My student and I research the problem to prove that the concept 'friendship' (and 'friend') is a universal value, but at the same time this concept has its own peculiarity in every nation.It's very interesting to analyze the value dominants of this phenomenon in every culture(the definition by Roget) from the point of view of etymology and its usage in the proverbs, maxims etc. Has a concept 'friendship' undergone changes throughout the ages?Thus, there are a lot of changes in Russian and English- from a real, honest, generous friend, almost brother to a person of commerce, entertainment, profit. For instance," we can't buy our friends advantageously, but we can sell them advantageously" or "If you have nothing to offer, offer at least a friendship"etc.
My research is on exploring friendship patterns in emerging adulthood and I have explored what the concept of friendship means to an emerging adult...Not only does the concept of a friend or friendship differ across culture, its meaning also changes based on one's developmental stage
You could maybe look up my paper on friendship that you can download from my website https://sites.google.com/site/charlesjhmacdonaldssite/
Charles, thanks a lot. I'll do it with pleasure. From the point of view of etymology, the word "friendship" derives from 4 roots(in the Azerbaijani language):" solid like a stone", "hot like fire", "pure like water", "sacred like earth" - abbreviation "dost". In the Armenian language the origin of the word means " to devide the bread in half". In the Russian language it has its origins from " a brother", "coheir, companion, fellow, prince, one-in-arms".Latin, French- is from "amare"-to love. English- is from freon- "free, loving".Thus, from the ancient ages friendship was considered the highest human value. From Aristotle "a friend is a soul of two bodies". The concept "friendship" is a moral-spiritual and moral ethic measure of the world picture and inner spiritual life of a person. A language is a part of a culture, "a house of Being"(Heidegger M). "A friend in need is a friend, indeed" is in all languages! There are 36 key words in French, 27- in Russian etc. To me, not only cultural background determines this phenomenon, but being determines consciousness. There is no friendship in politics, business, between a master and a slave, a chief and a sub. The transitional period to market economy eliminates national and cultural peculiarities of friendship, undermines old ideas, fills them with new content, especially in Russian. As for Russian, this word is commercialized, became to pragmatic: "in the 21st century a friend is endangered species".Not long ago "friendship was more than love" (for Russians).Nevertheless, in the Eastern languages the value dominant of a friend as a brother hasn't undergone changes: "tell me "brother" and you'll hear "brother". Or "a friend is a human being for the sake of whom you can divorce a beloved wife, burn your money, give your life".Thus for the Armenian nation it's a code of honor. It's extremely interesting that friendship is associated with 11 key words, related to peaceful mutual understanding with other countries in French : "Friendship is a God's present". I love the maxim : "You can't judge a friend according to his friends- Judas had perfect friends'(Valery P) . In addition to it, I'm interested in the value of friendship, related to love. "Friendship is love without his wings"(Byron). Or "it's a sexual variant as opposed to sexually deviant"(Bushnell)(there is some doubt in possibility of friendship between a woman and a man) . To the old Russian proverb, "it's impossible all nations turn to one; it's possible all nations to unite in friendship".
IIrina, I like your approach to the concept of friendship and the many lexical items which you mention form a complex semantic web of meaning worth studying comparatively, as you rightly suggest. Also I agree that friendship entails a dimension of equality that disagrees with any hierarchic relationship. there is however another dimension in the concept of friendship that can be seen in words meaning "those who share the bred"(companions) or "those who share a room" (comrades). In my view the concept of friendship entails immediacy, immanence and a concrete relationship with another person as a totality (as in sharing precisely). Religious and state ideologies like to divert the concept from its original meaning as a basic, immediate, concrete, equal, and immanent person-to-person relationship and tend to present it as an eternal and sacred relationship (whereas of course we know friendships don't last, alas!).
Well, bred is always bred! Charles, sorry. Are you Scott? It's associated with my poetic childhood (sorry for emotions) about honey, thistle, pride, M. Stewart, Nessie, dignity... (You can't forget I have been under the iron curtains)We were brought up on your symbols (in my childhood).Besides, you have mentioned my favorite Bakhtin. "Friendship is very much draft in its present form. The fabric of friendship has been sewn together. Social scientists and philosophers alike have been, with a few exceptions, the quibble victims of this hoax. Religious and state ideologies...etc"Well, it's pure truth. I haven't thought at all it could be anarchy.
