PROVERBS WITH ZOONYM COMPONENTS: A MIRROR OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Abstract

Proverbs containing zoonym components—animal names—are an integral part of folk wisdom and oral tradition. They reflect the values, worldview, and social experience of a community through symbolic representations. This article explores the semantic, stylistic, and cultural characteristics of such proverbs, analyzing how animal metaphors encode human behavior, judgment, and ethical principles. It also examines the role of zoonym-based proverbs in linguistic and ethnocultural studies, considering cross-cultural variation and historical symbolism of animals in language.