Abstract
The article is dedicated to the etymological research of the concept joy in the English and Russian languages. The author reviews the linguistic and cultural evolution of the concept joy during pre-Christian and pre-Christian periods concerning its historical development in the mentality of the ancient British and Russian people. The research of the concept joy in the English and Russian languages includes the etymological analysis of the joy-words. Studying the history of the origin of the words with the meaning “joy”, the author of the article proves that the development of the concept joy in English and Russian had different historical ways in spite of the common cognitive basis. Before 11th – 12th centuries there were no a common word for the joy in the languages of the ancient Anglo-Saxons and the ancient Slavs both. Many words were used with the meaning “joy”. And mostly these words were personifi ed ‒ one could see, hear, feel the joy. Since the 12th century the joy in English and Russian may be already represented with the certain key-words. But though these words appeared in the languages at the same time, their historical evolution was different in both cultures. The structure of the concept joy in the English language is consisted of the words borrowed from the French language. It is connected with Norman conquest of the British Isles. The structure of the concept joy in Russian is consisted of the Slavic-origin words, so one can fi nd synonyms of the joy-words in the all Slavic languages. Having studied the concept joy in English and Russian languages the author of the article came to the conclusion that there are more words with the meaning “joy” in Russian than in English. So one may state that the concept joy in emotional worldview of the Russian people played more important part than the concept joy did in the language and the national culture of the British people.
Keywords
concept, emotion, Norman conquest, pre-Christian period, Christian period, worldview, etymology
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