VERBAL SYMBOLS: IN SEARCH OF UKRAINIAN-POLISH PARALLELS

Abstract

The archetypal verbal symbols that function in the Ukrainian and Polish language and folklore spaces are analyzed – the symbols of the water elements, spatial and «boundary» symbols. Two aspects of interpretation of symbols in Polish texts are defined – formulation of symbolic meaning from the position of a representative of another (Ukrainian) culture in view of close cultural contexts, as well as from the position of Polish culture bearer, carriers of culture of another, Polish language space. The ambivalence inherent in symbols unfolding in one context is noted, but it is emphasized that all symbolic meanings can potentially be activated within each context, as their appearance is determined not only by read text, intertextual connections of the symbol, but also many non-textual factors, context culture and awareness of each reader with other contexts of use of this symbol. Dominant symbolic meanings are singled out, as well as those symbolic layers that in the semantic structure of the symbol in the proposed context or contexts are removed from the core, but are constantly preserved in these and other contexts. The symbols woda, richka, ozero / woda, rzeka, jezioro, dynaj, etc. are analyzed, in which the semantics of «border of two worlds» are reconstructed on the basis of the processed texts and it is stated that these words can function as key symbols or as «background» influencing, even directing in the appropriate way the development and interpretation of symbolic meanings of other words (kalyna, werba, bereza, winochok, etc. / rozmaryn, kalina, wianek, warkoch, jablonechka, etc.) in the text. It has been studied how the verbal symbol water can change the interpretation of other symbols and the whole text to the opposite. A wide range of symbolic meanings developed in the semantic structure of the symbol water (and related) within the dominant symbolic meaning as the «boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead» or as the «boundary between "own" and "foreign" worlds». The semantics of other water-related symbols, such as winok, fartushok / wianek, fartuhek were also studied. In addition to a wide range of meanings of water element symbols, the article presents the spatial symbols doroha (dorizhenka), shlakh / gosciniec, which symbolize, among other things, the change of social status – the transition of a girl or boy to married, concluded that the semantics of the symbol develops within the dominant boundary – value. Among the spatial ones, the semantics of the symbols kalynowyj lis (lisok), temnyj luh, zelenyj bir, haj, hora / kalinowy lasek, ciemny bor, gaichek zielony, pole, gura, etc., as well as those related to the «other» world – the kin woronyj, chornyj woron / wrony (siwy) konichek, wrony, srokа, etc.; an attempt is made to highlight the problem of interpenetration of «own» and «foreign» spaces, when the symbol belonging to the corresponding pole of the opposition is associated with the social status of the subject and the category of evaluation, which may change to the opposite.