1 M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University

in the conditions of close interaction between human language and culture, animal images are often endowed with rich metaphorical meanings and become unique symbols carrying cultural connotations. As a creature with unique forms and features in nature, the animal snake has diverse and interesting metaphorical meanings in Chinese, Russian, and Yakut languages and cultures. Such metaphorical meanings reflect various historical events, living conditions, religious beliefs and values of nations and allow us to understand the connotations and qualities of traditional national cultures more fully and deeply. This article analyzes metaphors associated with the zoomorphic component “snake” in Chinese, Russian, and Yakut linguoculture. We examine the image of the “snake” in Chinese, Russian, and Yakut idioms in order to find similarities and differences, parallels in the semantic images that exist in these three independent languages and cultures. The results of this study can help to approach the understanding and translation of certain idioms more consciously, for which it is necessary to find a corresponding analogue in the language into which the translation is being made, or to select an appropriate association or image to avoid misunderstanding by the interlocutor.

snake, zoonym, metaphor, phraseology, symbolic meanings (SM), metaphoric meanings (MM), linguoculture