Lexical Means of Constructing Images of Godliness Devotees in Hagiographic Texts

Abstract

The article provides some results of linguistic analysis carried out on biographies of female godliness devotees, that focuses on linguistic representation of culturally significant concepts and moral values of ethnos with religious-and-moral ideals as their central component in hagiographic texts of the 18 th – 19 th centuries. The authors point to the lexical units which belong to two semantic groups: the emotives and perceptives. To create the images of female godliness devotees, the units comprising each of the abovementioned lexical sets are used in a particular way, revealed by the authors. It has been stated, that specific character of emotive vocabulary use in hagiographic texts depends on its functional impact, with characterological function recognized as the major one. The emotive lexical units, regarded as key characteristics, contribute significantly to plot development and genre canonical structure realization. The criteria for selecting lexical units with semantics of perception as well as their pattern of use are determined by the language system peculiarities and existing concept of religious devotion. The paper reviews linguistic means of perceptional processes explication that are significant for describing godliness devotees.The research results establish the dominance of visual perception as a process that determines female devotees' interaction with the real world and the world beyond reality disclosed to them by the will of the God, (which is reflected in the direct meanings of linguistic units), as well as revealing a connection with mental activity (reflected in the figurative meanings of linguistic units).