VERBAL REPRESENTATION OF FANTASTICAL ANIMAL IMAGERY IN THE CHINESE AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES

Wang Lingjun, Wang Shujun

The article presents a linguocultural comparison of verbal images of fantastic animalistic creatures in the Chinese and Russian languages based on mythological texts, contemporary literary prose, as well as phraseological units and paremias. The analysis combines componential description of meaning, contextual inspection (KWIC), and statistical testing of differences across corpora (the Russian National Corpus, CCL, and Chinese Gigaword), including the calculation of relative frequencies and the proportion of evaluative markedness in samples of contexts. It is demonstrated that in the Chinese linguistic worldview the zoomyths 龙 (dragon), 凤凰 (phoenix), and 麒麟 (qilin) form a stable positive axiological complex associated with power and fertility, harmony and renewal, justice and prosperity; this is confirmed by the predominance of complimentary idiomatic expressions and a high proportion of positive contextual environments. In the Russian tradition, a different model is observed: змей/Змей Горыныч (serpent/Zmey Gorynych) consistently actualizes the semes of danger and hostility in set expressions, whereas жар‑птица (firebird) functions as a marker of good fortune and a desired gift. The comparison demonstrates how cultural attitudes are закрепed in lexico-semantic fields and the phraseological stock, which is essential for interpreting intercultural asymmetry in mythological images that are similar in form.

Keywords:fantastic animals, zoomyths, Chinese mythology, Russian mythology, verbal images, linguoculture, comparative analysis