Article

Name: What is the motive (again to the question of scientific terminology)

Authors: N. K. Kozlova

In the section Теоретические проблемы изучения фольклора

Abstract: The author analyzes the content of the term "motive" and the problems of it\s use in present-day scientific publica-tions. The article gives examples of the snide use of the named theoretical category in some studies. On the example of the monograph by T.V. Krayushkina "Motives of the body and physical states of man in Russian folk fairy tales of Si-beria and the Far East" it is shown that the term "motive" is attached to all phenomena that the author considers and analyzes. In the article "Index of motives of self-recorded texts of the Yakut heroic epos olonkho" by A.A. Kuzmina (Ya-kutsk), static elements, description, narrative units, and sustained poetic formulas are named motives. The category of motive is replaced by the category of narrative in the Olonkho text and by compositional elements. The article "The motive of calculating the incalculable in the Siberian fairy tales about animals (on the material of fairy tales of Altaians, Buryats, Khakasses)" by B.A. Кolomakina (Novosibirsk) also does not specify what is meant by the motive but gives the narrative schema, which is more related to the annotation of the plot or story type than to the motive. The author demonstrates the confusion in theoretical concepts, complicating the perception of the article. After a number of examples, the author concludes that the current practice of the snide user of scientific terminology uses the term "motive" as another "fashionable" scientific category. The reader\s attention is once again focused on the fundamental ideas of A.N. Veselovsky in understanding the mo-tive concerning the narrative and semantic integrity of the motive, and on the definition of the motive given by this re-markable scientist. The works of V.Ya. Propp, E.M. Meletinsky and others, dealing with the problems of the motif structure, are mentioned. Following the ideas of named scientists the author proposes to mean by “motive” the narrative predicative unit hav-ing the structure of the sentence, but not necessarily containing mythologic, historical, or domestic observation of the people. The author of the article is convinced that such understanding of a motive is productive, as it is put to the test by author\s personal experience of drawing up indexes of motives and plots of national mythological prose. It is specified that the selection of motives is not a result itself. In the systematization of mythological prose an in-dex of motives contributes to the identification of the ideological level. Attention is drawn to another important theoret-ical category – "theme", showing the classification level. It combines material on a sustainable basis. Inside the theme it is necessary to systematize, that is, to distribute already mutable signs which are plot and motive. At the same time, the index of motives is intended to show mythological representations within the theme and their evolution through the variation of motive elements. Having described his understanding of the motive, the author does not call to follow only her conclusions, but considers it necessary to clarify what exactly is meant by the motive when referring to this category. The author considers the non-observance of this rule a theoretical negligence.

Keywords: theoretical category, motive, plot, theme, classification, semantic integrity, structure, morphology narra-tive moves motivemag, allomotiv, the predicate

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