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26PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ON EVALUATIVE STNACES OF IDIOMS WITH THE COMPONENT "FLOWER" IN ENGLISH
AND ARMENIAN LINGUO-CULTURES
Hovhannisyan A.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6884577
ABSTRACT
Extensive research on phraseology in the last decates has led to new theories and perspectives. The article focuses on the use of phraseological units in cross-linguistic and cross cultural context. Specifically, the paper is primarily devoted to outlining the architecture and semantics of idiomatic expressions with the component "flower" and their counterparts in Armenian trasnlations from the perspective of modal meanings.
By employing the method of comparing the excerpts from literary sources in the source and target languages we found out that these idiomatic expressions have similar and distinctive features both in linguistic choices and cultural values.
Keywords: idiomatic expression, semantic characteristic, structural characteristic, translation strategy, equivalence, etc..
Botany is a natural science concerned with the study of plants. Botany also includes vegetables, fruits and our study will focus on idioms with "flower" component.
Idioms both in speaking and writing form are an essential part of language and culture. This is a basic premise on which most of the issues raised in the current study are built on. Fruits and vegetables are terms, though have fixed meanings in botany and food preparation are not easily grasped when they are used idiomatically in American daily discourse being the main goal of the study. (H. Halawachy, 2013).
Different fields of life, definitely, cannot exclude such lexical items - botanists' encounters, cooking programs, slimmer's magazines, and doctors' different pieces of advice to patients, and even the customers and shopkeepers' daily discourse. Linguistically, the dynamics of botanical components, as lexical items, is significant in their association with other lexical items forming idioms, sayings, proverbs, etc. which, in turn, encapsulated in collocation. (H. Halawachy, 2013).
The same botanical component can be used in both connotative and denotative meanings and when this happens a translator should understand whether it is used literally or idiomatically. For example, the denotative meaning of the lexical item "banana" (an elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft usually yellow rind - Merriam Webster) has a connotative meaning as "top banana " (the leading comedian in vaudeville, burlesque, etc. ; the leader; boss - Collins dictionary).
This research presents an in-depth analysis of translation techniques adopted for each English idiomatic phrase in Armenian; with the aim of sketching up some possible contrasts and common features between English idioms and their counterparts in Armenian.
Our study is one-directional, taking English as a starting point and is based on the analysis of synchronic research data. More often we encountered difficulties stemming from the lack of rich translation data in Armenian and in this case our comparative analysis was interwoven with a cross-linguistic one. Such an approach enabled us to get valuable insights into the study
of this liguistic phenomenon. In many cultures a specific flower can have its own traits, characteristics and can symbolize something. Flowers can even imply positive or negative modal meanings that can have different modifications in different cultures. In such cases idioms operate as encoded resources for amplifying atti-tudinal meanings to the entities they describe. However, they entail multiple connotative meanings in different cultures.
The flower 'ivy' symbolizes fidelity; eternity, etc., "daisies" symbolize childhood innocence, simplicity and joy in many cultures. However not all flowers are loved and believed to have positive stance, for example, chrysanthemums are viewed exclusively as a symbol of mourning, sympathy, and death in France, Belgium, Austria, Italy, other European countries, and also Japan. They're only given as a token of sympathy or grief, and they're reserved for memorial flowers, funeral wreaths, and cemetery decorations. In Britain, however, chrysanthemum meaning aligns more closely with the symbolism recognized in the United States: cheerfulness and joy, optimism, and longevity (source: https://www.petalrepublic.com/chrysanthemum-mean-ing/).
In Ancient Greece, the Greeks would wear wreaths of ivy on triumphant occasions. Ivy was also sometimes given to victorious athletes in ancient Olympic Games. Fidelity was highly valued by Victorians in Victorian era. No wonder the ivy motif was popular in gifts at the time, such as friendship brooches. One of the common names of ivy is "lovestone" in Britain due to its tendency to grow over bricks and stones. Ivy clings to any surface, making it a perfect representation of wedded love and fidelity. Ivy represents prestige in the context of universities in the US. The eight Ivy League universities are highly prestigious and include the likes of Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Brown and Cornell (source: https://symbolsage.com/ivy-symbolism-and-meaning/).
