Verbal Terms Research Articles

Visual disability in spatio-temporal assemblages: conceptualizing reference points from a non-pointillist perspective

ABSTRACT Reference points provide crucial spatial information for people with visual disabilities, and existing literature categorizes and describes their functions. However, these studies still adhere to a geographical pointillist logic that perceives points as fixed and stable entities and overlooks corporeal processes through which reference points are created. Utilizing concepts from Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy and drawing from sit-down and go-along interviews with visually disabled people, this article answers the question of how to conceptualize reference points from a non-pointillist perspective. By elucidating how reference points need to be actualized through affirmative bodily acts of complex spatio-temporal assemblages, it dismantles their seemingly disembodied and static nature. Consequently, the text explores reference points interwoven with diverse assemblages and examines scenarios in which suitable assemblages could not be assembled, nor could reference points, therefore, be actualized. Thus, the article departs from conceiving of points solely as nouns and presents them in verbal terms, effectively reconciling stability with dynamism.

Numeric social-media posts engage people with climate science.

Innumeracy (lack of math skills) among nonscientists often leads climate scientists and others to avoid communicating numbers due to concerns that the public will not understand them and may disengage. However, people often report preferring to receive numbers; providing them also can improve decisions. Here, we demonstrated that the presence vs. absence of at least one Arabic integer in climate-related social-media posts increased sharing up to 31.7% but, counter to hypothesis, decreased liking of messages 5.2% in two preregistered observational studies (climate scientists on Twitter, N > 8 million Tweets; climate subreddit, N > 17,000 posts and comments). We speculated that the decreased liking was due, not to reduced engagement, but to more negative feelings towards climate-related content described with numeric precision. A preregistered within-participant experiment (N = 212) then varied whether climate consequences were described using Arabic integers (e.g. "90%") or another format (e.g. verbal terms, "almost all"). The presence of Arabic integers about consequences led to more sharing, wanting to find out more, and greater trust and perceptions of an expert messenger; perceived trust and expertise appeared to mediate effects on sharing and wanting to find out more. Arabic integers about consequences again led to more negative feelings about the Tweets as if numbers clarified the dismaying magnitude of climate threats. Our results indicate that harnessing the power of numbers could increase public trust and concern regarding this defining issue of our time. Communicators, however, should also consider counteracting associated negative feelings-that could halt action-by providing feasible solutions to increase people's self-efficacy.

Spontaneous mentalizing in patients with schizophrenia – a meta-analysis

IntroductionMentalizing helps us to understand the behaviour of others in our everyday social interactions. Spontaneous mentalizing without explicit instructions refers to representing mental state attribution. Several studies have described social cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, which largely determines the functional outcome of the disease.ObjectivesTo better understand the involvement of spontaneous mentalizing in schizophrenia, we consider it important to summarize the results of studies that used indirect instruction to measure spontaneous mentalizing performance in schizophrenia.MethodsIn our meta-analysis, we conducted a systematic search of four large databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials [CENTRAL], Web of Science). A total of 14 articles were involved.ResultsBased on our findings, the performance of patients with schizophrenia is significantly weaker than in the average population for both scripts with mentalizing interactions (MD: -0.63; 95%CI (-0.90, -0.35); p=0.0021), and with goal-directed movements (SMD: -0.55; 95%CI (-0.97, -0.13); p=0.02). The intentionality of expressions used by patients with schizophrenia is significantly lower compared to the average population (for both animations with complex social interactions: MD: -0.99; 95% CI (-1.39, -0.59); p=0.0003; and with goal-directed movements: MD: -0.31; 95% CI (-0.53, -0.08); p=0.0218). We have found no significant difference neither in appropriateness nor in intentionality of verbal terms between the two goups in the case of animations with random movements.ConclusionsBased on the meta-analysis, we found poorer performance in schizophrenia in spontaneous mentalizing. We also found poorer performance in tasks with goal-directed movements used as control tasks, suggesting a more pervasive impairment of mentalizing in schizophrenia. These deficits may affect the functional outcome of the disease and could potentially have therapeutic implications.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Nali al-Shahrazouri's creed opinions on prophecies Analytical research

