



































International Journal of Biological Engineering and Agriculture


American Journal of Science and  

Learning for Development 
 

Volume 1 | No 2 | Dec-2022 

 

 

 
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Idioms Describing Human Character as an Important Component of 

the National and Cultural Aspect of the English Language 
 

 

Omonturdieva Zebokhon Bunyod qizi 
 

 
Master student of the Uzbekistan State World Languages University 
  
  
 

Abstract: the article deals with ideoms reflecting the character of a person, the direct connection of 

the inner world, mental state, mood and stable qualities of a person with speech, the manifestation of 

a national and cultural character in the phraseological units of the English language. 
 
Keywords: phraseological units, set expressions, idiom, human character, mentality, national 

culture. 

 
  
INTRODUCTION 

An important feature of modern research in linguistics is a thorough study of the national-cultural 

aspect of the language. Phraseological units are at the center of our attention in this work. In their 

semantics, phraseological units reflect the process of development of the people and their culture, 

pass on from generation to generation certain cultural stereotypes that are still relevant today. 

Researchers, studying the problem of phraseological units, reveal the cultural code that was 

embedded in the expressions, all the significance and nature of a particular people. In the process of 

studying foreign languages, we consider not only the grammatical structures of the language with 

lexical stock, but also encounter set expressions, phrases, the translation of which is meaningless 

without knowledge of the historical and linguocultural heritage of the people. Of particular 

importance is the study of phraseological units associated with the nature of the individual, since this 

is an important part of the life of every person and the people as a whole. Idioms and phraseological 

units are an integral part of any language. They reflect the history of the country, the history of the 

development of the language, various cultural phenomena, and the national character. 

DISCUSSION 

What is the national character of the English as a whole? The phraseological system as a whole 

clearly demonstrates a semantic focus on a person and makes a significant contribution to the 

formation of a figurative picture of the world of each nation. Phraseologisms make our speech more 

vivid, emotional and interesting for the interlocutor. It is impossible to imagine learning English 

without these linguistic realities, because the quality, imagery of speech, emotional coloring, 

modality, and sometimes even communication itself will depend on their possession. Knowledge of 

English set expressions fully helps to enjoy reading original English texts, clearly characterizes the 

level of the speaker's language proficiency. English set expressions not only embellish speech, they 

also allow you to reduce cumbersome sentences to small expressions (sometimes even up to two or 

three words). Phraseologisms (idioms) of the English language are stable expressions that have an 

independent meaning, usually not coinciding with the literal translation. The word "idiom" comes 

from the Greek "idίōma", which means "feature, originality." Where did they come from? Over a 

thousand-year history, a large number of expressions have accumulated in the English language that 

people have found successful, well-aimed and beautiful. With the help of idioms, the language 

becomes alive. The range of idioms of modern English is wide and varied, most of them are 



 

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borrowed from fiction and not only English ones. Linguists have not developed a unanimous opinion 

about what a phraseologism is, and, consequently, there is no unity of views on the composition of 

these units in the language. Some researchers (L.P. Smith [1], J. Seidl, W. McMordie, V.P. Zhukov, 

V.N. Telia, N.M. Shansky and others) include stable combinations in phraseology, others ( N. N. 

Amosova, A. M. Babkin, A. I. Smirnitsky and others) - only certain groups. So, some linguists 

(including academician V.V. Vinogradov) do not include proverbs, sayings and catchwords in the 

category of phraseological units, believing that they differ from phraseological units in their 

semantics and syntactic structure. Russian scientists N.N. Amosova [2] and A.V. Kunin [3] studied 

English phraseological units in historical and theoretical-linguistic aspects. In his works A.V. Kunin 

divides English phraseological units into three types of set expressions: idiomatic, idio-

phraseological and phraseomatic. The foundations of Uzbek phraseology were laid and then 

developed in the studies of a number of linguists such as E.D. Polivanov, Sh.Rakhmatullaev[4], 

Ya.D. Pinkhasov[5], M. Umarkhodzhaev, A.E. Mamatov and others. 