• Daisy: according to Cambridge dictionary is a small flower with white petals and a yellow centre that often grows in grass. The word "daisy" is from Old English dsges eage, meaning day's eye.
It is said that daisies symbolize innocence and purity. This stems from an old Celtic legend. According to the legend, whenever an infant died, God sprinkled daisies over the earth to cheer the parents up. In Norse mythology, the daisy is Freya's sacred flower. Freya is the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, and as such daisy symbolizes childbirth, motherhood, and new beginnings (source: https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/daisy-meaning-and-symbolism).
It is noteworthy that the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) in The Prologue to The Legend of Good Women touched upon the etymology of the word "daisy":
" ... to loke upon the dayesie, That wel by reson men it calle may The 'dayesye', or elles the 'ye of day', The emperice and flour offloures alle. translation: to look upon the daisy, That for good reason men do name The 'day's eye' or else the 'eye of day', The Empress, and flower offlowers all." Fresh as a daisy - tUhpqpwjnl Lp, IhUunLpw^ "Fresh as a daisy" encodes the following meaning - to be full of energy and enthusiasm (Cambridge dictionary).The idiomatic expression is founded on simile and amplifies positive stance toward the entities it describes. "The simile to be (as) fresh as a daisy, meaning to be healthy and full of energy, possibly, comes from the presumption that the daisy never gets tired because it 'sleeps' every night" (Treguer P., 2017).
There is a hypothesis that the bud of the daisy opens in the morning and closes at night. This fact is associated with the human eye. Some mention that even the petals of the flower bear a resemblance to human eyelashes (Treguer P., 2017).
The phrase conveys positive overtone itself and this modal meaning is empathetically stressed by the adjective "fresh", functioning here as an attribute. Pushing up daisies -IwhwUwL Now move to the following phrase "pushing up daisies" and its variation "turn up one's toes to the daisies". In contrast to the phrase "fresh as a daisy", the above-mentioned idioms amplify negative modal meanings - to be dead, as the source of negative evaluation is the context; specifically the phrases contain lexical elements with negative stance (push up, turn up one's toes). This fact can create ambiguity and many difficulties while translating them.
The origin of the idiom is not known, however there is a hypothesis that the idiom was erected during a war. One of such examples is "A Terre" by Wilfred Owen, written during the World War One. The poetry is about the war and lives being taken away because of it. The writer uses the idiom in the seventh stanza of the poem:
"I shall be one with nature, herb, and stone, " Shelley would tell me. Shelley would be stunned: The dullest Tommy hugs that fancy now. "Pushing up daisies," is their creed, you know. "
Some people reading this would hardly understand the meaning of the lines if they are not familiar with the idiom, the same is for translators. It is said that this idiom is used to make the speech more colourful, like any other idiom, however the idiom is used humorously and has an ironic effect.
Based upon the semantic criterion of conceptualization of idioms, the idiomatic expressions under discussion can be classified as semi-opaque: "idiom is semi-opaque where the meaning is not as easy, but may be possible to guess (Fernando & Flavell, 1981). Functionally these idioms with the component "daisy" can be defined as figurative expressions as they outline the style through the images of simile (fresh as a daisy) and apart from it they convey humorous attitudinal meaning to the entities they describe (pushing up daisies, turn up one's toes to the daisies).
The translation of the idiom "pushing up daisies" can be reached by using one of the methods suggested by M. Baker. The idiom can be translated by giving a translation with similar meaning but dissimilar form in the given language. For example, in Armenian language we can find idioms encompassing the same meaning such as "qhphqIwU ImUhi", "nmUhpp &qti", "Um^tpp mU^ti", "wjU m2^mph qUmj", etc. (Armenian Dictionary of Idioms, 2011).
In the target language the phrase "IjwUpp tnrni" (Modern Armenian Explanatory Dictionary) replicates the same situation as in the original (fresh as a daisy), whilst using completely different wording. It is important to underline that in Armenian the English phrase lost its idiomatic status being transformed into a free combination and implying a positive modal meaning.
Below are adduced several excerpts from Armenian literature to unveil disproportions between structural patterning in contrastive languages.
