Stereotypes-images and symbols-signs of a bee in the projection of the conceptual plane of linguistic consciousness

Abstract

This article has several purposes: 1. analyse and identify stereotypical images of the entomological concept of bee in the Russian national linguistic consciousness; 2. reveal the symbolic content of linguistic consciousness by extracting semantic and symbolic signs attached to the stereotypical images of the entomological concept of bee; 3. establish the dynamic invariance (stability) and temporal relevance of the identified stereotypical images in the Russian linguistic picture of the world; 4. confirm the archetypal nature of bee images as universal “products” of the collective unconsciousness and indicators of being structure. According to the study results, stereotypical images of the concept of bee and its symbolic signs were revealed: the stereotype image «hard worker»: ‘hard work’, ‘painstaking’, ‘indefatigability’, ‘distinctness’, ‘purposefulness’, ‘endurance’, ‘perseverance’, ‘fruitfulness’, ‘diligence’, ‘organization’, ‘persistence’, ‘perseverance’, ‘concentration’; The stereotype image «social being»: ‘communism / collectivism’, ‘socialism’, ‘justice’, ‘equality’, ‘teamwork’ / ‘camaraderie’, ‘unity’, ‘autocracy / power’, ‘hierarchy’, ‘self-sacrifice’, ‘fearlessness / bravery’; the stereotype image «deity / divine creation»: ‘pleasing in goodness’, ‘divine love’, ‘divine message’, ‘divine gift’, ‘Last Judgment’, ‘suffering of Christ’, ‘purity (of the soul)’, ‘chastity’, ‘faithfulness’, ‘righteousness’, ‘punishment (of sinners)’, ‘God’, ‘immortality’, ‘power’, ‘divine blessing’, ‘abundance’, ‘prosperity’, ‘intuition’; stereotype image «female person / goddess»: ‘mother’, ‘care (warmth)’, ‘woman’, ‘meekness’, ‘virtue’, ‘diligence’, ‘chastity’, ‘motherhood’, ‘matriarchy’, ‘primacy’, ‘offspring / fertility’; the stereotype image «wise creature»: ‘eloquence’, ‘prudence’, ‘wisdom’, ‘morality’, ‘mathematical thinking / mind’, ‘expediency’, ‘(life) experience / knowledge’, ‘temptation’ / ‘self-control’. Symbolic signs reflect the idea of understanding God as the supreme being and mainly appeal to the anthropomorphic moral sphere. The time span of the illustrative material (from Ancient Russia to Modern times) testifies to the archetypality, temporal relevance and dynamic invariance of the highlighted stereotypical images of concept of bee in the linguistic consciousness of native Russian speakers and in the Russian language picture of the world. This demonstrates both ethnic and socio-cultural affiliation and kinship in the innate and instinctive perception of the being structure between human race representatives and the animal world.