The Image of the Violator of Ethno-Cultural and Ethno-Racial Identity Borders as Reflected by Xenopejorative Lexemes of the English and Russian Languages

Abstract

The article examines how English and Russian speakers perceive going beyond the boundaries of ethno-cultural and ethno-racial identity, specifically in relation to pejorative vocabulary related to the conceptual field of hybrid identity, which includes pejorative names for subjects and results of hybridization. The study used the online Racial Slur Database (rsbd.org) as the source of English-language material, while the Russian-language material was collected empirically due to the lack of a corresponding database on the World Wide Web. The article attempts to identify the main models for naming subjects and results of hybridization in order to compare the image of this phenomenon in the English and Russian collective worldviews, and to understand the origins of a negative attitude towards violators of the boundaries between “Own” and “Alien”. The study concludes that while there are some similar models used in constructing pejoratively marked vocabulary of this kind, there is also a significant difference between the schemes for constructing such names in the analyzed languages. Finally, the article attempts to understand the linguistic, historical, and cultural reasons for the quantitative disproportion between the English and Russian xenopejorative lexical fund belonging to the conceptual field of hybrid identity.

Keywords

• own
• alien
• hybrid identity
• transgression
• pejorative vocabulary
• ethnos
• race
• culture
• english language
• russian language