1. UUIU&bl - PU^iqhu, oppUwtf hpwlwUngq hwlwp: ShuUntI hi pwmwuntUhplnt inwphlwU Iwpi hu, iwqhpq tihplwlhi hU, ihppq bmilhi t h tip, pipl-pipl wuhinil, hwnlnil hu: bpwUp qpmhUwjp wjuop-tqntg np nwiihpi} ¿.qhu, lUpli qpiqwUnidii iqwmwUp ifinr IqsUp:
(CpplwUqwqb, 1905)
IlUrPb3Ub- wpnr tqwUhi, pwjghuqnUh hwUqpum hnqnl llhmUhl:
2. — ilpnlhhmh IwpuntU h hpUq inwphlwU Ihlp wlhp qhphqIwU, pwUph w2fuwph IwUhini tqwwpwuwlhinL t mump, [nip inwppppU hpwIwUwgp hUwqwUih[nl tqwmpwumlhgwl qhphqIwU liinhhini h wUlnrpU Imwl UUlnrpUp qhphqIwU mwUnr wpwhhspU IwjwpwUU t, nip Iwpipl pphUg innluwlU nt wUgwqppp IwmUhUrn lp IhlUpU: [84]
(I. ^wpnUjwU, 1968)
3. - b2wUwlni! w iqmp unlwbwUwI... Pw hhUgntqntI hu unipg iiwihpu inhljh iI:
(ft. U. q-jnLiUwqwpjwU, 1991)
In the deduced three examples differently worded idioms in Armenian entail the similar meaning. Though the concept of the simile of the original text is non-adequate, in the translation neither cultural misunderstanding nor clashes rise between the message and the TT reader. Specifically, in both languages the idioms amplify negative attitudinal meaning embroidered with the effect of irony, disrespect. English idioms and their conveyance in Armenian create similar reactions for native and foreign readers. The utterance in Armenian perfectly entails a very colloquial tone of the phrase.
A bed of roses\to be all roses - ht2S, ^rnq nL imp
• Rose: the idioms with the flower component "rose": "a bed of roses" and its variation "to be all roses". Floriography, that is the language of flowers, suggests that the flower rose has the meanings of love, passion, romance, beauty, discretion, elegance, luxury, and sensuality. Roses are ancient flowers, in fact, paleontologists discovered rose fossils that are 35 million years old. And early cultivations of roses took place about 5,000 years ago (Becker, H. F., 1963). It is also believed that this flower was associated with the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite (Cyrino, Monica S., 2010). The idiom "bed of roses" according to Merriam Webster dictionary entails the following meaning - a place or situation of agreeable ease. When used literary it describes something luxurious. Semantically this idiom can be defined a pure idiom as the claim is that 'pure idioms' include those that have both a literal and a no literal meaning (Cowie, 1988; Fernando & Flavell, 1981). This can be a great ambiguity for the translator, and the translation must be achieved by taking into account the context and understanding whether it is used literally or idiomatically. However, another variant of the same idiom "to be all roses" cannot be defined a pure idiom; it can be labelled a figurative idiom - a group of expressions which have figurative meanings but which also keep a current literal interpretation (Cowie et al., 1983).
It is said that the idiom is used first in England and has been used at least since 1200s. It was first used as an idiom by Christopher Marlowe in his poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. This was published in 1599 after his death; Marlowe died in 1593 (source: https://literarydevices.net/a-bed-of-roses/). Here are the lines (3-4 stanza, lines 9-10) where the idiom is mentioned: " ... And I will make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies; A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle... " Translation:
" ... And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle... " The next extract with the usage of the idiom is taken from the novel "Say no to death".
By the time Doreen left for the office next morning she felt as though she had already done a day's work. Of course it was wonderful to have Jan home, particularly when Jan herself was so wildly delighted, but it wasn 't to be all roses. [233]
(D. Cusack, 1967)
Ph±pmh tp lixupqlxuhg thp ithnhhip - famij nL iyiuji:
^ttfcp<ijmh, 1922) Here again one may find a synonymic pair to the phrase - "fun and games", with its equivalent in the target languages "^mq nL imp" and entailing the meaning very easy. As it can be noticed in the target language we have an example of simile. The translator has found its appropriate construction to give some explic-itness to the simile in order to make the concept of the simile close to the perception of the Armenian reader.
