LINGUOSEMIOTIC PECULIARITIES OF DEATH SIGNS IN RUSSIAN FOLK TALES

Abstract

The article analyzes and systematizes the mixed signs of death, presented in 250 Russian folk tales collected by A. N. Afanasyev (index + icon; index + symbol; symbol + index; symbol + index + icon). The systematization of signs was carryied out in accordance with the classification proposed by C. S. Pierce. The study of the signs of death allows us to characterize the ancient fundamental ideas of Russians about the world order, identify the sources of ideas about death, enshrined in the Russian language picture of the world, and analyze the attitude to death as one of the main phenomena. Despite the careful description of the constants of the Russian language picture of the world, the presence of several monographs about its components, the phenomenon of death, which determines the development of the spiritual and moral culture of the people, is not given sufficient attention in domestic linguistics. This fact determines the relevance of this study. The article attempts to characterize the mean- ing of the sign of death in folk tales collected by A. N. Afa-nasyev. Rich folk material allowed the author to describe the development of ideas about death. The linguosemiotic approach used in the study makes it possible to study the structure of the signs of death, their sources (mythological, scientiic, religious, everyday), the frequency of references to a particular sign in the text of fairy tales. The scientific novelty of the work is justified by the formulation of the problem: for the irst time in the domestic linguistics, an analysis of the signs of death is carried out based on a folk material; a linguo-semiotic classiication of these signs has given. The results of the study can be applied to further study the phenomenon of death in linguistics, linguistic culturology, linguosemiotics (or the study of life as a phenomenon closely related to the death).