Article

Name: The Way of listven’ in the Russian and Siberian Worldview: From Phytonym to Concepts

Authors: Alexey E. Kozlov, Francesco Varlaro

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation;

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the study of the semantic properties of the dialect word listven’ (“larch”) in the narrative prose. Based on the material of encyclopaedias, fiction and travel prose, observations on the lexical and semantic properties of the word “larch” (lat. Larix dahurica; in the studied context – larix sibirica) are presented. It is shown how, being a dialect nomination, the word becomes a part of the individual author’s system. In the treatise of Vitruvius, the word Larix is associated with the name of the citadel Larignum. The historian talks about the fire that started during the storming of the fortress and mentions the amazing durability of the tree. The idea of Larix as being of the same root as the Latin laridum is widespread, which gives the tree a metaphorical resemblance to body. As M. Statley notes, in European shamanism the world tree was often depicted as a larch. It is significant that all these options are equally reflected in the modern village prose, in particular, in the work of V. Rasputin “Farewell to Matera” (1976). The purpose of the article is to trace the stages that a given lexeme goes through on the way from a phytonym to a concept. In particular, the word begins to appear in non-fiction texts related to the development of Siberia and the Far East from the end of the 18th century, for example the Russian travel logs and subsequently reports. In almost all of the considered contexts, a characteristic enumerative intonation is used, while the word is included in the same row as the normative phytonyms. In some contexts, the properties of the tree are recorded, which can be considered proto-metaphors: the extraordinary strength of the wood, the ugliness of the tree itself, and, finally, frequent comparisons of the bark of larch with human skin or paper are noted. These remarks are given in passing and are not developed into a narrative. Ethnographers were not very interested in the picture of the world of the indigenous people, so the rich folklore, pagan idea of larch as the center of hulde. That’s correlated with the spirit or personality of a person in the religion of the Druids, remained out of sight. The considered path of the word demonstrates the specific mechanism of the transition of a marked dialect word into non-fiction writing and narrative reflection on the essence of the word in fiction writing. Referring to the local dialect, D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak and V. G. Korolenko gave to the word the necessary imagery and expressiveness, which became a constructive part of the language of rural prose of the second half of the 20th century, that is to say the new travel prose of the 21st century. Of course, with the development of Siberian literature, these ideas reached their positions in the prose of L. M. Leonova, V. N. Rasputin, E. Aypin and many others. “Farewell to Matera” becomes a precedent text, where larch as a world tree is not only transformed into a dialectal “larch”, but also acquires a different morphological and semantic genus (Nf + sing → Nm + sing). In modern literature, the word turns into a topos, or rather a narrative element that is variable, repeated and recognizable by the reader. In this regard, of course, the question arises of translations of the word “larch” into other languages. Of course, bringing this lexeme to its exact literary equivalent, “larch” significantly impoverishes the style, discourse and plot possibilities contained in the lexeme under consideration.

Keywords: universals, verbal culture, phytonym, Siberia and the Far East, travelogue, village prose, Korolenko, Mamin-Sibiryak, Rasputin, Ivanov

Bibliography:

Anisimov K. V. Problemy poetiki literatury Sibiri XIX – nachala XX veka: osobennosti stanovleniya i razvitiya regional`noy literaturnoy traditsii [Problems of the poetics of Siberian literature in the 19th – early 20th centuries: Features of the formation and development of the regional literary tradition]. Dr. Philol. Sci. Diss. Tomsk, 2005. (in Russ.)

Berendeeva M. S. Fitomorfnaya metafora v sovremennom religioznom diskurse [Phitomorphic metaphor in contemporary religious discourse]. Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology, 2016, vol. 15, no. 9: Philology, pp. 22–35. (in Russ.)

Dampilova L. S., Silantev I. V., Kim I. E., Kuzmina E. N., Shatin Yu. V. Universals of verbal culture: in search of a common concept. Siberian Journal of Philology, 2020, no. 4, pp. 9–28. (in Russ.) DOI 10.17223/18137083/73/1

Garbuyo I. Fitometafory v russkom i ital`yanskom yazykakh: leksikograficheskiy i lingvokul`turologicheskiy aspekty [Phytometaphors in Russian and Italian languages: lexicographic and linguoculturological aspects]. Vestnik Chelyabinskogo universiteta, 2014, no. 7 (336), pp. 96–100. (in Russ.)

