Dialect Word as “Archetype” of Russian Culture

Abstract

The article analyzes the problems of anthropological linguistics. In the last decades, the ideas of anthropological linguistics have been actualized, which contributed to the revival of interest in Alexander von Humboldt’s idea that a language is “activity of national spirit.” It focuses on the study of the manifestations of the “human spirit” in language, customs, rituals, myths – in other words, the analysis of the processes of perception, knowledge, thinking, and man’s emotional attitude to the world. Language as “activity of national spirit” in accordance with the direction of anthropological linguistics is considered both as a tool of mental ordering of the world and as a mirror of ethnic worldview. Before linguistics opened a new field of research related to the hermeneutic study of language, which allowed us to move from empirical data to their interpretation analysis, i.e. to rise from the level of registration of facts to the level of their explanation. From linguistics “in itself and for itself” (F. Saussure), it turned into a “why/why-linguistics” (A.E. Kibrik). And in this transformation of interpretative linguistics, cognitive science has a special role and gives cultural, ethno-psychological, and historical explanation to the linguistic facts. The author believes that an adequate description of the nation’s psychology and its culture should be obtained based on the data of their language. Appeals to authorities’ opinions in the field of literature or philosophical thought are not convincing, because it is always a point of view from the outside, which is subjective. According to the author, it is necessary to abandon the imposed assessments and penetrate into the ideology of language. Moreover, the success of cognitive-oriented linguistics suggests that the language structure is not arbitrary and it is significantly motivated by the organization of cognitive structure, which is reflected in the mirror of natural language. Using a lot of dialect material, the author proves that by studying the dialect word we will be able to understand not only the archetype of our culture, but also its true essence. The author illustrates this position on the example of such basic concept of Russian traditional culture as WORK. The analysis of dialect material in the proposed perspective allowed to critically assess the negative perception of the Russian people, who are allegedly characterized as lazy and passive. According to the author, WORK is not just an activity, but an ethically significant activity, which is still determined by the Russian mentality, so the idea that Russians do not accept hard work is denial of the moral basics of their life.