Throughout the history of the Kurds, we have had many scholars and writers whose peers are few among the Kurds. Among them, a poet by the name of Mullah Khader—nicknamed Nali—rose to appearance. More significantly, he has been recognized as one of the primary figures in the development of Kurdish literature written in the Sorani dialect in the nineteenth century and the Kurdish classical poetry school. Therefore, as part of our accountability, we performed an excellent research of the terminology and idioms employed in his book by scholars and theologians. After many years, we no longer see writers and academics among the Kurds and other nearby nations caring for his literary works. As a result, we are carrying out this tremendous and historic duty in compliance with our religious and literary responsibilities.
 There is no doubt that in light of his being influenced by his readings of Arabic and Persian literature, which are rich in theological and religious subjects, including dogmas, he composed many poems against doctrinal and theological issues, including the prophetic aspect, issues of prophecy and the message, his view of the prophets and messengers, not to mention the hadith of the prophecy of our master Muhammad (PBUH), his understanding of it in The miracle, which motivated him more to compose many verses about this chapter and put them in his collection, is reflected in the strength of his strong faith, cultural and intellectual ties that he drew from the luminaries of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic hadiths (PBUH). So; We seek, through this study, to know the extent to which he was affected by the faith, as well as to add high-end knowledge to the product of the Kurdish people's thought about one of their most prominent poets, and to answer many questions about what is raised about the literature related to faith and important verbal references. We realized that he was an inspiring poet and a man of knowledge in this field, and he had the upper hand in how to select the doctrinal and verbal terms and their consistency in a verse, even on several occasions, he fell into purely verbal discussions with his peers. It is worth noting that the study included two main topics and several demands, with reference to the most important results that we reached. By God, we ask that we were able to add new information, even by a line, to the history of our Kurdish thought.

The reflection of Netflix's Drama on cultural and social values in Arab World

The study aimed to identify the most cultural and social values ​​that the Netflix platform adopts within its original dramas, and to explore the reflection of the promotion of these values on viewers. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of Netflix original drama series to find out the most popular cultural and social values for the period from (01-01-2020 to 01-06-2021). The pilot study concluded that homosexual acts were among the most imposed and promoted on viewers as a cultural and moral value within the Netflix dramas. Accordingly, the content of those dramatic scenes was analyzed, then the frequencies and proportions of the themes and dramatic contexts promoting homosexuality were calculated.
 This study utilize the mixed method, as it began with a qualitative analysis to reach the themes covered by the original Netflix dramas, followed by a quantitative analysis to identify the volume of topics and the negative and positive contexts of homosexual scenes. The results of the study concluded that the Netflix platform presented its homosexuality dramas in a scientific method. Moreover, Netflix has used seven media frameworks that are consistent with the frame analysis theory. It also showed its focus on addressing five main themes, which are: homosexual contexts, homosexual behavior, homosexual rights, motivations, and characteristics. It has 13 categories, composed of 119 Codes.
 The theme of homosexual contexts classified as highest percentage by (35.46%), followed by the theme of homosexual behaviors by (29.77%), While the theme of characteristics occupies the bottom of the list by (%3.15).
 Data showed that all original Netflix series topped the list of most popular and watched for the year 2020-2021It's got homosexuality scenes. that the total time of homosexuality scenes appearance was about 312.83 minutes, for 424 scenes. This confirms that there is at least one homosexuality scene every 42 minutes, and homosexuality intercourse scene were in every 15 episodes. homosexuality verbal terms are the most frequently used by %57.54. homosexuality action was the second frequent scene by %14.15.
 The data also showed an increase in the size of direct homosexuality contexts by (81.94%), compared to the size of the indirect homosexuality contexts, which was %18.06.Despite this, indirect contexts were also employed in a way that works to achieve moral sympathy for the viewer towards homosexuals, by showing the suffering that homosexuals face from the society around them. The study recommends the importance of conducting more qualitative and quantitative studies to identify the impact of homosexual scenes promoted through digital video platforms on the viewer’s perception, the extent of their mental acceptance, and the need for the competent bodies to protect intellectual security to educate the lllviewer about the seriousness of what these platforms offer, activate their supervisory role and block scenes that contradict with Islamic and cultural values.

Dimensions of uncertainty communication: What is conveyed by verbal terms and numeric ranges

The paper reviews two strands of research on communication of uncertainty that usually have been investigated separately: (1) Probabilities attached to specific outcomes, and (2) Range judgments. Probabilities are sometimes expressed by verbal phrases (“rain is likely”) and at other times in a numeric format (“70% chance of rain”), whereas range judgments describe the potential amounts expected (“1–4 mm of rain”). Examination of previous research shows that both descriptions convey, in addition to the strength of expectations, pragmatic information about the communicative situation. For instance, so-called verbal probability expressions (VPE), as likely, unlikely, a chance, or not certain give some, albeit vague, probabilistic information, but carry in addition an implicit message about the sources of uncertainty, the outcome’s valence and severity, along with information about the speakers’ attitudes and their communicative intentions. VPEs are directional by drawing attention either to an outcome’s occurrence (“it is possible”) or to its non-occurrence (“it is doubtful”). In this sense they may be more informative than numbers. Uncertainties about outcomes in a distribution (continuous quantities) are alternatively expressed as interval estimates. The width of such intervals can function as a cue to credibility and expertise. Incomplete, one-sided intervals, where only one boundary is stated, imply directionality. “More than 100 people” suggests a crowd, while “less than 200” implies a shortfall. As with VPEs, directionally positive intervals are more frequent, and perhaps more neutral than negative ones. To convey expectancies and uncertainty in a balanced way, communicators may have to alternate between complementary frames.

