Reconstructed conceptual model ‘God’ as a dominant value of Russian culture

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The relevance of the study is determined by the need to develop new methods and approaches in a relatively young field of axiological linguistics, and to understand the term ‘dominant cultural value’, which has been recently introduced into scientific use by Professor V.I. Karasik. The moral and ethical guidelines of Russian society, reflected in the value attributes of the concept “God,” shape the national-ethnic consciousness and self-determination of Russian language speakers. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the model of the concept “God,” reflecting the views of Russian speakers on faith in God as one of the most important social values and to analyze the attitudes and behavioral stereotypes of Russian people embedded in the value attributes of this concept. The material used includes explanatory and etymological dictionaries of the Russian language, Russian National Corpus, 54 proverbs and sayings with the component God selected with a comprehensive sampling method from paremiological dictionaries, and the lyrics of contemporary Russian-speaking singers. The aim was achieved with the help of descriptive, linguistic-cultural, and linguistic-axiological methods. The ambivalent features of the concept “God” are revealed; on the one hand, God represents the supreme supernatural power, and on the other, he is a person possessing authority. The etymon of the concept verbalizer, or the name of the concept is an Old Indian root meaning ‘lord, bestower of wealth’. This is reflected both in the conceptual and figurative features of the concept under study; God represents the source of light, the highest degree of goodness, and a force that governs human life and predetermines human destiny. The analysis of proverbs and sayings with the component God, and Russian-language lyrics identified the value content of the concept “God,” which determines the behavioral attitudes of Russian speakers. A promising direction for research is the reconstruction of the concept “God” in other linguistic cultures compared with the Russian linguistic culture.

About the authors

Vladimir N. Denisenko

RUDN University

Email: denisenko-vn@rudn.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6021-4068
SPIN-code: 4635-8342
Scopus Author ID: 57193133860

Candidate of Philology, Assistant Professor at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Faculty of Philology

6 Miklukho-Maklaya St., Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

Lyubov A. Safaralieva

RUDN University

Author for correspondence.
Email: kuznetsova-la@rudn.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6960-9426
SPIN-code: 1089-5456
Scopus Author ID: 57458779000

Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Faculty of Philology

6 Miklukho-Maklaya St., Moscow, 117198, Russian Federation

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