The National Specifics of Betrayal Metaphors Actualization in English Language Consciousness

Abstract

The article deals with metaphors of betrayal in English. The concept of betrayal studied concerning the peculiarities of its national and cultural actualization. The main issue of the work is to identify the principles of knowledge and ideas about the extra lingual reality presentation in English language consciousness. The significance of the study lies in identifying the axiological dominants of the researched concept cognitive structure, its ethnocultural specificity. The research data includes 543 examples naming betrayal inventoried through the complete selection from dictionaries, the thesaurus of English metaphors, fiction texts, etc. The method applied in this research corresponds to the objectives and data. The semantic and contextual analysis provided in lexicographical sources and fiction texts helps sort out the data collected. All examples divided into blocks: to betray- to scam, to deceive, to betray – to reveal the secret, to betray relations, to betray yourself. The analysis showed that betrayal actualized with the verbs, which contain semes to send a beep, to move in space, to remove, to leave, to put something over something, to leave; nouns – somatics; fauna; geographical objects; artifacts; adjectives with the semantic imperfect; adverbs – out, away. The result of the study shows that to respect confidentiality, personal life, ability to keep the secrets, to be honest, decent, to respect private interests are of primary importance for the English. They mostly appreciate loyalty, devotion, reliability, respect, tolerance in human relationships.