East Slavonic Proverbs With Ethnonyms In The Electronic Dictionary Of Current Proverbs
Abstract
This study is a part of a larger project to create an Electronic dictionary of current East Slavonic proverbs, that is the dictionary of Russian-Ukrainian and Russian-Belorussian proverbial parallels of the Russian paremiological minimum that are actively used by native speakers today. The project provides the opportunity to identify the East Slavonic paremiological core, reflecting one common segment of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian proverbial representations of the world. The article describes the present-day actively used Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian proverbs containing ethnonyms for the purpose of properly reflecting them in the Electronic dictionary of the current East Slavonic proverbs. The derived proverbs allow to explore and compare the ethnic stereotypes that exist in the current East Slavonic representations of the world. On the example of the proverbs with ethnonyms the authors demonstrate the main principles of the proverbs’ description in the future Electronic dictionary. The study focuses on the three proverbs from the Russian paremiological minimum of G. Permyakov (
Keywords: Proverbsparemiologyparemiographycultural linguisticsEast Slavonic paremiological coreparemiological minimum
Introduction
This study is carried out in the context of linguoculturology as a research structure for revealing the cultural elements of proverbs. Linguoculturology or cultural linguistics can serve as a basis for comparative analysis of proverbs of different languages, which can help paremiologists to deepen their understanding of proverbs.
Today cultural linguistics, that developed in the early nineteenth century in the works of the German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, uses an ethnolinguistic method of analysing verbal signs as carriers of cultural information. It is no accident that many paremiologists emphasize the high value of paremias from the standpoint of cultural linguistics (Dabbagh, 2016; Efremov, 2018; Kovshova, 2019; Lomakina & Mokienko, 2016; Raina & Shestakova-Stukun, 2019; Romanova, 2019 and others), in particular such components of paremia that capture national identity and may not have direct analogues in another language.
Proverbs with ethnonyms exist in all languages, since the names of nationalities have connotative varieties and act as carriers of ethnic stereotypes in any language. The reasons for the formation of these stereotypes, which have a positive or negative connotation, are extralinguistic in nature. They are related to the historical, political, religious, and psychological context, and to the history of relations between individual ethnic groups.
Problem Statement
This study is a part of a larger effort to create an Electronic dictionary of modern East Slavonic proverbs, that is the dictionary of Russian-Ukrainian and Russian-Belorussian proverbial parallels of the Russian paremiological minimum that are actively used by native speakers today. This dictionary will represent the Belarussian and Ukrainian proverbial reflection of the Russian paremiological minimum introduced in the end of the twentieth century by the famous Russian folklorist G. Permyakov that later inspired many talented paremiographers all over the world to explore the paremiological minima of their native languages. The Electronic dictionary of modern East Slavonic proverbs, including illustrative material, will reflect the most recent developments of G. Permyakov’s idea of a minimum number of proverbs known by a language-speaker, as well as current trends in cultural perception of different peoples.
The "Russian-Slavonic Dictionary of Proverbs with English Parallels" by Kotova (2000), further – RSSPAS) became an important contribution to the comparative Slavonic paremiology. The author used 500 proverbs of Permyakov’s Russian paremiological minimum as the basis of this dictionary to which parallels in seven Slavonic languages were picked out including 826 Ukrainian proverbs and 652 Belorussian proverbs.
The next fundamental scientific task of the research carried out by Prof. M. Yu. Kotova and her team is to identify the Slavonic paremiological core of the current actively used proverbs which is being accomplished for a number of years at the Department of Slavonic Philology of the St. Petersburg State University (Kotova & Sergienko, 2013; Kotova, Kolpakova, & Raina, 2013; Kotova, 2016; Kotova, Kotova, Raina, & Sergienko, 2017; Kotova, Sergienko, & Tararaeva, 2017; Kotova, 2019; Kotova & Boeva, 2019; Sergienko, 2016) by the means of additional sociolinguistic paremiological experiments as well as an extensive Internet search of the use of these proverbs in modern discourse. The separation of the Russian-Belarussian-Ukrainian segment of the Slavonic paremiological core is part of this scientific research.
While the work on the Electronic dictionary of current actively used East Slavonic proverbs is under way, let us, using the example of proverbs with ethnonyms, demonstrate the main principles of the proverbs’ description in this dictionary.
Research Questions
With this study we strive to answer the following questions:
Are ethnic stereotypes, once reflected in the old East Slavonic proverbs, still in use today?
Do modern native speakers use these expressions or are they even familiar with them?
What kind of illustration material should demonstrate the usage of these proverbs?
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to determine the present-day actively used Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian proverbs containing ethnonyms for the purpose of properly reflecting them in the Electronic dictionary of the current East Slavonic proverbs. The derived proverbs will allow to explore and compare the ethnic stereotypes that exist in the current East Slavonic representations of the world. Ethnic stereotypes appear on various language levels, and this study is aimed at exploring them specifically on the paremiological level and conducting a comparative analysis of the lexicographically recorded proverbs with components-ethnonyms in Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian languages. This will allow to demonstrate proverbial parallels and lacunae in Ukrainian and Belorussian in relation to the proverbs of Russian paremiological minimum.
Research Methods
The following research methods have been used in this study:
method of sociolinguistic paremiological experiment (for collecting and processing of the material);
method of proverb verification in the Internet (applied to identify the proverbs that are actively used in the modern language and the contexts in which they are used);
method of comparative paremiological analysis (of proverbs in different languages);
contextual method (in analysing usage of proverbs with ethnonyms in modern languages);
descriptive methods of comparative cultural linguistics and contrastive paremiology.
