ATTRIBUTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CELESTIAL BODIES IN THE MIDDLE POLISIAN BELIEFS

Abstract

The article analyzes the attributive characteristics of celestial bodies: the sun, the moon and the stars in the Middle Polisian beliefs on the basis of dialect texts, which are valuable authentic material for the reconstruction of traditional spiritual culture. The research material was the texts of field research on inanimate objects collected in the territory of the Middle Polissia of Ukraine in 55 settlements of Zhytomyr and Rivne regions during 2010–2019 years.
 The purpose of our research is to describe tokens that are means of reflecting the attributive characteristics of the nomination of celestial bodies in the Middle Polisian dialects as one of the components of the linguistic picture of the world of a separate dialect space. The subject of analysis is the lexical and syntactic expression of the attributes of the sun, the moon and the stars in the beliefs of Polishchuks (local population of Polisian region. In the research the method of expeditionary collection of material, audio recordings with subsequent decoding and transcription of field material, the method of systematic description of the studied phenomenon for systematizing the collected material were used.
 The classification of attributes is given and the analysis of meteorological, color, sacred, temporal meanings, on external signs (on the size, on the form) is carried out. The results of the study indicate that the most filled and diverse groups of attributes that make up the Middle Polisian linguistic portrait of the characteristics of celestial bodies are meteorological and color definitions. Meteorological, temporal, external attributes enter into antonymous relations, as they contain in their semantic structure the corresponding positive / negative evaluative element (weather / bad weather). The color attributes, associated with the sun and the moon, are represented only by light and bright colors, there are no dark colors. While describing celestial bodies, we note a group of sacred meanings and adjectives with a gentle color, the suffix of diminution, which indicate a special perception of celestial bodies by Polishchuks.
 The collected material only partially reflects the characteristics of celestial bodies in the Middle Polisian dialects as one of the components of the linguistic picture of the world, so other means of reflecting the nomination of the sun, moon and stars require detailed study.