Conceptual motifs with the “kinship” component in Russian folk-song subspace

The purpose of this article is a comprehensive research of the leading scenario motifs system in the Russian folksong subspace, where kinship terms are qualified as basic concepts; establishing their connection with secondary concepts verbalized in folk songs. The scientific novelty lies in the identification and elucidation of the linguistic and cultural content of conceptual (scenario) motifs with reference folkloremes – kinship terms in the folk-song text as a special genre, characterized by expressiveness achieved through various linguistic lexico-grammatical techniques, metaphorisation. As a result of the conducted research, it is proved that in the Russian folk-song subspace, the terms of kinship, which have acquired the status of folkloremes and nuclear units of the East Slavic folklore dictionary, are key elements of conceptual scenario motifs. They are contextually fixed, metaphorical, accompanied by a number of traditional symbols – astral, presentive, ornithological, plant, animal, etc. Scenario motifs reveal the figurative and semiotic, cultural nature of folk-song folklore. The study showed that in folk song contexts with family themes (both ritual and lyrical), the functioning of kinship names (folklore) is a representation of cultural universalism in the modern Russian cultural ethnos. The images of birth (rodimyj) father (batyushka) and birth (rodimaya) mother (matushka) are linguistic and cultural codes connected by verbal associations with the symbolic space and national stereotypes formed over a number of centuries. The conceptualisation of the social motivation of nuclear family members relations is reflected in the oppositional notions verbalizers “Rodnoj–nerodnoj” (“Related by blood – not related by blood”), “Svoj–chuzhoj” (“Friend–stranger”), “Radost’–gore/pechal’/toska” (“Joy–sadness/sorrow/longing”), “Proshchan’e–vstrecha” (“Farewell – encounter”) and other similar ones. At the same time, there is an implicit opposition between the images of lyrical female protagonist relatives (father, mother, brothers, sisters) and the images of her husband’s family members (father-in-law and mother-in-law), actualised by fixed folk-poetic associations. For the mutual understanding between generations, folk-song folklore is perceived as an intellectual and cognitive factor that preserves the idea of a traditional Russian family, and a factor of empathy, sympathy, causing an emotional and mental response to what is heard or read.

concept, scenario motif, folkloreme, folk-song subspace, kinship terms, word-symbol