The figurative basis of Russian dialectal words and expressions with the meaning of negative assessment of social changes

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study of metaphorical vocabulary with the meaning of assessment of social change. The analysis involves common Russian vocabulary as well as the material of Russian dialects. Previously unpublished expeditionary records of dialect speech are introduced into academic discussion. Special attention is paid to the onomasiological analysis of linguistic facts. Four groups of motives are revealed: the motives of destruction (loosening, turning inside out, and death); spatially dynamic motives (moving away and disappearance); the motives of qualitative changes (the loss of one's own properties and status, the acquisition of similarity with representatives of a foreign nation, the acquisition of worse properties, cooling down); and the motives of confusion (mixing of different cultures and disorientation). It is shown that the bearers of traditional folk culture tend to evaluate the changes of any kind as undesirable. A disapproving assessment of social change is due to the orientation of traditional culture toward strict adherence to customs. © 2017 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.