Lexical representation of the concept "Honor" (Сhest’) in A. T. Tvardovsky’s works about the war

Abstract

One of the eternal problems raised in Russian literature is the problem of honour and dishonour, which becomes particularly urgent during wartime periods. The front-line poet A. T. Tvardovsky, who participated in two wars as a war correspondent – the Soviet-Finnish (Winter War) and the Second World War, could not remain indifferent to this topic. In order to find out how the concept of "Honour" (Chest ̓ ) is understood in his poems about war and the poem "Vasily Terkin", we analysed the contextual semantics of the lexeme honour (chest) and its derivatives using the method of continuous sampling of language units, methods of structural-semantic and functional-stylistic analysis of language signs. The article shows that the concept of "Honour" (Chest ̓ ) is one of the important cognitive units in the concept sphere of Tvardovsky. This concept is embodied in the lexical units of honour (chest ̓), honest (chestnyi), honour (pochest )̓ . According to the poet, it is the indomitable spiritual resilience and loyalty to the person̓s moral principles that characterise Russian people. Tvardovsky repeatedly expressed the idea that dishonour for a man is worse than shame and more terrifying than death. He believed that there was no excuse for fighters betraying honour and the sense of self-respect. This understanding of the concept "Honour" (Chest ̓) – not only in line with Pushkin̓s tradition but wider – lies in the spirit of the national mentality.