Means of identity verbalization in proverbial world views of Russian and British people

The article is concerned with the means of identity verbalization in proverbial world views of the Russian and British people. It identifies linguistic, cognitive, and linguo-cultural characteristic features of identity verbalization in both cultures. The basis of the research is presented by Russian and English proverbial units analyzed by means of comparison. The similarity in the ways of identity verbalization in Russian and British proverbial funds shows stereotyped and universal character of both cultural and cognitive representations. Some differences revealed in cognitive and linguo-cultural views as well as in specific features of the language system lead to ethnic specificity in identity verbalization. The analysis of identity representation in both proverbial funds confirms the proverbs’ tendency to simultaneous context generalization and multifunctionality. As a result, the means of identity verbalization in both proverbial world views allow us to describe any representative of the nation as an abstract and a generalized person in reference to conventionally structured axiological system of coordinates.