What are
winged expressions? This is a separate type of phraseology. Therefore, we first define the second, i.e., a broader concept. It is characteristic that phraseologism is a
stable combination of words that is characteristic of a particular language. Thus, initially phraseological constructions exist in a specific cultural and linguistic environment. What is characteristic of them? The words of which they consist cannot be rearranged - in this case the general meaning is lost. Also, the general meaning of phraseologism cannot be determined by analyzing the meaning of each word separately. After all, it is much deeper ... The breath of wisdom is felt in it.
Where do winged expressions come from?
So what are “winged expressions”? What feature distinguishes them, distinguishes them from the totality of other phraseological units? The answer is short: literary source. Even if winged expressions were generated as a saying of outstanding personalities, all the same they were brought to us by written language.
It is no secret that the level of society’s culture is also determined by such a thing as cultural memory. It is precisely this kind of civilizational continuity that can be explained by the fact that Latin winged expressions have come down to us. The Romans were practitioners who preferred applied sciences. Their treatises on architecture, on agriculture, in contrast to modern business literature, are written in a more figurative language containing phraseological units. It is thanks to the developed writing of a thousand-year-old civilization that the wise sayings of emperors, philosophers, and generals came to us.
Ancient Roman civilization that gave rise to relevant phraseological units
The periodization of the development of literary work in Rome is characterized by its birth in the III century BC. e. and the phase of its highest prosperity in the 1st century BC. e., adorned with the distinguished names of poets and philosophers - Ovid, Cicero, Virgil, Horace.
The ancients often had witty and imaginative thinking. In everyday life, obviously, Plutarch and Horace were not boring, and moreover, quite cheerful people. The literary images created by them are colorful and original. What is it that only a titanic effort has been made and, as a result, a mountain that has given birth to a mouse! The winged expressions of the Romans (the same mountain and mouse) were subsequently repeatedly mentioned with a humorous connotation by Russian poets and philosophers (for example, Trediakovsky).
Is Latin really dead?
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, which falls on the VI century BC. e., the Latin language, the language of interethnic communication of Ancient Rome, gradually becomes dead, that is, they cease to speak it. However, until the end of the XVII century, for the new European civilization, it remains the current written language: it is alive and relevant for the selected educated people - scientists, priests, diplomats. It was these people, not only knowing what winged expressions were, but also using them in their treatises, who brought us the greatness of the ancient thought contained in them. Surely, dear readers, you yourself have more than once met in books, or in a Russian translation voiced words once uttered by proud Romans. Recall only a few of them.
Latin phraseological units in Europe
The developed structure of the Latin language at one time became the basis for the further development of the languages Italian, French, Portuguese. However, its imagery and idiom served to its modern application.
It still remains the official language of the specific Catholic state of the Vatican. In addition, Latin was and remains the language of European science. Winged expressions in Latin were also created in medieval Europe. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, Francois Villon (the list goes on) continued the work of creating Latin phraseological units.
Latin phraseological units knew in Russia
In this language of science, introducing Roman phraseological units into them, Russian scientists, for example M.V. Lomonosov, N.I. Pirogov, did their work. In particular, it is Mikhail Vasilievich who has the honor of continuing, but already in Russian, the tradition of Virgil laid down by him in the poem "Monument".
True, already in the 19th century, as A. Pushkin wrote in the novel "Eugene Onegin", it became "Latin not in fashion." And after the October Revolution, the Latin language, hitherto compulsory for study in a comprehensive school (remember the chapter "Latin Exam" from "Youth" by L. N. Tolstoy), was removed. However, at present - the era of mass culture - Latin winged expressions are again in favor. They are mentioned by writers, influential persons include them in the family coat of arms. In addition, today many educated people, when it is necessary to focus on a certain thought, use them in written language. Such creativity is justified: the conciseness of the Latin text, the depth of meaning and the ancient tradition laid down in it invariably make it attractive.
About Russian winged expressions
Recalling Russian winged expressions, we turn to their reliable storehouse - golden Russian literature of the 19th century, enriching world culture with the names of Pushkin, Lermontov, Griboedov, Krylov, Belinsky, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. The creativity of these classics serves as their generous source. True connoisseurs of literature know by heart many winged expressions with which satirical novels, fables, comedies, and stories are filled.
Consider, for example, Krylov’s fable “The Mirror and the Monkey”. Winged expressions, as we see, are contained even in a small poetic work that a child can easily remember.
The author’s vitality and depth of thought are distinguished by the above lines of the fable “The Mirror and the Monkey”. These winged expressions, no doubt, are quite modern today. Indeed, before evaluating the behavior of another person, one should learn to adequately perceive one's strengths and weaknesses.
It would be unfair, analyzing the work of the golden age of literature, not to notice that the most generous literary sources of these aphoristic phrases, except Krylov’s fables, are the works: Griboedov - “Woe from Wit”, Fonvizin - “Undergrowth”, works by Kozma Prutkov.
At the beginning of the XX century V. Mayakovsky, authors Ilf and Petrov, M. Bulgakov succeeded in creating winged expressions. Imagine several winged expressions that came to us from Russian literature:
It is characteristic that these phrases often come in handy under various typical communicative circumstances, precisely when it is necessary to unobtrusively present a summary of what is happening. In short, lovers of the great Russian literature do not need to explain for a long time what winged expressions are.
Bible Phraseologisms
It would be unfair not to mention a huge layer of stable phraseological constructions of biblical origin, which occupy a significant niche in modern communication and world perception. They figuratively, metaphorically contribute to the formation of the highest moral and spiritual values of man. After all, even the current reckoning dates back “from the birth of Christ”.
Christian phraseological units are not only the lot of believers. From ancient times, the culture of Orthodox Russia has saturated everyday life with them. Even decades of planting so-called scientific atheism have not prevented this. Probably, each of us, having received an education, more than once heard from the teachers a biblical expression that has become winged: “Know how our Father is” (that is, firmly, by heart). You must admit that in everyday life many phraseological units of biblical origin are not rare. Examples of them can be: “lost sheep”, “stumbling block”, “kiss of Judas”.
Conclusion
Historians and linguists claim that the authorship of the term “winged expression” belongs to the ancient Greek Homer. It was mentioned practically in the modern sense by him in the Iliad and Odyssey. However, does this mean that this phenomenon did not arise in earlier civilizations?
However, exploring the nature of this kind of phraseological units, we see that a certain cultural environment generated and generates them. They enrich spiritually. A person using winged expressions actually appeals to the associative thinking of interlocutors, to their cultural potential.
Perhaps that is why, concluding the article, we can conclude that the frequency of use of winged expressions in everyday communication by a person indicates the level of his cultural development.