph consists of the key 讠, showing the connection of the hieroglyph with speech, and the part 荒 huāng, which performs not only a phonetic, but also a semantic function. The hieroglyph 荒 huāng originally had the meaning of a field where weeds grow due to neglect ^{[17, p. 48]}, but as part of the lexeme 荒 huāng shows that this speech is empty and uncontrolled.

To identify the peculiarities of the perception of the concept among the Chinese, it is important to note the verbs with which this lexeme is combined. In Chinese, the most commonly used combinations are 说谎 shuōhuǎng and 撒谎 sāhuǎng to denote the action of lying. Of these, 说 shuō, which has the meaning "to speak" ^[13], indicates a way of conveying untruth – through speech. The verb 撒 sā the main meaning is "to spread", so that in turn it can be used from the point of view of semantics with the following language units to refer to any kind of speech acts manipulative nature: 撒娇 sājiāo flippers, 撒泼 sāpō to misbehave, 撒野 sāyě whoop, 撒气 sāqì to vent (anger), 撒刁 sādiāo to get out, etc. you Can make the assumption that the use of the verb 撒 sā in 撒谎 sāhuǎng shows the same manipulative character, as in the above expressions.

Next, we will proceed to the analysis of nouns. According to data from various dictionary sources, 谎言 and 谎话 have almost the same semantics: they denote "false statements". Their main difference is stylistic: as the language corpus shows, 谎言 is used more in the book language, and 谎话 in the spoken language, which will be clearly shown in the analysis of compatibility and identification of significant connotations. The lexeme 谎言 can be combined with the following verbs ^[15]:

By listing these combinations, we can identify the following subject association of this concept in the Chinese language:

1. The enemy army. Lying in Chinese has the image of a person, and even a large group of people, who are opposed. A lie can surround a person, you have to fight with it, overcome it, but in this battle a person wins, since a lie can be defeated, shattered, but there are no such phrases as "lose to it". It is not for nothing that in the Chinese language the lexeme is used in the phraseological unit "the lie surrendered without a fight", that is, the person himself revealed his lie ^[14]. Obviously, this phraseology also shows a connection with the perception of the enemy.

In addition, it is worth paying attention to the counting word 场, which is used with the token. It can also be combined to mean "one battle", "one battle", "one war", etc. This fact also indicates the perception of the act of lying as a rivalry, where one side tries to reveal the lie, and the other tries to hide it, and so the fight takes place. Thus, it can be concluded that a lie has a substantive association with a strong enemy army, which, however, can be defeated.

2. Window paper. Lying in Chinese can also be considered as an object, since it can be created, namely, woven. Interestingly, the Chinese do not say sew or weave in this case, which indicates the peculiarity of this object – that a product made of this material can be pierced, which means that this material is not strong enough. It is no coincidence that in the Chinese language there is a phraseological unit 捅破窗户纸, which literally means "to pierce the window paper" ^[13], and its figurative meaning is "to make the secret explicit, to speak directly." In this case, the window paper plays the role of a curtain, where people are moderately silent about something, and in order to achieve the truth, it is necessary to pierce this window paper ^[14].

3. The web. Lies spread, they can cover something, they weave, they can be broken. All these characteristics can be possessed by a web, and if it is left unattended for a long time, it will become many times larger than the original one and will cover what was at first.

The token 谎话 has the following combinations:

说谎话 shuō huǎnghuà "telling lies";

编造谎话 biānzào huǎnghuà "fabricate lies";

制造谎话 zhìzào huǎnghuà "making lies";

讲谎话 jiǎng huǎnghuà "telling lies";

听谎话 tīng huǎnghuà "listening to lies".

We see that it is impossible to identify a material connotation in the lexeme 谎话, since only direct action is manifested in its compatibility: it is expressed, created and listened to. This is due to the peculiarities of literary and spoken languages. Literary language is richer than spoken language, as they differ in function: literary language is more focused on expression, and spoken language is more focused on practicality. No wonder academician L. V. Shcherba said: "the comparative advantage of individual literary languages <...> is determined primarily by the wealth of available means of expression for both general and particular concepts" ^[10].

In Chinese, there is a synonym for the lexeme 谎 – this is the lexeme 骗, the semantic function of which is similar to the Russian word deception. Next, we will proceed to the analysis of the token 谎 and its compatibility.

The hieroglyph has a very complex etymology. Judging by the modern hieroglyph, there is a clear discrepancy in the meaning, since the hieroglyph is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category, consisting of the key, showing the connection of the original value with the horse, and the phonetic grapheme. According to the treatise "Zuan Wen", written by the thinker of the Song Dynasty in the era of the Southern dynasties He Chengtian in the 5th century, the meaning of the lexeme was given such a definition: ^[18] - "jumping on a horse" (our translation. – N. A.). Thus, we see that the meaning of deception came to the lexeme later, and initially it meant a completely different action. With the help of the language corpus, we can determine the diachrony of changes in the semantics of a lexeme in a literary language. After studying more than 200 examples, it was concluded that the meaning of deception, which is well known in modern Chinese, the lexeme received no earlier than the period of the Southern Song Dynasty, that is, already in the 12th century. Accordingly, the study of the lexeme 骗 cannot show us the exact perception of this concept by the ancient Chinese and we need to find the hieroglyph from which 骗 has taken over the meaning.

