---
title: "Evaluative Features of the Image \"Friend\" in Phrasal Units of the"
description: "The paper looks at how English proverbs and sayings evaluate the figure of a friend. 11 references."
authors: ["Alexey I. Lyzlov"]
year: 2017
venue: "Proceedings of the Southern Federal University: Philology 2017 (Известия Южного федерального университета: Филологические науки 2017)"
source: "http://philol-journal.sfedu.ru/index.php/sfuphilol/article/view/957"
doi: "10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107"
licence: "CC BY-NC"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lyzlov-2017-evaluative-features-image-friend-phrasal/"
---
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# Evaluative Features of the Image "Friend" in Phrasal Units of the English Language

**Authors:** Alexey I. Lyzlov · **Year:** 2017 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the Southern Federal University: Philology 2017 (Известия Южного федерального университета: Филологические науки 2017) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107) · [PDF](https://philol-journal.sfedu.ru/index.php/sfuphilol/article/download/957/pdf_40) · [DOI 10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107](https://doi.org/10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4387614501)

**Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14)

## Summary
The paper looks at how English proverbs and sayings evaluate the figure of a friend. It aims to break the cultural concept "friend" into minimal units of meaning, which the author calls cognitive-evaluative features, a notion close to Wierzbicka's semantic primitives. The material is paremias drawn from three dictionaries (ODP, WDP, ERPD). The author groups them by theme:
- true friendship as a value,
- friendship compared with money and property,
- old versus new friends,
- friends compared with relatives and neighbours,
- false friendship and enmity.

For each unit he explains the image behind it (salt, the market, the boiling pot, old wine) and sometimes when it first appeared in English. The main finding is that "friend" is an ambivalent image. Many units praise real, tested, rare friendship and rank it above wealth or kin. Others condemn self-interested pseudo-friendship, broken friendship and treachery. The study matters because it shows how a culture ties value judgements to typical life situations and then fixes them in set phrases.

## Key points
- The sources are the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (ODP, 5th ed., 2008), the Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs (WDP, 2006) and Kunin's English-Russian phraseological dictionary (ERPD, 1998).
- The unit of analysis is the "cognitive-evaluative feature", an atomic element of sense that makes up the content of a concept.
- The thematic groups are: true friendship (tested in need or danger), friendship versus material goods, old versus new friends, friends versus kin and neighbours, and false friends and foes.
- Some history of the units is traced:
  - the "friend in need" idea goes back to Euripides and reached English via Ælfric and Alfred the Great;
  - the warning against lending money to friends appears in Caxton's collections and in Shakespeare's *Hamlet*.
- The author points to rhetorical devices that strengthen the evaluation: the antonym pair in "short reckoning makes long friends" and the oxymoron of a "worse friend" one brings from home.

## Interesting ideas
- A concept is modelled as a bundle of small evaluative features, each tied to a typical life situation such as need, lending, a meal or a court case, rather than as a single positive or negative label.
- Proverb variants often keep the same syntactic frame and swap the imagery, as when "he is my friend that succours me" later becomes a version about grinding at one's mill.
- Many units are comparative ("X is better than Y"), so together they encode a preference order between values: friendship over money, a near friend over a distant brother.
- The same image can carry opposite evaluations depending on the situation, so friendship comes out as ambivalent rather than uniformly good.
- Antonym contrast and oxymoron act as signals that the evaluative meaning is being intensified or inverted.

## For Mova

How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests:

- **I1** (world): ontology entries for social concepts like friend could store situation-conditioned value features, so the world model knows when a friend is valued and when distrusted.
- **I2** (frames): fixed-template patterns over UD trees could recognise proverb families and map each variant to one shared frame and moral.
- **I3** (world): these comparisons could be compiled into a value-ranking graph that the reasoning layer queries.
- **I4** (answer): when answering questions about the moral of a fable or tale, the reader should pick the judgement licensed by the depicted situation rather than a fixed polarity for the word.
- **I5** (frames): the irony and implicature module could use antonym pairs and paradoxical modifiers inside a proverb as cues to look for a non-literal, evaluative reading.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

## Institutions

Also on the byline: [Smolensk State University](https://ror.org/04gmqtx37).

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## Cite

Cite as: Alexey I. Lyzlov. 2017. Evaluative Features of the Image "Friend" in Phrasal Units of the English Language. Proceedings of the Southern Federal University: Philology 2017 (Известия Южного федерального университета: Филологические науки 2017).