Goncharova V. N. Lingvokul`turologicheskiy analiz khudozhestvennogo kontsepta “stlanik” (na materiale “Kolymskikh rasskazov” i “Kolymskikh tetradey” V. T. Shalamova) [Linguoculturological analysis of the artistic concept “elfin tree” (based on “Kolyma stories” and “Kolyma notebooks” by V. T. Shalamov)]. Bulletin of SUSU. Series: Social Sciences and Humanities, 2007,no. 8 (80), pp. 62–65. (in Russ.)

Gorbenko A. Yu. Ovidii s provintsial`nykh beregov: avtomifotvorchestvo sibirskikh literatorov kontsa XIX – pervoy treti XX veka [Ovids from the Province: Self-Myth-Making of Siberian Writers of the End of the 19th to the First Third of the 20th Centuries]. Tomsk State University Journal of Philology, 2020, no. 65, pp. 180–192. (in Russ.) DOI 10.17223/19986645/65/11

Kozlov A. E. “Sibirskie literaturnye vospominaniya” N. M. Yadrintseva: pamyat` zhanra i konstruirovanie identichnosti [“Siberian Literary Memories” of Nikolai Yadrintsev: Genre Memory and Identity Construction]. Tomsk State University Journal of Philology, 2020, no. 459, pp. 46–51. (in Russ.) DOI 10.17223/15617793/459/5

Kulikova I. M. Mifologicheskaya paradigma v modelirovanii khudozhestvennogo prostranstva v tvorchestve V. Rasputina [The mythological paradigm in the modeling of artistic space in the works of V. Rasputin]. Simvol nauki, 2016, no. 3–4, pp. 210–215. (in Russ.)

Levi-Strauss K. Strukturnaya antropologiya = Anthropologie structurale [Structural anthropology = Anthropologie structurale]. Moscow, 2001, 512 p. (in Russ.)

Malysheva N. V., Osorova M. A. Fonostrukturnye osobennosti yakutskikh naimenovaniy lekarstvennykh i pishchevykh rasteniy v sravnenii s evenkiyskimi leksemami [Background structural features of Yakut names of medicinal and food plants in comparison with Evenk lexemes]. Vestnik ChGPU imeni I. Ya. Yakovleva, 2020, no. 4 (109), pp. 79–85. (in Russ.)

Polowy T. The Novellas of Valentin Rasputin: Genre, Language and Style. Peter Lang Inc, 2008. 262 p.

Razuvalova A. Pisateli-“derevenshchiki”: literatura i konservativnaya ideologiya 1970-kh godov [Village Writers: Literature and Conservative Ideology of the 1970s]. Moscow, 2015. (in Russ.)

Rymareva E. N., Sebeleva A. V. Kontseptsiya “mirovogo dreva” v proizvedeniyakh obskikh ugrov [The concept of the “world tree” in the works of the Ob Ugrians]. Nizhnevartovskiy filologicheskiy vestnik, 2018, no. 1, pp. 63–67. (in Russ.)

Sodnompilova M. M. Dominantnye simvoly buryatskoy traditsionnoy kul`tury: derevo, les [Dominant symbols of the Buryat traditional culture: tree, forest]. Narody i religii Evrazii, 2007, no. 1, pp. 206–220. (in Russ.)

Stutley M. Shamanism: An Introduction. London, Routledge, 2003, 148 p.

Sukhikh I. N. Russkiy kanon: Knigi XX veka [Russian Canon: Books of the 20th century]. Moscow, 2012. (in Russ.)

Tolstonozhenko O. A. K voprosu o konstruirovanii professional`noy identichnosti pisateley-samouchek v nachale XX veka [To the question of constructing the professional identity of self-taught writers at the beginning of the 20th century]. Letnyaya shkola po russkoy literature, 2019, no. 2 (3), pp. 207–220. (in Russ.)

Varlaro F. Concept of tree in Varlam Shalamov’s “Kolyma tales” and their translations into Italian. Siberian Journal of Philology, 2021, no. 3, pp. 317–330. (in Russ.) DOI 10.17223/ 18137083/76/23