Superstitious component in Mari, Russian and English fortune-telling on the betrothed
Fliginskikh Ekaterina E.,
Senior lecturer, Department of Foreign Communication, Mari State University
(Yoshkar-Ola, Russia), katenasmile@mail.ru
Introduction. The article studies the texts describing Mari, Russian and English fortunetelling for Mr. Right (perspective husband) containing superstitious components. Fortunetelling texts are interesting for different fields of science: philology, linguistics, literature, and folklore. The author considers fortunetelling from the point of its superstitious character. The objects of the research are superstitions of three different languages which gives extra interest as it gives data for peoples of different language families. The subject of the research is a superstitious component in fortunetelling for Mr/Miss Right. The research is aimed at comparing fortunetelling texts of three languages to detect similar features and differences in world perception by different peoples.
Materials and Methods. To conduct the research the author uses continuous sampling method to select fortunetelling texts and descriptions from collections, encyclopedias, and reference books. Statistical analysis method helps to show the quantitative ratio of the phenomena reflected in fortunetelling and, consequently, in the language world picture of the people.
Results and Discussion. As a result of the research six groups were defined where all fortunetelling texts were distributed. Each group gives an answer to the question: 1. How many years are left before the marriage? 2. Where does my Mr/ Miss Right live? 3. What is the name of my future spouse? 4. What is the appearance of my future spouse? 5. What will the character of my future spouse be / What will my family life be like? 6. How to see an image of my future spouse in reality or in dreams? Also, for each group we defined lexical units, nouns which are most often found in fortunetelling texts.
Conclusion. The research helped to define semantic components which are common for all three languages and which are unique for every language. The common character of some components is explained by similar rituals coming from the ancient times and especially by the adoption of these rituals by peoples living in one and the same territory as in the example of the Mari and Russian languages.
Key words: fortune-telling on the betrothed; Superstitious component; the Mari language; the Russian language; the English language.
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