Semantics and Functions of Emotive Vocabulary in the Regional Hagiographic Text

Abstract

The article examines the peculiarities of emotive vocabulary functioning in the hagiographic texts of the 17 th –18 th centuries based on the material of short and lengthy editions of the Life of the locally venerable Saint Paisius of Uglich. The research paper aims to describe the emantics of emotives and identify the features of their functions implementation in the regional text. Whilst analyzing the lexical meaning of linguistic units, special attention was paid to additional senses that are actualized in the lexical structure of the text. Thus, contextual analysis made it possible to distinguish between close synonyms with the meanings of “joy” – “fun” and “sadness” – “sorrow” through the establishment of a hierarchy of antonymic oppositions: “joy” – “sadness” as related to the divine, always socially approved feelings experienced by the subject within himself, and “fun” – “sorrow” as often having external manifestations associated with everyday life, not always socially approved emotional experiences. The main linguistic functions of emotives are characterological, which is found in the description of emotional experiences of characters, and text-forming, explicated through the correlation of emotives that denote dominant emotions in the text of the function. The connection of the emotives used in the Life with a certain territory is noted to be indirect, as the realization of plot-forming and ideological functions that allow recreating a special cultural code, understandable and recognizable by the reader.

Keywords

• history of the russian language
• lexical semantics
• vocabulary of emotions
• functioning
• hagiographic text
• regional text