National and cultural specificity of associative relations of the zoosymbol (animal metaphor) "horse" in the Russian, English and Chinese phraseology and paremiology

Ma Mengze, Kurbanov I.

This article is a comparative study of phraseological units and proverbs with the zoosymbol (animal metaphor) component "horse" in Russian, English and Chinese in order to identify its national and cultural specificity. The authors of this study have managed to identify both individual similarities in the nature of the animal symbol "horse" in the Russian, English and Chinese linguistic cultures as well as highlight many specific differences. It is concluded that the zoosymbol (animal metaphor) "horse" has specific differences in the studied languages ​​due to the fact that it is closely connected with the customs, everyday life, peculiarities of historical development, folklore and fiction of a particular language.

Keywords:symbol, zoosymbol (animal metaphor), association, phraseological unit, proverbs and sayings, linguoculture.