Here it is worth paying attention to another hieroglyph that has the same phonetic grapheme, but differs in key – this is the hieroglyph 谝, which has the maximum probability of being the source for the concept of deception in the Chinese language. The hieroglyph consists of the key 讠, indicating a connection with oral speech, and the phonetic grapheme 扁; the initial meaning of the hieroglyph was "to deceive", and later it acquired the meaning of deception ^{[17, p. 188]}. Thus, it can be seen that the concept of deception is also associated with human oral speech, however, compared to the concept of 谎, it emphasizes beautiful words more, which in the end are not fulfilled and are still perceived as untrue. The lexeme 谝 still exists in modern Chinese, but the frequency of its use is very low, and the referent "deception" is transmitted by the lexeme 骗, which borrowed the meaning, and it strengthened behind it.

Let's show why these changes are absolutely logical and possible to explain. In modern Chinese, when we say about a lie: "he lied", then it will mean untruth only in words; however, when we say "he was deceived", then it means untruth in actions, including lies, but not limited to it. It is also important to note that when using the 谎 token, we only mean that someone told a lie; but when using the 骗 token, in almost all cases we say that the person suffered because of deception. If the key 讠 were used for deception, then it would be inappropriate to show the action with it, and the key 马 just shows the action. It can be assumed that this was the reason for its use.

However, even so, it is still impossible to ignore the connection between deception and speech, which is why in modern Chinese the lexeme is most often used with two verbs: 欺 and 诈. If you look at their origin, then both of them have an etymology associated with the word, because the key 欠 indicates the release of air from the mouth and speaking, and the key 讠 directly indicates a connection with speech. If we evaluate the data of the language corpus, it is clear that from the very beginning verbs denoted actions related to linguistic deception. But in modern times, a huge number of varieties of deception have appeared, for example, financial, personal fraud, false advertising, fake products, etc., which is why 骗 gradually began to have in itself not only the meaning of deception in speech, but also deception in actions.

As we can see, modern Chinese does not use a single hieroglyph, it is necessary to analyze the compatibility of words. But the hieroglyph itself must be examined separately.

Conclusion

Let's summarize the results. Being essentially remnants of old myths, old ideological oppositions, both Russian and French concepts describing this binary opposition of truth/falsehood have preserved much of the ancient symbolism. Images of the sun, the sun, bad water, mud, fabric, thread - all these are universal metaphors that connect the Indo-European figurative and cognitive field into a single global worldview fragment.

For example, the image of weaving intrigues as a web covers the entire field of so-called verbal and event-based cunning: reasoning, phrase, text – weave, consist of threads in which you can get entangled (tangles) or confuse. The intricacy is logic, images that are difficult to untangle, but easy to get confused. In this metaphorical image, we see the association of the verbal with the feminine (to weave / braid hair; the hair is long, and the mind is short) and through this often with the false, visible, apparent (invariatively, female beauty is a temptation coming from the devil, temptation). The association of speech with female seems especially motivated in the light of recent discoveries indicating a greater development of the speech areas of the brain in women, which is associated with its function to raise children, and with just an ordinary idea of women's talkativeness, about empty talk, which they often sin and often disinterestedly.

The metaphor of the war of two principles: light and darkness, truth and falsehood, and so on is also represented in the compatibility of these concepts in two languages and is also archaic. The war of abstract, higher forces precedes the creation of the world and the division of all things into two opposite sexes, everything that exists is often perceived in mythological systems as a result of global confrontations. From what has been said here, we can conclude that both Russian and French concepts go back to common mythological prototypical concepts associated with the original dualistic opposition, part of which is the opposition, including male and female. It is obvious that these ancient myths continue their life in modern consciousness, discarding in the thickness of time all that did not agree well with their logic, in particular the association of truth with cash.

In Chinese, if we consider truth and falsehood as comparable concepts, then we must analyze 假 (untruth, lie) and 真 (truth). However, 假 is not so often used in the language, which makes it difficult to analyze it. In addition to being a philosophical concept, it is used to refer to something that does not correspond to reality. Because of this, difficulties arise with the selection of semes in modern Chinese. Besides him, in Chinese there are the concepts of 谎 huǎng and 骗 piàn, suitable for analysis. Russian Russian, they will correspond to the Russian concepts of “lies” and “deception”.

We see, based on the image, that a lie is not something that requires effort to destroy, but rather is itself subject to disintegration over time. There is also the idea that lies are easy to “pierce”, which is similar to the French way of fabric. A person can create a lie as well as reveal it.

One can clearly say about the influence that it comes from the classical Confucian idea of a moral criterion, where lies are manifested in speech and actions.