True English proficiency implies the ability to speak using idioms. Indeed, it is in colloquial speech 

that they are most often used. It should be noted that in English and American linguistics, it is not the 

term “phraseological unit” that is more commonly used, but the so-called “set-expression”, which 

means in essence one and the same, along with the latter, the concept of "idiom" is also used. In 

English linguistics, it does not have the narrow meaning of phraseological fusion, but denotes all set 

expressions in general. The most common classification of English phraseological units is thematic. 

For example, in A.V. Kunin’s [6] English-phraseological dictionary there are several idiomatic 

groups that are associated with a person and his character; with animals; with body parts with 

clothes; with a palette of colors; with products; with money; with color names with school and study; 

with household items; with the weather. In this work, we have studied the semantic group of English 

idioms with a component describing a person's character. 

There are many concepts of "character" in modern psychology. The following definition allows us to 

give a semantic description, taking into account the structural and grammatical analysis of 

phraseological units. Character (from the Greek “χαρακτήρ“ distinguishing feature, sign") - the 

structure of persistent, relatively constant mental properties that determine the characteristics of the 

relationship and behavior of the individual. Character traits are those essential properties of a person 

that determine a particular way of behavior, way of life. The idioms given below, denoting the 

character of a person, were considered from the point of view of negative and positive estimated 

values. 

Idioms expressing negative traits of a person's 

character 

Idioms expressing positive traits of a 

person's character 

Duplicity, hypocrisy: 
А hypocrite 

As slippery as an eel; 

To have two faces (under one hood) 

A honey tongue, a heart of gall. 

 

Honesty: 

Play a straight bat; Treat smb white; (as) 

straight as a die; As honest a man as ever broke 

bread (as ever lived by bread; as honest a man 

as ever trod on earth, shoe leather; honest, as 

honest as the skin between his brows); clean 

hands; straight goods; straight dealing fair play; 

kind (honest, simple) soul; clean liver; fair play 

Unsociability: 

Lone wolf; shrinking violet; nervous Nellie; a 

wimp 

Sociability: 

Social butterfly; A people person ;A party 

animal 

Meanness: 

A bad actor; swear black is white; paint smb 

black; yellow dog; false heart; 

Yellow streak; 

Underhand 

Sincerity: 

Single heart (mind); as open as the day; plain 

dealer; make a clean 

Breast of smth; he is an open look; to be open-

hearted 

Arrogance: 

Holier-than-thou; mount (be on, ride, get on) the 
Nobility: 

A big heart; a high mind; good as gold; good 



 

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night horse; proud (vain) as a peacock; proud as 

Lucifer, high (proud) stomach; A fly on the wheel 

sport (sort; egg, onion); good as pie; good 

nature 

Cruelty, ruthlessness, callousness: 
Hard heart; cold as charity; 

Stony heart; hard as a flint (a stone, the nethermill 

stone); hard as iron. 

Kindness, heartiness, affability: 

A kind (honest, simple) soul; 

Kind (soft, warm) heart; 

Big heart; as good as gold 

Talkativeness, boastfulness: 

Hot-air artist (merchant); big mouth; a loose (long) 

tongue; to have a loose (long) tongue 

Sanity, modesty: 

Down-to-earth – someone who is practical and 

close to reality, who accepts other people as 

equals 

Insolence, shamelessness: 

Blush like a black (blue) dog; cool beggar (card, 

customer, fish, hand); dead to shame; a smart 

Alec; 

Decisiveness, strong character, reliability: 

Stout heart; a strong man; firm(steady) as a roc

k; a hard nut to crack; a tough nut 

Primness: 

Stand-offish, niminy-piminy, square-toed, prim 

and proper , as stiff as a poker, old maidish, boiled 

shirt. 

