Abstract

In this paper, we accomplish a type of analysis that focuses on the reflection of mental patterns found at the origin of idioms in the English and the Romanian languages. The mental component of the meanings of idioms has a special relevance and we considered that acknowledging the way in which the cultural information manifests into language, and especially, in the analysed units, is not only a theoretical, but also a practical problem. In our approach, we identified a number of idioms, common to the two languages, despite the fact that they belong to different linguistic branches. The phraseological units common to the two cultures reflect the primary mental Romanian and English forms, connected to the individual’s orientation in space and time, to the primordial occupations related to general human frameworks, practices and rituals, transmitted from generation to generation. The illustration of mental patterns in idioms becomes evident not only in the phraseological similarities from English and Romanian, but we noticed that there are equivalent units in the European area. Considering this assertion, we collected a number of units that are common to more European languages and come from either an oral, or a written source and are transmitted by oral or written ways. At the same time, we observed that there is a large collection of idioms which are specific to the Romanian or the English language, and are structured on traditions, social and political aspects, economic relationships and cultural values, unique for the identity of the two cultures. By discussing certain expressions belonging to the two linguistic areas, we concluded that idioms are founded on linguistic and psychological patterns that vacillate between specific and universal, as they have become real cultural symbols of the two nations.