CONSTITUENT LEXEMES OF THE ENGLISH COMPARATIVE IDIOMS DENOTING HUMAN CHARACTER AND TEMPERAMENT TRAITS

Abstract

The article deals with the study of the constituent lexemes of the comparative idioms denoting human character and temperament traits in modern English, taken from Concise Dictionary of Metaphors and Similes. The authors of the article have analyzed comparative idioms denoting positive and negative character traits, which express a person’s attitude toward his or her work, himself/herself, other people and things, and comparative idioms denoting traits that are inherent to the four temperaments – choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic.
A person’s attitude toward work is manifested through such character traits as industriousness, diligence, self-discipline, or laziness. A person’s attitude toward himself/herself is represented by such character traits as independence, modesty, immodesty, pride, ambitiousness, self-confidence, selfishness, self-depreciation, wimpishness, helplessness, and fickleness.
A person’s attitude toward other people is manifested in such character traits as politeness, honesty, fairness, truthfulness, loyalty, sincerity, faithfulness, reliability, self-devotion, kindness, meekness, unfaithfulness, unreliability, envy, jealousy, rudeness, cruelty, ruthlessness, ungratefulness, unprincipled humility, and excessive gullibility. A person’s attitude toward things is demonstrated by such character traits as neatness, generosity, and greediness.
It has been found that the constituent lexemes of the analyzed comparative idioms are represented by the following groups of words: 1) terms relating to age, marital status, family, and extramarital relationships; 2) terms referring to titles, social status, occupation, territorial and national affiliation; 3) names of fictional, mythological, and folklore characters; 4) names of wild and domestic animals and their young; 5) names of wild and domestic birds; 6) names of reptiles and amphibians; 7) names of fish, crustaceans, and other marine animals; 8) names of insects and worms; 9) names of plants, namely flowers, and vegetables; 10) names of natural objects, phenomena, a state of the atmosphere and man-made objects; 11) names of time intervals; 12) abstract terms.