Translation can be performed also by Armenian synonymous equivalent "tji pmdml/ qmi[mp pntp JulhiuL vqhu" where is recalled the necessary stylistic device (simile). In the Armenian-English dictionary of sayings and phrases (Seferyan, 2003) we can find an expression "tfthvrniph pwpA qijuji inwl" which is adequate to the meaning of "bed of roses". However, the change of the component "flower" cannot be observed in any of the Armenian variations of the translation.
As we can see the positive overtone of the English phrase and its complicated meaning happen to present difficulties for interpretation and translation. The positive value of the phrase is rendered in Armenian by two different poles - positive (ht2s) and negative (fcmq nL imp, ^tmnLpt pmpA. qi^fc sml). Under the rose - qmqshfc, "Under the rose" means in secret; privately; sub rosa (Collins dictionary). Sub rosa literally means "under the rose" in New Latin. Since ancient times, the rose has often been associated with secrecy. In ancient mythology, Cupid gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to keep him from telling about the indiscretions of Venus. Roses have also been placed over confessionals as a symbol of the confidentiality of confession. Sub rosa entered the English language in the 17th century, and even before then, people were using the English version, "under the rose" (source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sub rosa#:~:text=Sub%20rosa%20liter-ally%20means%20%22under,about%20the%20indis-cretions%20of%20Venus.). Semantically this idiom can be defined as a figurative idiom, as the expression has figurative meaning (in terms of the whole combination in each case) and also keeps a current literal interpretation (Cowie et al., 1983).
Here is an example with the idiom "under the rose" from "The Three of Hearts" by Jack London:
"Tampico Petroleum is up—two points—you should worry, " he opined.
"That's what I say, " Francis concurred. "I should worry. But just the same, do you think some bunch, onto the inside value of it—and it's big—I speak under the rose, you know, I mean in absolute confidence?" [8]
- «Shifiqjiln uqhppnjJmLtJi»
pwdhhwnituhpp pmpApmghi hh ... hplni qjib... Pul fhq ¡lulmiqhu }i h±h t vuhhiuhquunughntt, -hmpgphg hm:
- 1h npUj, - tqwwwufuwUhg 3phUupup: -'Tlwpqwiqhu npUj: Pwjg imp ¿hp Iwpbnti wpiynp, np pUj-np Jumip ntqnti t «ShliqfilnU» pp AhmpU wmUhi w]up wji AhmUwplnppjwU vqnmhUgpwi wpdhpp ippfuwpp t Uju pwUp, pUjiqhu hwufywUml hp, ihp ihp wuwb. wjupUpU, ntqnti hi wuhi fojiuin qwqinbp: [238]
The English idiom is replaced by the Armenian free combination "^purn qwrsUp", meaning "confidential, secretive, covert". The translated variant is not idiomatic and the translation method used here is paraphrasing. It is noticeable that the translator uses the adjective ^purn which operates as an attribute and the whole attributal combination completely embraces the positive message of English phrase.
• Lily: flower that is believed to have between 80 and 100 species grown natively all over the world. The mythology linked to lilies commonly dates back to the story of Zeus and Hera. According to mythology, Zeus wanted his son Hercules to drink some of Hera's milk. However, because Hercules was born of another woman, Hera refused to feed the child her milk. Sneak-ily, Zeus then brought the baby to Hera to drink her milk while she was asleep. When she woke up and realised what was happening, she pushed them both away. It's said that the drops of milk that fell onto the ground grew into the beautiful white lilies we. Therefore, lilies have long been associated with love, devotion, purity and fertility. The sweet and innocent beauty of the flower has ensured it remains tied to the ideas of fresh new life and rebirth (source: https ://trulyexperi-ences.com/blo g/lily -flower-meaning/ ).
