2021, Volume 18, Issue 1

Back to the Table of Contents

Maria A. Bobunova
Alexander T. Khrolenko

Kursk State University
Kursk, Russia

Proper Names in Oral Poetic Tradition in the Light of Folklore Lexicography

Voprosy onomastiki, 2021, Volume 18, Issue 1, pp. 85–112 (in Russian)
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2021.18.1.003

Received on 10 February 2019

Abstract: The paper uses three cases of folklore lexicography to substantiate its applicability and the methodological capacity it holds in the study of onomastic elements of different folklore genres. It is this original lexicographic approach that gives a new perspective and brings new results to the solution of some recurrent problems connected with the poetic language of folklore. The research builds on the lexicographic projects by Kursk linguists, focused on folklore studies: a dictionary of the language of bylinas and the concordances of Russian non-ritual lyric songs. The present study employs the overlay technique for comparing dictionary entries and gives three cases of its application. The first compares lexicographic descriptions of the Dunai (Danube) river name as one of the key images of Russian folklore, and how it is used in non-ritual lyric songs of the 19th century. This has allowed the authors to identify semantic differences in the river name across the regions. The second case illustrates that, lexicographically, the body of folklore proper names has a capacity to verbalize the emotional experience of the ethnic group that has both regional and gender-based specificity. The third case considers the meaning, usage, and derivational potential of exotic place names. Based on bylinas texts, the authors illustrate transformations of borrowed words in the vocabulary of Russian folk-tale narrators. On the general scale, embracing a lexicographic approach to the study of folklore vocabulary can solve a number of long-standing issues related to semantics, word-formation, generic and territorial features of the national poetic language. Apart from that, the authors conclude that folklore lexicography can open new interesting areas of onomastic research and gives a tool to explore them.

Keywords: folklore language, linguistic methods in folklore studies, folklore lexicography, concordance, onomastics, place names, anthroponymy.

References

Bobunova, M. A. (2004). Fol’klornaia leksikografiia: stanovlenie, teoreticheskie osnovaniia, prakticheskie rezul’taty i perspektivy [Folklore Lexicography: Formation, Theoretical Foundations, Practical Outcomes and Prospects] (Doctoral dissertation). Orel State University, Orel.

Bobunova, M. A. (2016). Konkordans XXI v.: novaia staraia forma [Concordance of the 21th Century: A New Old Form]. Voprosy leksikografii, 2 (10), 41–54.

Buslaev, F. I. (1861). Istoricheskie ocherki russkoi narodnoi slovesnosti i iskusstva [Historical Sketches of Russian Folk Literature and Art] (Vol. 1). St Petersburg: Izd. D. E. Kozhanchikova. Dorovskikh, L. V. (1980). Iz nabliudenii nad naimenovaniem geroev v russkoi narodnoi skazke [Some Observations on Character Names in a Russian Folk Tale]. In A. K. Matveyev (Ed.), Voprosy onomastiki. Vyp. 14: Sobstvennye imena v sisteme yazyka [Problems of Onomastics. Issue 14: Proper Names in the Language System] (pp. 86–98). Sverdlovsk: Izd-vo Ural. un-ta.

Golovina, R. V. (2001). Antroponimy v russkoi narodnoi liricheskoi pesne [Anthroponyms in Russian Folk Lyric Song] (Doctoral dissertation). Orel State University, Orel.

Kazakova, I. O. (2002). Toponimiia serbskogo i khorvatskogo poeticheskogo fol’klora [Toponymy of Serbian and Croatian Poetic Folklore] (Doctoral dissertation). Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow.

Khrolenko, A. T. (1988). Iz nabliudenii nad prirodoi imen sobstvennykh v fol’klornom tekste [Some Observations of the Nature of Proper Names in Folklore Text]. In G. A. Silaeva (Ed.), Leksika russkogo yazyka i ee izuchenie: 60-letiiu prof. V. D. Bondaletova posviashchaetsia [Vocabulary of the Russian Language and its Study: On the 60th Anniversary of prof. V. D. Bondaletov] (pp. 53–60). Ryazan: [s.n.].

Khrolenko, A. T. (2015). Vvedenie v filologiiu: ucheb. posobie [Introduction to Philology: A Textbook]. Moscow: Flinta; Nauka.

Kondratyeva, T. N. (1967). Sobstvennye imena v russkom epose [Proper Names in the Russian Epic]. Kazan: Izd-vo Kazan. un-ta.

Larin, B. A. (1962). Osnovnye printsipy “Slovaria avtobiograficheskoi trilogii M. Gor’kogo” [The Basic Principles of the ‘Dictionary of M. Gorky’s Autobiographical Trilogy’]. In D. M. Potsepnia (Ed.), Slovoupotreblenie i stil’ M. Gor’kogo [M. Gorky’s Word Usage and Style] (pp. 3–11). Leningrad: Izd-vo LGU.

Machinsky, D. A. (1981). “Dunai” russkogo fol’klora na fone vostochnoslavianskoi mifologii i istorii [“Dunai” of Russian Folklore against the Background of East Slavic Mythology and History]. In K. V. Chistov, & T. A. Bernshtam (Eds.), Russkii Sever. Problemy etnografii i fol’klora [Russian North. Ethnography and Folklore Problems] (pp. 119–171). Leningrad: Nauka.

Mitropol’skaia, N. K. (1964). Poetika imen v bylinakh [Poetics of Names in Bylinas]. Literatura. Uchenye zapiski vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii Lit. SSR. Russkaia literatura, 15(2), 7–24.

Morozova, M. N. (1977). Antroponimiia russkikh narodnykh skazok [Anthroponymy of Russian Folk Tales]. In A. I. Balandin, & V. M. Gatsak (Eds.), Fol’klor. Poeticheskaia sistema [Folklore. Poetic System] (pp. 231–241). Moscow: Nauka.

Petrukhin, V. Ya. (1999). Dunai [Danube]. In N. I. Tolstoy (Ed.), Slavianskie drevnosti. Etnolingvisticheskii slovar’ [Slavic Antiquities. An Ethnolinguistic Dictionary] (Vol. 2, pp. 145–147). Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia.

Tereshchenko, A. V. (2016). Strukturnye modeli fol’klornykh i istoricheskikh antroponimov: na materiale russkikh narodnykh skazok i arkhivnykh dokumentov [Structural Patterns of Folklore and Historical Personal Names: Based on Russian Folk Tales and Archival Documents]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, 7(172), 101–106.

Tokmashev, D. M. (2011). Teoreticheskie problemy fol’klornoi onomastiki (na materiale shorskogo fol’klora) [Theoretical Problems of Folklore Onomastics (Based on Shor Folklore)]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, 9, 179–184.

Vasmer, M. (1986–1987). Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo yazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (Vols. 1–4). Moscow: Progress.

Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Yazyk. Kul’tura. Poznanie [Language. Culture. Cognition]. Moscow: Russkie slovari.