Names in Tatar proverbs as a measure of the mental qualities of the people

Abstract

In recent years, in world linguistics much consideration is given to the study of mentality of different peoples. Linguists pay especially great attention to the study of folklore texts, as they describe the historical moments in the life of the people, clearly express the actions and vividly reflect the thoughts of different nationalities. Proverbs are short genres of folklore, they are also bearers of more information about the mental capacities of the people. Despite the fact that the proverbs of different peoples have much in common, yet they contain national awareness. The proverbs, sayings, riddles, and other genres contain historical, national language, linguocultural, extralinguistic information. All this is characteristic for the proverbs of the Tatar language as well. In the Tatar linguistic cultural space the proverbs have been studied more than once, but the mental qualities of the Tatars, as reflected in the descriptions and actions of zoonyms, hitherto, have been not the object of special study. The purpose of this work is the study of the national mentality in the proverbs of the Tatar language. We have used descriptive, semiotic, integrally-contrastive, statistical and linguistic and cultural research methods. The analysis of the factual material showed that the Tatar proverbs clearly express national specific features of attachment to the native land, diligence praising, respect for elders, a positive attitude toward modesty, critic of ostentation, sloth, treachery associated with the past history and traditions of the people.