Mentality Through Phraseology: How English and Russian Phraseological Units Reflect the Image of a Perfect Person

Abstract. Phraseological units play an important role in language and culture, being not just stable expressions, but carriers of national consciousness, in which society's ideas about good and evil, strength and weakness, honor and dignity are fixed. Through the prism of these expressions, it is possible to trace how different cultures form their ideal of personality. The purpose of the article is to identify how national character ideals manifest themselves through the system of phraseological units of the English and Russian languages, and also to show that these ideals have both common features (universal values) and significant differences. The relevance of the research is due to the important role of phraseology in reflecting the cultural and mental characteristics of the people. The methodological base includes a comparative method (to identify similarities and differences in the phraseological systems of the two languages), contextual analysis (to clarify the meaning of expressions in different situations), as well as elements of a cognitive-cultural approach (to identify the reflection of collective mentality and worldview through phraseological units). The article provides a semantic analysis by categories of personal qualities such as work, kindness, morality, emotional reactions, etc. in order to identify nationally marked traits. For each category, examples from English and Russian are provided, demonstrating both similarities and differences in understanding of a particular character trait. The authors conclude that phraseology is a significant source of information about the value system, national stereotypes and the historical experience of the people.