The model of the emotional concept of pity in Russian and Chinese paremiology

The article is devoted to the scenario-based examination of the emotional concept of compassion within Russian and Chinese paremiology, using the methodology of Y.D. Apresyan. The study aims to describe the structure, development phases, and semantic components of the emotion of compassion in two linguistic cultures. In the development of emotions, Y.D. Apresyan identifies five phases: the primary cause of the emotion; the immediate cause of the emotion; the emotion itself; the desire to prolong or eliminate the existence of the cause that provokes the emotion; and the external manifestation of the emotion. Proverbs are considered not only as a means of expressing folk wisdom but also as representations of stable models of emotional behavior. The goal of this research is to provide a comparative description of the emotional concept of compassion in Russian and Chinese paremiology based on the scenario model of emotions, as well as to identify similarities and differences in its structural organization, development phases, and linguistic ways of representation. The analysis material consists of proverbs from the Russian and Chinese languages that represent the emotional concept of compassion. The article employs methods of semantic and contextual analysis, emotional scenario modeling, and the comparative method. The main conclusions of the conducted research are that the scenario model of compassion in Russian and Chinese paremiology is characterized by significant semantic commonality as well as a number of specific national-cultural features. In Russian paremiology, compassion is more often understood as an internally contradictory feeling that combines compassion with an awareness of the weakness or futility of excessive emotionality. Russian proverbs frequently capture the ambivalence of compassion, emphasizing its connection with passivity, self-pity, or moral weakness. The scenario model of compassion in Chinese linguistic consciousness is marked by greater normativity and ethical orientation, reflecting a higher social focus, which manifests in the close connection of compassion with moral principles of benevolence and mutual assistance. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive comparative analysis of the scenario model of the emotion of compassion in Russian and Chinese paremiology based on the methodology of scenario description of emotions, highlighting the specificity of the national-cultural emotional concept of compassion through the comparison of its scenario models in both languages.