Symbolic Representation of Human Intellectual Abilities in English And Russian Phraseology

This study examines the symbolic foundations of English and Russian phraseological units characterizing human intellectual abilities. Phraseological units are regarded as important carriers of cultural knowledge, collective experience, and national worldviews. The research aims to identify the principal symbolic models underlying the representation of intelligence, wisdom, foolishness, memory, knowledge acquisition, and mental activity in English and Russian phraseology. The material consists of phraseological units collected from English and Russian phraseological dictionaries and literary texts. The study employs semantic, componential, comparative, and linguocultural methods of analysis. The findings reveal several major phraseo-semantic groups associated with intellectual abilities, including intelligence, foolishness, limited intellectual capacity, memory, knowledge, and thinking processes. The analysis demonstrates that phraseological meaning is largely structured through symbolic images such as the head and brain as centers of cognition, vision as a metaphor for understanding, light as a symbol of wisdom, machinery as a model of cognitive organization, and authority as a representation of rational control. Comparative analysis indicates the presence of both universal cognitive patterns and culture-specific symbolic associations in English and Russian phraseological systems. The study confirms that phraseology functions as a repository of cultural symbolism and contributes to the preservation and transmission of culturally embedded conceptualizations of intellectual activity.

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