• Flower: the word "flower" has two meanings, first blossom; a cut stem of a plant with its flower; inflorescence, which is the botanical meaning of the word, and the second meaning is "the best part or example"; "the finest most vigorous period"; "a state of blooming or flourishing" (Merriam Webster dictionary). These meanings are intertwined and are hard to distinguish in the context. There are many examples of expressions with the component of flower that are far from their denotational meaning, such as a flower child (a hippie who advocates love, beauty, and peace, commonly by wearing flowers), flower power (a nonviolent ethic as advocated by hippies).
The flower of generation(s)- uhpUqp fcwiplp In our opinion the flower of generation is a semiidiom: phrases where at least one word contributes its literal meaning (Cowie, 1981; Newmeyer, 1974; Weinreich, 1969), which in this patterning is the word "generation". The example that is under the discussion is from "The Scarlet Plague" (1912) by Jack London:
But his only child was Vesta, the perfect flower of generations of the highest culture this planet has ever produced. [147]
Pwjg Upw ipwl hphfuwU HhumwU tp wihUwpwpAp Imimmpwjp wjU Iwmwpjwi inwjJiliji, npp hpphtbUhi tp ihp ininpwlp: [676] The component "flower" in this example has nothing to do with hippies, as the terms "flower power" and "flower child" were created in 1960s and The Scarlet
Plague was written in 1912, so the meaning of "peace and nonviolence" should be excluded in this case. It is possible that it may convey the meaning of "blossom" or the connotative meaning "the best example" of its generation. The translation implies transformation from the level of word-combination to the level of word and conveys positive attitudinal stance.
In the flower of one's adolescence -iwmwUhlnLpjwU fcwrllwU 2p2mU, &wrpl hwuwl
The expression "in the flower of one's adolescence", also has another variation which is "in the flower of somebody's youth", and means the time when someone was young and in the best and most active period of life (Cambridge dictionary). Semantically, the idiom is semi-opaque idiom, where the meaning is not as easy, but may be possible, to guess (Fernando & Fla-vell, 1981). The word "adolescence" is defined as the period of time in a person's life when they are developing into an adult (Cambridge dictionary). The example below is taken from the "John Barleycorn" by Jack London.
I was in the flower of my adolescence, a- thrill with romance and adventure, dreaming of wild life in the wild man-world. Little I guessed how all the warp and woof of that man-world was entangled with alcohol. [19]
Pi vqwmwhhlnipjwh iwijlIwh 2p£whntI
tp, hpwqnti tp wpmwunlnp wpfywbUhpp m hnlwhhUUhpp hpnuwlwfuipp iwupU, ¿Iwulwbhinl wUqwi, np ph wplwbUhpp, ph hpnuwlwjumipp ip wrpjmp ntUhU nqhpg Juipfp: [33]
There is an Armenian expression "fcwrpl hwuwl" that contains the component "flower" in its architecture and conveys the same sense. The structure of the Armenian language prompts the most Armenian way of translating the expression by using the noun components in the phrase in necessary case forms and collocating it with the addition of the word "2p2wU".
Both in the source and target text the idiomatic expression amplifies positive meaning.
To sum up, idioms are integral part of a language which makes our speech more colourful and authentically native.
The results show that interpretations on the relation holding between the denotative and connotative meanings of the idioms under investigation is cultural-specific.
Both languages have many universal framings within their culture. This may be the result of the influence by Greek mythology, Bible, prominent historical events, wide international communication, etc.
Idioms are communal tokens that enable speakers to express their attitude towards the enteties they describe.
The evaluative stances are positive, negative or neutral effects of idioms in speech according to the situations. The great majotity of idioms with the component "flower" amplify positive or negative meanings. Apart from the proportion of stances in contrastive languages are of great value cases of dual modification
both in the frame of a single language and from the perspective of cross-linguistic studies. It happens that positive evaluative meaning can be transferred into Armenian amplifying negative stance or negative valuation is transferred into a positive one.
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22. https://www.petalrepublic.com/chrysanthe-mum-meaning/
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24. https ://symbolsage.com/ivy -symbolism-and-meaning/
25. Pascal Treguer, 2017, accessed Feb, https://wordhistories.net/2017/02/25/fresh-as-a-daisy/
26. https ://literarydevices.net/a-bed-of-roses/
