THE REPRESENTATION OF ANTHROPOCENTRISM IN ENGLISH PAREMIOLOGICAL UNITS

Abstract

This article investigates the manifestation of anthropocentrism in English paremiological units within the framework of anthropocentric and linguocultural approaches. The relevance of the study is determined by the growing prominence of the human-centered paradigm in modern linguistics and by the potential of paremiological material to reveal national mentality through language. The main objective of the research is to identify the mechanisms of explicit and implicit representation of the human factor in English proverbs and to classify them according to universal and national-cultural semantic layers. The research is based on a paremiological minimum consisting of 380 English proverbs compiled through the method of complete selection. Semantic, structural, and linguocultural analyses were employed to examine the ways anthropocentrism is reflected in these units. The findings demonstrate that English paremiological material embodies universal human values such as patience, diligence, responsibility, honesty, and emotional restraint, while simultaneously reflecting national-cultural features characteristic of the English worldview. Among them are conservatism, loyalty to monarchy, the cultural significance of the concept of “home,” weather-related imagery, and elements of Christian tradition. The study reveals that national specificity in English proverbs is predominantly expressed implicitly, through metaphorical and symbolic lexical units, which function as cultural codes of the English mentality. This implicit character of anthropocentrism creates interpretative challenges for learners of English as a foreign language and highlights the importance of developing linguocultural competence. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of the structural and semantic representation of anthropocentrism in English paremiological discourse and may be applied in linguocultural studies and foreign language teaching methodology.