I'd like to add. As for bread(it's another concept). I remember my favorite "The Elder Edd"(or old Norse Poetic of Iceland, 13 century):" with half a loaf and a tilted bowl I have found me many a friend". It's the most valuable treasure, means of subsistence, a sacred symbol. As Ukrainians say: "Bread is the head of everything". It's like honey of heather.
Dear Divya, Charles, thank you a lot for your informative and interesting comments, for your sincere help.To me, the difference between the Eastern culture in the definition of friendship and the Western one is important. Thus, for the Eastern type of culture it's characteristic of collective consciousness, hierarchy, harmony of the inner world with nature and own group, common cultural values, loyalty to the national community, exploring the world through merging with it. As for the Western cultural type, reality is a world of phenomena. Egalitarianism, individualism, freedom, creativity, material being are typical for the Western culture. Russia is between the East and the West. It's chaos and confusion in the context of cross-culture. It's characteristic of material benefit at any cost without taking into consideration individual potential, with the vertical of power, based on a clan.To Bakhtin, the epoch of post-modernism gives a birth to carnival mentality, pop-culture, pop-relationship, pop-being, prevalence of low-needs. Nevertheless, "sacred and eternal' is from the Eastern culture(immutable to religion, loyalty to a group), pragmatic subtext is from the Western culture, "equal and basic relationship" and moral values are from intellectuals and decent people of all folks of all ages. I believe in a co-evolutionary culture.
hi Irina, did u say " the word "friendship" derives from 4 roots(in the Azerbaijani language):" solid like a stone", "hot like fire", "pure like water", "sacred like earth" - abbreviation "dost". ? could you please elaborate it . I mean which sylable or words from "dost" stand for attributes of stone, fire, water and earth ?
I always thought "dost" is an Urdu word with Persian roots. In Persian "dast" means 'hand' , does it have anything to do with 'dost' ?
Dear Shrikant, I'm very glad you are interested in the topic. Well, for the Eastern type of culture it's characteristic of harmony, balance, exploring the world through merging with it. That's why the word "dost" (friendship) symbolizes the acrostic (as in the poem): "d" -demir kimi mohken (solid); "o" - od kimi atesli (hot), "s" - su kimi pak (pure), "t" - torpaq kimi muqeddes (sacred) (sorry, I haven't got acceptable "e" and "u-umlaut" on my keyboard). Your thought is brilliant! Atalar Sozleri (proverb): One hand doesn't beat its hands (Azerbaijani proverb), its a value dominant of support (a hand) and relationship.To me, the Persian variant is more acceptable! But (I communicated with the barriers of the language they stood for the acrostic). As we know, the Azerbaijani language has undergone changes. It has modified a lot of times.
To understand the universality of the concept I think it needs to be contrasted and related with notions of Kinship..
@ Irina. Maybe the problem lies in the alphabet. The Azerbaijani language, even in the Caucasus was first written in Perso-Arabic alphabet and vowels could be misread.. I think therefore they misread dost (friend) as dast (with reversed e). Dost is read as dust in modern Persian and is written with a VAV. Dast is a Persian word, while its modern Azerbaijani equivalent is al (with reversed e).
Thank you for your time. Your additions are valuable for me. A language is an alive organism. It's always in moving.
Please see pp. 170-180 and 355-368 in my book Rezvani, B. (2013) Ethno-territorial conflict and coexistence in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Fereydan (Iran). In that book I have also discussed the issue of changes of ethnic identity/census as well as ethnonyms and the Azerbaijani language in the Caucasus after the Russian conquest.
It is not only a question of influx of Russian words. They have also did everything to change (or simplify) the grammar and structure of that language. As a result, people in the rep. Azerbaijan cannot easily understand pre-19th and notably pre-20th century Azerbaijani literature, while the Iranian Azeris can read and understand that literature. However the colloquial Azeri of Iran and the Caucasus are still mutually intelligible (with a degree of difficulty; for example, the Russian(-ized) words should be explained).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235919107_Ethno-territorial_Conflict_and_Coexistence_in_the_Caucasus_Central_Asia_and_Fereydan
Book Ethno-territorial Conflict and Coexistence in the Caucasus, ...
Dear Irina, a popular Italian proverb says "who finds a friend, finds a treasure." This emphasizes the concept of friendship as an extreme expression of honesty and depth of the ideal relationship of friendship. However, at least in Western countries is very likely that the concept of friendship is confused with that of "good" knowledge of a person. The first is very long-lasting and brings something indelible, the second is related to contingent situations that often limit their duration in time.
