Phraseologisms expressing intellectual abilities of the man in English, Russian and Uzbek languages



The concepts of mind, intelligence, wit are the abilities of the man to think and control his or her attitude to the reality. These concepts considerably expand the possibilities of the man in cognition everything that surrounds him. Intelligence reflects a degree that reached a certain age, a degree of cognitive development of personality in the degree of mastering mental skills and serves humane to master different kinds of activities successfully adopted in environment.

Intellectual abilities of humane are determined as readiness to effective mastering of different knowledge and skills and represent individual characteristics reflecting how much people can process the information of different type.

Almost all modes of human life, for example peoples’ birth and death, features of their characters, ages, appearance, intellectual activities, professional qualities find reflexion in phraseology of any language. Leaning basically on proper representation about human reasons, the people also have created the evaluations of this phenomenon. And, certainly, all these found their reflexion in language: there was a considerable quantity of the lexical and phraseological units expressing mental ability of the person.

Positive, negative and neutral components of phraseological meaning in which basis lie condemnation, approval or absence of strongly pronounced approval or condemnation as ascertaining of socially settled evaluation of any phenomenon are distinguished. We will give following examples:

– positive meaning: with one's head screwed on (right, the rightway, properly) — ақлли, ақли расо, зеҳни баланд (ўткир);

– negative meaning: one has a screw (a cog, a slate, a tile) loose; one is off his rocker; one is not quite there; one has got apartments to let; one has bats in one's belfry; one is a little wanting; nobody home — узоқ ўйлайдиган, дарров тушуна қолмайдиган, калтафаҳм (зеҳни паст) одам.

– neutral meaning: open one's mind — to gather one’s thoughts.

On the analysis of an investigated material we can distinguish following criteria of the evaluation, enabling to characterise this or that phraseological unit as having positive, negative or neutral evaluating sense.

The first criterion, undoubtedly, are the features of presence/absence of intelligence and mental abilities of the person: Eng. have eyes to see, Russ. голова на плечах, Uzb. aqli joyida; Eng. not to have got a brain in one's head, Russ. винтика не хватает, дурак дураком, Uzb. g’irt ahmoq.

Mental activity of the person is also usually evaluated from a view of its presence/absence: Eng. have all one's buttons on, Russ. котелок варит, шевелить мозгами, Uzb. aqlini ishlatmoq; Eng. have one's head examined, Russ. каша в голове, голова трухой набита, Uzb.miyasi g’ovlagan.

In English language intellectual activity of the person is also evaluated from the point of view of efficiency/inefficiency of its use: be firing on all cylinders, be quick off the mark, be going around in circles.

The analysis of phraseological units, expressing mental abilities of the person, shows that the neutral evaluation consists of the phraseological units expressing intellectual processes, but not specifying in speed or depth of their behaviour, or simply supposing existence of certain mental abilities of the person: Eng. turn of mind, collect one's thought, Russ. приходить на ум, вертится в голове, серое вещество, жить своим умом, Uzb. miyasiga kelmoq, miyasida aylanib yurmoq.

The positive phraseological units expess such features, as power of observation, wisdom, insight, ingenuity, wit, mind, for example: Eng. have and quick wit, Russ. ходячая энциклопедия, остёр на язык, кладезь премудрости, ума палата, Uzb. koni aql, ma’lumoti keng.

Accordingly, in a zone of the negative phraseologisms there are the phraseological units expressing such features as nonsense, limitation, dullness, for example: Eng. an one-track mind, a wooden head, Russ. дубина стоеросовая, мякинная голова, мозги набекрень, как с луны свалился, Uzb. alqi past, kallavaram, dumbul.

Phraseological units expressing talent, endowments, creativity have the highest level of mental abilities: Eng. be the brains behind smth, think outside the box, Russ. семи пядей во лбу, на голову выше, Uzb. aqli raso, boshqalardan bir pog’ona yuqori turmoq.

The negative evaluation can be found in the phraseological units reflecting total absence of mind, mental activity, limitation, and also behaviour, acts, condition: Eng. be gone in the upper storey, Russ. медный лоб, не видеть дальше своего носа, Uzb. kallavaram, qovoqbosh, befahm.

In a zone of positivity there are the phraseological units reflecting such features, as prudence, sensible mind and mental activity: Eng. be of sound mind, Russ. быть в здравом (трезвом) рассудке, Uzb. aqli joyida bo’lmoq. The lack of intelligence, slow speed of mental processes or total absence of normal mental activity of the person often associates with illness (temporary or permanent): Eng. be out of one's senses, Russ. лишаться рассудка, сходить с ума, мозги набекрень, белены объелся, Uzb. aqldan ozmoq, jinni bo’lmoq.

Reference:

1. Волосевич С. П. Замена компонентов фразеологических единиц в аспекте номинации и коммуникации (на материале современного английского языка): Автореф. Дис....канд. филол. наук. — М., 1989.
2. Жуков В. П. Семантика фразеологических оборотов. — М., 1978.
3. Смит Л. П. Фразеология английского языка / Пер. с англ. А. Р. Игнатьева. — М., 1959.