A Comparative Study of Positive Mental States in English and Russian Languages in Criminal Courts

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Ekaterina Mikhailovna Alekseeva

Abstract

In some cases, crimes are not committed by ordinary people. Sometimes mentally ill people will commit crimes that would never have happened if they were in a normal state. Since the mental and psychological condition of these criminals is different from other criminals, the law also stipulates the punishment of mentally ill people in a different way. In the Islamic Penal Code, the issue of insanity is mentioned and various measures are taken for insane persons. In the following, we refer to the punishment of mental patients and explain their conditions in case of committing crimes. The paper is focused on the results of the analysis aimed to study the conceptual and synonymic representation of positive mental states in English and Russian languages. The study is based on the reverse method that allows to identify how different the semantic range of definitions, determined in dictionaries as equivalents, is. The Oxford Dictionary and dictionaries of Russian language (edited by S.I. Ozhegov and D.N. Ushakov) formed a base for the study. A comparative analysis of definitions and synonyms of the mental states in two languages ​​was carried out. The first stage of the study included a lexicographic analysis of definitions of such mental states as удивлениеsurprise, радость - joy, удовольствие – pleasure, страсть – passion. At the second stage the synonyms of the above mentioned mental states were compared. The study revealed the monosemy of the Russian lexemes эмоция, страсть, радость, and the polysemy of the Russian words удивление, удовольствие and the English words emotion, surprise, astonishment, delight, pleasure, amusement. The semantic structure of such English words as emotion, joy, passion is wider. The synonymy of the English words emotion – excitation – stimulation – excitement (as “arousal”) , emotion – sense – sensation – feeling – consciousness – love (as “feeling”), pleasure – delight – amusement (as “surprise”), surprise – astonishment – delight (as “astonishment”) has been revealed.

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How to Cite
Alekseeva , E. M. . (2022). A Comparative Study of Positive Mental States in English and Russian Languages in Criminal Courts . BiLD Law Journal, 7(3s), 241–244. Retrieved from https://bildbd.com/index.php/blj/article/view/438
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