Findings
Since the Electronic dictionary of the current East Slavonic proverbs will be mainly based on the proverbs of the Russian paremiological minimum identified by G. Permyakov and its parallels in Ukrainian and Belorussian languages included in RSSPAS, the first step of this research was to collect all the proverbs containing ethnonyms from this dictionary, prove their usage in modern Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian and collect illustration material. G. Permyakov included only three proverbs containing ethnonyms in his Russian paremiological minimum. These proverbs are also represented in RSSPAS and provided with Ukrainian and Belorussian parallels.
An uninvited guest is worse than a Tatar
The first proverb
Several years ago the appearance of an advertising banner with this proverb caused a great resonance around Russia.
Translation from Russian:
This old Russian proverb with an obvious negative connotation is also often used in a quite neutral figurative meaning without having anything to do with the actual Tatars. In the below article ‘aging’ is described as an unexpected and an uninvited guest in our lives.
Title:
Translation from Russian:
High recognizability and frequency of this proverb is also proved by many examples of its transformations in modern language. The most frequent transformation method is substitution of the key component of the proverb ‘Tatar’ with a different word – often a proper name or another ethnonym.
Title:
Translation from Russian:
RSSPAS lists the following parallels of this proverb in Belorussian and Ukrainian that are actually calques of the Russian proverb: Bel.
The result of the sociolinguistic paremiological experiment undertaken on the Belorussian parallels to the Russian paremiological minimum was published in the "Handbooks of a Paremiographer, Issue 5" (Kotova & Boeva, 2019). It shows that the Belorussian calque
An extensive Internet search proves that it is not just recognized but is also actively used in Belorussian today.
Translation from Belorussian:
Active usage of the proverb
Title:
Translation from Ukrainian:
Other forms of this proverb with propositions ‘
Title:
Translation from Ukrainian:
Be patient, Cossack, you will be the ataman
The second proverb
The Cossacks has always been perceived as brave, independent, honest people and great warriors. This perception is still alive today. The proverb is widely used in Russian mainly in the contexts that refer to some Cossack activities or the life of Cossack communities.
Title:
Translation from Russian:
Less often, the proverb refers to situations that have nothing to do with the Cossacks, when only the first part about patience is actualized in the context.
Title:
Translation from Russian:
The proverb is often reduced to its first part ‘Be patient, Cossack’, for example, in the name of a brand for a bath and sauna cap called
RSSPAS lists the following Belorussian and Ukrainian parallels to this proverb:
Bel.
Ukr.
According to the "Handbooks of a Paremiographer, Issue 5" the Belorussian proverb
Another parallel in Belorussian lacks the ethnonym ‘Cossack’, instead it contains a proper name
Among Ukrainian variants of this proverb, just the following expression is rarely used in fiction:
Translation from Ukrainian:
Despite of the fact that the proverb was borrowed from Ukrainian language, it is more widely known and used in Russian today, rather than in Ukrainian.
The Russian man is wise after the event
The third proverb
Translation from Russian:
In its direct meaning, the proverb refers to the Russians, but not necessarily. The first component ‘Russian’ sometimes falls out, and the phrase becomes universal.
Translation from Russian:
RSSPAS lists the following Belorussian and Ukrainian parallels to the proverb:
Bel.
Ukr.
The Belorussian parallel
The Ukrainian parallel
Conclusion
In the course of this study, the Russian proverbs with ethnonyms from the Russian paremiological minimum and their Ukrainian and Belorussian proverbial parallels were carefully checked regarding their usage in the modern mass media and other forms of Internet communication.
The popularity of these proverbs in Russian can be partly explained by the fact that Russian mass media often quotes the classics, and all the three proverbs were used by famous Russian writers A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol in their well-known novels, and perhaps ensured their long life. The proverb
The Electronic dictionary of current East Slavonic proverbs will include all the three Russian proverbs with ethnonyms from the Russian paremiological minimum since all the three of them are actively used in modern Russian. The three proverbs historically have parallels in Belorussian and Ukrainian languages. However only the parallels of the Russian proverb
The analysis of the current contexts in which the proverbs with ethnonyms are used proves that proverbs with negative connotations are used either with the purpose of accusing national insults (remember the reaction to the banner with the proverb
The Electronic dictionary of current proverbs must reflect diverse illustration material that would demonstrate as many current forms of the proverb usage as possible. It is important to record the direct usage of the proverb, metaphorical usage, different types of proverb variations and transformations meant to reach a certain effect on the audience. Proverb transformations more than anything else can prove its recognizability.
This study reveals the process of identification of the East Slavonic paremiological core for the purpose of creating an Electronic dictionary of the current East Slavonic proverbs which will in the future become an important part of the Slavonic paremiological core.
Acknowledgments
This article is written within the framework of the project on an Electronic dictionary of current active East Slavonic proverbs (20-012-00105) funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR).
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Cite this article as:
Kotova, M. Y., Mushchinskaya, V. V., & Sergienko, O. S. (2020). East Slavonic Proverbs With Ethnonyms In The Electronic Dictionary Of Current Proverbs. In N. L. Amiryanovna (Ed.), Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects, vol 86. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 748-757). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.08.88