N.I. Tolstoy and Dialect Word Anthropology (On the Centenary of Nilita Ilyich Tolstoy’s Birth)

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of anthropocentric paradigm in the Slavic dialectology, the modern phase of which can be rightly characterized by the formation of “analytical, explaining dialectology” which focuses on deep interpretation of dialect words and analysis of traditional culture language. Due to N. I. Tolstoy a new approach in cultural language dialectology was formed – ethnolinguistics, in which dialect word is studied through the lens of cultural anthropology, since adequate understanding of a language is only possible through abandoning the strictly linguistical limitations and applying other forms of knowledge, including philosophy, logic, psychology, sociology, ethnography, history etc. Ethnolinguistics moved from “immanent” linguistics, existing “in itself and for itself” towards what Kibrik termed “what/why linguistics”, the logic of which hinges on the central premise of anthropocentric linguistics, “finding a way towards a human through language”. According to Tolstoy, only language can provide a true image of the linguistic consciousness of an individual within a specific culture with all its complexity and nuance. Linguistic reconstruction of the cognitive structure behind a dialect word allows the shift from empirical data to interpretation, from collecting data to explaining it. The importance of Tolstoy’s ideas and its relevance is proved by, among other things, the “Slavic linguistical atlas” project, which was started largely thanks to Tolstoy himself.