Dear Babak,
Thank you very much for your valuable information.
Dear Ierardi,
I like "who finds a friend, finds a treasure".
Dear Pat,
So wonderful! "A friend means to the soul"
We have in Bulgarian two close words for "friend". One of them is "другар" (drugar, or "товарищ" in russian). This is a person with similar goals, similar interests, who help us and we help him to reach mutual goals, we both share a common load. It comes from the old Indoeuropean word *dhreugh- „боевой друг“. The second word is "приятел" (priatel, "друг" in russian). It comes from "приятен" - a pleasant person. "Приятел" is someone, to spend your time with him with pleasure, someone dear = "дорогой". Slavonic "P" becomes "F" in germanic languages - "Priatel" -> "Friend"...
Stoyanka,
dear,thank you for your comment.The general roots are the sign of general spiritual values. I think, a human being must be a human being to the end.We can't buy friendship.Money is rubbish. I lost my real friend and there is no another real friend and we can't find the analogue.
Dear Stoyanka,
My favourite Freddy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AIlz08fZos&feature=kp
In our traditions, the true friendship is measured how strongest the mutual correlation.
When one is worried, suffering or happy, the other is also ...
It even can have the grow of some telepathic of sentiments and at distance phenomena.
I agree, Stoyanka M. Ivanova & Charles Macdonald .
The true true friend is very very rare !!!
People also follow those who help them better understand the world around them, share their interests, or introduce moments of desired distractions.
http://www.briansolis.com/2011/09/breaking-people-use-social-networks-to-connect-with-friends-and-family-not-brands/
I agree, Stoyanka M. Ivanova & Charles Macdonald and Irina Pechonkina .
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people.[1] Friendship is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an association. Friendship has been studied in academic fields such as sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, including social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles. A World Happiness Database study found that people with close friendships are happier.[2]
Although there are many forms of friendship, some of which may vary from place to place, certain characteristics are present in many types of bond. Such characteristics include affection, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, mutual understanding, and compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the friend.
Hi Dr Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina
I think the values include: affection, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, mutual understanding, and compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the friend.
Dear Andre Valerio Sales,
Sim, somos todos filhos e irmãos de Deus.
Приветствую уважаемых коллег, увлеченных общей исследовательской темой🙂.
Несмотря на давность вопроса, он остаётся актуальным..
Всем интересующимся историей и развитием концептов "Дружба", "Друг", рекомендую замечательных авторов, глубоко исследовавших данный вопрос. Я имею ввиду труды таких известных современных лингвистов, как А. Вежбицка и Н.В. Уфимцева.
Со своей стороны добавлю, что каким бы разным не было ценностно-смысловое наполнение и темпоральное варьирование концептов, концепт "Друг" уверенно входит в ядро русского национального сознания уже много веков подряд..
Когда мы рассматриваем концепт в социальном контексте, на ум приходит современное прочтение русских паремий _Старый друг лучше новых двух_, _Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей!_
С развитием социальных сетей стирается исконное значение слова. Друг — это подписчик, который следит за действиями владельца аккаунта, выражая свои одобрение и / или неодобрение происходящему.
Yes, Maria, very much so. Alas, this is not what matters nowodays, although I am sure you have lots of it in your country...
Thank you, dear Maria, dear Friends,
"We have no any friends, we have only interests" leads to evil instincts, criminal passions and wicked santiments,such as nationalism and chauvinism.
Приветствую всех уважаемых участников нашей дискуссии и благодарю за дружественную🙂обратную связь!
Хочу добавить, что вы меня абсолютно верно поняли.
На самом деле, в настоящее время истинная дружба становится настоящей проблемой. Часто её подменяют понятия деловых взаимовыгодных отношений.
Поздравляю всех читающих эти строки с Новым годом и рождеством!
До новых встреч!
Dear Doctor
"Emotionally, strong friendships offer us unwavering support that can lift us up when we feel down, they can give us advice when we're facing difficult decisions, be an ongoing source of inspiration and they can provide us with an environment to be ourselves."
I do agree that face-to-face friendship by is far what I appreciate. People who are good friends can rejoice with you when you are happy and support you when you feel otherwise. And you can do the same for them.
I have very few VERY good friends but quite a few who treat me and I treat them in this manner. And they all very positive in my mind.
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