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{lyzlov2017evaluative,
  title = {{Evaluative Features of the Image "Friend" in Phrasal Units of the English Language}},
  author = {Alexey I. Lyzlov},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Southern Federal University: Philology 2017 (Известия Южного федерального университета: Филологические науки 2017)},
  year = {2017},
  doi = {10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.23683/1995-0640-2017-1-98-107}
}
```

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## References

11 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. WDP: Apperson G.L. [et al.] The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs. Apperson Wordsworth editions Ltd. Hertford-London, 2006. 656 p. References Arapova O.A., Gaisina R.M. DRUZhBA. Antologiya kontseptov. Pod red. V.I. Karasika, I.A. Sternina. Tom 1. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=WDP%3A+Apperson+G%2EL%2E+%5Bet+al%2E%5D+The+Wordsworth+dictionary+of+proverbs%2E+Apperson+Wordsworth+editions+Ltd%2E+Hertford%2DLondon%2C+2006%2E+656+p%2E+References+Arapova+O%2EA%2E%2C+Gaisina+R%2EM%2E+DRUZhBA%2E+Antologiya+kontseptov%2E)
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5. SPb., 2003, pp. 162-168. (In Russ.). Kibrik A.E. Kognitivnyi podkhod k yazyku. Yazyk i mysl’: sovremennaya kognitivnaya lingvistika. Sost.: A.A. Kibrik, A.D. Koshelev. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=SPb%2E%2C+2003%2C+pp%2E+162%2D168%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+Kibrik+A%2EE%2E+Kognitivnyi+podkhod+k+yazyku%2E+Yazyk+i+mysl%E2%80%99%3A+sovremennaya+kognitivnaya+lingvistika%2E+Sost%2E%3A+A%2EA%2E+Kibrik%2C+A%2ED%2E+Koshelev%2E)
6. M., 2015, pp. 29-59. (In Russ.). Kovshova M.L. Lingvokul’turologicheskii metod vo frazeologii: Kody kul’tury. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E%2C+2015%2C+pp%2E+29%2D59%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+Kovshova+M%2EL%2E+Lingvokul%E2%80%99turologicheskii+metod+vo+frazeologii%3A+Kody+kul%E2%80%99tury%2E)
7. M., 2012. 456 p. (In Russ.). Sepir E. Izbrannye trudy po yazykoznaniyu i kul’ture. Status lingvistiki kak nauki. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E%2C+2012%2E+456+p%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+Sepir+E%2E+Izbrannye+trudy+po+yazykoznaniyu+i+kul%E2%80%99ture%2E+Status+lingvistiki+kak+nauki%2E)
8. M., 1996. 654 p. (In Russ.). Teliya V.N. Pervoocherednye zadachi i metodologicheskie problemy issledovaniya frazeologicheskogo sostava yazyka v kontekste kul’tury. Frazeologiya v kontekste kul’tury. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E%2C+1996%2E+654+p%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+Teliya+V%2EN%2E+Pervoocherednye+zadachi+i+metodologicheskie+problemy+issledovaniya+frazeologicheskogo+sostava+yazyka+v+kontekste+kul%E2%80%99tury%2E+Frazeologiya+v+kontekste+kul%E2%80%99tury%2E)
9. M., 1999. 336 p. (In Russ.). Istochniki yazykovogo materiala: ERPD: Kunin, A.V. Bol’shoi anglo-russkii frazeologicheskii slovar’. 5-e izd., ispravl. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E%2C+1999%2E+336+p%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+Istochniki+yazykovogo+materiala%3A+ERPD%3A+Kunin%2C+A%2EV%2E+Bol%E2%80%99shoi+anglo%2Drusskii+frazeologicheskii+slovar%E2%80%99%2E+5%2De+izd%2E%2C+ispravl%2E)
10. M., 1998. 944 p. (In Russ.). ODP: Speakers, Jennifer: The Oxford dictionary of proverbs. 5th edition, Oxford, 2008. 388 p. WDP: Apperson G.L. [et al.] The Wordsworth dictionary of proverbs. Apperson Wordsworth editions Ltd. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E%2C+1998%2E+944+p%2E+%28In+Russ%2E%29%2E+ODP%3A+Speakers%2C+Jennifer%3A+The+Oxford+dictionary+of+proverbs%2E+5th+edition%2C+Oxford%2C+2008%2E+388+p%2E+WDP%3A+Apperson+G%2EL%2E+%5Bet+al%2E%5D+The+Wordsworth+dictionary+of+proverbs%2E+Apperson+W)
11. Hertford-London, 2006. 656 p. Alexey I. Lyzlov (Smolensk, Russian Federation) Evaluative Features of the Image «Friend» in Phrasal Units of the English Language [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Hertford%2DLondon%2C+2006%2E+656+p%2E+Alexey+I%2E+Lyzlov+%28Smolensk%2C+Russian+Federation%29+Evaluative+Features+of+the+Image+%C2%ABFriend%C2%BB+in+Phrasal+Units+of+the+English+Language)

*Updated 24 October 2026*