N. V. Kondratieva, T. A. Krasnova (Izhevsk, Russia). Reflection of the linguistic picture of the world in Udmurt phraseology (on the material of the “Celestial sphere” theme group)

Introduction. Тhe phraseological fund of any language reflects specific features of the cultural and national view of the world, and each phraseological unit contributes to the formation of a common linguistic picture of the world. The influence of this source gives the language a vivid national character. The focus of this article is on all types of phraseological units (from idioms to proverbs and sayings) containing the lexemes belonging to the thematic group «Heavenly sphere (including the air sphere)» as a key word and having parallels in the folklore tradition of the Udmurt people.
Materials and Methods. The research is based on the analysis of the materials from the lexicographic work “Expressive means of the Udmurt language” (1996) as well as phraseological units from the book “Aid in recording Udmurt phraseology” (2003) by G. N. Lesnikova and proverbs from the anthology “Ingur: anthology of Udmurt folklore” (2004). The research is carried out through the complex of methods, such as the descriptive and continuous sampling methods as well as the technique of situational and contextual analysis, which allows to consider the situationally determined connections of paroemia and paroemiac expressions. The use of these methods makes it possible to reveal the correlation between the language as a system and the cognitive aspect of the language material under study.
Results and Discussion. It was revealed that for the system of the Udmurt language as the basic units of the group under study, we can distinguish static in ‘sky’, where everything has its place and order, and dynamic töl ‘wind’, which characterizes a force, a very strong flow, having both creative and destructive power. A set of key phraseological units with the components shundi ‘sun’, tolez’ ‘moon’, gudiri ‘thunder’, pilem ‘cloud’, kiz’ili ‘star’ also allows to identify the national specifics and worldview of the Udmurt people.
Conclusion. The broadest range of meanings is represented by the lexeme “tol” meaning ‘wind’. Among the considered phraseological units, the lexeme gudyri ‘thunder’ has the minimum distributive load, which, apparently, can be explained by the specifics of the natural phenomenon itself. In some cases, the semantic load of the studied units has direct parallels with the images and motives presented in certain genres of Udmurt folklore. The peculiarity of the representation of these phraseological units is based on the figurative meanings of words.

Key words: Udmurt language; Finno-Ugric languages; phraseological units; language picture of the world; theme group “Celestial sphere”.

For citation: Kondratieva NV, Krasnova TA. Reflection of the linguistic picture of the world in udmurt phraseology (on the material of the “Celestial sphere” theme group). Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 4: 389–399. (In Russian)