The frequency of the use of the word "Tibet" in the Russian-language discourse of the 18th and 20th centuries.

Abstract

The analysis of the reasons for the appearance of the "three peaks" of the use of the word "Tibet" from the 18th century to the present day in the national corpus of the Russian language is made in the article. Author, by considering the compatibility with the word "Tibet" in text materials, draws conclusions about the dynamic perception of the image of Tibet by native speakers of the Russian language. The article examined the image of Tibet based on materials from the NKRR. The author highlights such characteristics of the image of Tibet as the complexity of the location, the difficulty of the path, the connection with the religious and mystical worldview, mystery, etc. The analysis of the process of designing the image of Tibet reflects the development of relations between China and Russia. We used the main body of the NCR to analyze the uses of the word "Tibet" from the 18th century to the present day. The number of word usage shows three so–called "peaks" occurring in 1740-2000. The research is based on frequency and description. The frequency method helps to determine the number of word usage in different years and identify three "peaks" of the use of the word "Tibet". The descriptive method allows us to trace the peculiarities of the use of the word "Tibet" at the moment. It was revealed that the first peak of the use of the word Tibet was at the end of the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century, Tibet was an unknown region for Russians. The design of the image of Tibet is helped by textual information coming from scientific and trade expeditions. Most of the words combined with the word Tibet set the vector of movement to a new country for Russians. The second peak of word usage occurred in 1926. At this time, Russian people's knowledge of Tibet became deeper in the aspects of religion and tourism, and the description of Tibet became more detailed. During the third peak of word usage (2009), with the continuous development and popularization of Tibetan culture in Russia, more and more attention is paid to describing the image of Tibet, and there are more and more works dedicated to Tibet, advertisements for Tibetan clinics, travel blog texts about Tibet. Thus, the study of the image of Tibet is relevant for modern linguistics. The materials of the article can be used to develop educational materials, and will also be useful in studying the dynamic aspect of the worldview.