Dan, gift, gifts and spiritual gifts in the dynamics of the Russian language picture of the world

• Main Authors: Pyataeva Natalia V., Bulina Evgenia V., Ibatullina Elena A.
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Publishing and Printing Center NOSU 2018-03-01
• Series: Актуальные проблемы филологии и педагогической лингвистики
• Subjects: "history of the russian language; lexico-semantic system of language; linguochronological level; etymological nest; semantic-word-formation center; linguocultural concept
• Online Access: http://philjournal.ru/upload/2018-1/103-112.pdf

"On the basis of the ideas about the basic properties of the lexical-semantic system of language as a highly complex self-developing dynamic system, the authors of the article believe that its study and description on the axis of successive linguochronological levels is possible only on the basis of reconstruction and a multidimensional study of large lexical associations, which are the etymological nests. Semantico-derivational center «Dar (Gift)» – a multicomponent fragment of the reconstructed etymological nest *Dati – occupies an exceptionally important place not only in the word-formation and semantic system of the Russian language, but also in the Russian language picture of the world as a whole. The article presents the results of a dynamic system-structural and anthropocentric description of the «Dar (Gift)» concept in the history of the Russian language from the Proto-Slavic to the modern state. The vocabulary representing the cultural phenomena «Dar» and the «Exchange of Gifts» forms an extremely broad chapter of the Proto-Indo-European vocabulary; this feature of the Indo-European root *dō- continues in the Proto-Slavonic language, where the semantic-word-forming centers *dati ‘give’, *danь ‘a tribute, submit – the object of compulsory transfer as a payment’, *darъ ‘a gift – an object of voluntary transfer as a token of appreciation, friendship and peace’. Preservation in the Proto-Slavic and modern Slavic languages of ancient nominal derivatives from one root, denoting ‘gift’ and ‘exchange of gifts’ (*danь, *darъ), Vyach.Vs. Ivanov explains that at a certain stage of the early Middle Ages, exchange and treaties as universal sociological phenomena took the character of an exchange of gifts. In form, these gifts were voluntary, essentially – strictly binding. As a result, a close relationship was established: the grantor was obliged in relation to the gifted. Thus, the exchange of gifts had in the eyes of these people a magical powerdetermined the significance of the concept of «Dar (Gift)» in the contemporary Russian picture of the world, which is confirmed in the article by lexical, phraseological and contextual data."