Russian paremias and the mechanisms of human thinking (the expression of generalized value)

In the article proverbs and sayings reflecting the scope of human knowledge about the surrounding world are characterized as the material that allows to investigate cogitative processes of the native speaker. The structural and substantial features of paremias are considered, which makes it possible to use proverbs and sayings as a diagnostic tool in studying the thesaurus, peculiarities of person’s psyche; in identification and investigation of disorders in operational side of thinking in psychology, pathopsychology and pedagogy. Russian paremias recorded in the National corpus of the Russian language, which were used in psychological tests to study the level of thinking, were analyzed. The results of the questionnaire surveyof students of technical and humanitarian specialization, which reflect the thesaurus, the level of judgment, the development of logical thinking and intelligence, cultural values, individual knowledge and preferences of native speakers of modern Russian language are described. It is concluded that, on the basis of recipients’ comprehension of generalized meaning of Russian paremias, which reflects the ability to perceive and highlight generalized conclusions about the typical life situation, it is possible to investigate the specificity of thinking of native speakers, caused by mental peculiarities, selectivity of memory mechanisms, the level of logical thinking and intelligence, and also the degree of formation of linguistic, cultural and professional competence of a modern Russian language native speaker.