Cheerfulness: 

Merry as a cricket (grig; a marriage bell, as 

maids); playful as a kitten; light heart; free 

liver; cheerful (gay) as a lark; fresh as a daisy 

(a rose; as paint, as newpaint; flowers in may); 

free and easy; see through rose-coloured 

glasses 

Greed: 

Greedy as a wolf; a miser; tight fist; close liver; a 

cheapskate 

Generosity: 

Bountiful, All heart, open handed 

Cunning, flattery: 

Artful as a cart load of monkeys; Old fox; sly fox; 

a tame spaniel; an oily tongue; to have an oily 

tongue; to be silver-tongued; tricky as a monkey; 

tricky nicky; A downy bird; A publicity hound 

Naivete: 

A simpleton 

A soft touch 

Wet behind the ears 

Babe in the woods 

Cowardice: 

To have a yellow streak, as quiet as a lamb, as 

timid as a mouse ,a tame cat, as timid as a hare, 

like rats leaving a sinking ship, cold feet; white 

liver; yellow dog; get (have) cold feet; fly (mount, 

show), the white feather; (as) timid as a hare; a 

yellow streak; to be rabbit(pigeon)-hearted; to be 

fainthearted; to have cold feet, 

a yellow belly; 

Courage: 

As true as steel , high blood; be free of one’s 

flesh; die game; put on a bold front; make the 

best of a bad job; a strong man; stout heart; 

bold (brave) as a lion; make the best of a bad 

bargain (business); make the best of it; as bold 

as brass; red blood; 

 

Rudeness, intemperance, irascibility: 

Troublemaker, gruff as a bear; hairy about (at, in) 

the heel (the fetlocks); surly beggar (dog); short 

temper; rough and tough; rough and tumble; 

common scold; wild and wolly; 

a hot head 

Restraint, calmness: 

One wouldn’t hurt a fly, a cool heart; mental 

ballast; put a good face on smth; in one’s sober 

senses; sober as a judge; clear (hard) grit; hard 

as nails; level head; good man; cool as 

cucumber; To keep a civil tongue in one’s 

mouth 

Laziness: 

A lazy dog 

Couch potato 

Lazybones 

 

 

 

 

Diligence: 

A willing horse; (as) busy as a bee (busy as a 

beehive; as a beaver; as a hen with one chicken; 

as a cockroach on a hot stove; 

as a one-armed paperhanger); work double 

tides; work at high pressure; аn eager beaver 

 



 

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CONCLUSION 

The study revealed the following pattern: idioms with a negative assessment always prevailed over 

those with a positive or neutral assessment, regardless of the distribution into groups describing 

various character traits. Perhaps this is due to a more acute emotional and speech-thinking reaction 

of people to negative phenomena. For example, in relation to other people in the English language, 

such character traits as “arrogance”, “cruelty”, “duplicity” are more represented. In relation to 

oneself, the English language is dominated by "cunning", "cowardice" and "rudeness". It is 

interesting that in the English language there are much more idioms of subgroups in relation to 

oneself "cheerfulness", "honesty", in relation to others "restraint", "sincerity". 

Studying phraseological units, we can observe how stable phrases reflect the attitude of the people to 

certain moral qualities of a person. We also observe which character traits are most important to 

people and are of the greatest value to them. 

REFERENCES: 

1. Smith, L.P. Phraseology of the English language. Translated by Ignatyeva, A.R. Uchpedgiz, 

1959, p. 208. 

2. Amosova, N.N. Etymological foundations of the vocabulary of modern English. Librokom, 2010, 

p. 244. 

3. Kunin, A.V. Phraseology course of modern English. 2nd edition, Moscow, 1996, p. 115. 

4. Rakhmatullaev, Sh. Some issues of Uzbek phraseology. Diss. Tashkent, 1966, p. 218. 

5. Pinkhasov, Y.D. Modern Uzbek literary language. Lexicology and phraseology. Uqituvchi, 1969, 

pp. 55-65. 

6. Kunin, A.V. English-Russian phraseological dictionary. 3rd ed., Russian language, 2001. 