Open-Circuit Narrative: Programmed Reading in Richard Powers

Abstract Long before the eight-stranded weave of ecocritical plot in Richard Powers's Pulitzer Prize–winning The Overstory (2018) and, since then, the interlace between inset astrobiological bedtime stories and the environmentalist passions of family psychodrama in his Booker-nominated Bewilderment (2021), an important turn-of-the-millennium work by this MacArthur-lauded novelist, Plowing the Dark (2000), remains his most strenuous venture in what this article calls the open-circuit structure of his typical multi-plot narratives. Scenes of secretly funded VR aesthetics in the high-tech America of “research and development” are pitted against the contrasting affect, emphatically detached in space and time, of savage sensory deprivation suffered by an Arab American US citizen as jihadist prisoner in Beirut. Only at the eleventh hour of plot time is this man's plight revealed, by proximate cause, to render him, in retrospect, the indirect victim (spoiler alert) of electronic sophistication in American's “wired wars.” Until then, reading swerves between alternate and seemingly unrelated spaces of cyber-optic volatility and cognitive evacuation, virtual over against vitiated—with an all-too-real network of violence hard-wiring them imperceptibly to each other. Beyond the latent dialectic of these disjunct prose episodes, the novel critiques a world “formed” on quite different principles, whose geopolitical systems it confronts on fiction's own resistant verbal terms. To argue the contrary—that literary and societal forms are different from each other only in degree or scale—is, in an especially leveling sense, to rescind crucial differences between the force of depiction and world of force, which every lucid nuance of Powers's unique narrative style would resist.

Brief Outline of the History of Chemical Nomenclature

Chemical terminology and nomenclature form an important part of chemistry. Apart from verbal terms, the important and inseparable part of nomenclature consists of symbols – logograms. They substitute names of elements and compounds and in modern nomenclatures represent their atomic or molecular weights. Old nomenclatures, first of all the alchemic one, were greatly redundant and unsystematic and used many non-compatible logograms. The first systematic nomenclature, completed by the logogram system, was created by de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy (1787). The system of plausible alphabetic logograms was introduced by Berzelius (1812). The first Czech systemic nomenclature was created by Presl (1828) using only five valency suffixes; the improved nomenclature by Šafařík (1860) expressed all oxidation numbers by the word suffixes. The modern Czech chemical nomenclature tends to accept most IUPAC recommendations.

Canadian School Administrators' Statistical Reasoning about Probability, Effect, and Representativeness

How do Canadian school leaders interpret data to inform their decisions? How do they reason with probability concepts? These are the questions we are investigating in the first year of this longitudinal bilingual project conducted in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Our theoretical framework is inspired by the semiotic perspective of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) which suggests that interpretation is a triadic process integrated in a social context that puts in relation a sign, an object, and an interpretant. To this end, we conducted two individual interviews in which we asked 10 English-speaking school leaders and 9 French-speaking school leaders some questions about data presented in a tabular form (mock data on class level student performance and school level health data), line graph (PISA 2018 report on reading scores from 2009 to 2018) and box plots (mock data on student performance in reading in different countries). Our preliminary results reveal that principal’s reason abductively when it comes to interpreting statistics and want to know the context or the story behind the numbers before making any decisions. Also, they prefer to interpreting data collaboratively with their colleagues and feel more comfortable with data grouped in tables and line graphs. They considered themselves "data-driven" but not statisticians and use verbal terms rather than ratios or percentages (e.g., high probability, high likelihood, high odds) to express probabilistic ideas. In the next years, we will study how their professional experiences influence their conceptions of causality and how they reason about sampling and representativeness.

The metonymic mechanism of English translation of Chinese intangible cultural heritage terms from the perspective of cognitive psychology.

The translation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) terms is an important practical aspect of cross-lingual expressions related to ICH knowledge. Chinese ICH terms are heavily loaded with specific historical and cultural knowledge and regional characteristics. Based on cognitive psychology, this paper analyzes the metonymic mechanism of traditional translation techniques such as substitution in the English translation of Chinese ICH terms. The English translation of Chinese ICH nominal terms can be realized based on the metonymic mechanism of replacing either a superordinate with a subordinate of the linguistic structure or a subordinate of the linguistic structure with a subordinate of the linguistic structure in the pair language, English-Chinese. The English translation of Chinese ICH verbal terms can regard the whole verbal action as an event process and can highlight one aspect of the process through a metonymic mechanism as well. This paper holds that metonymy is an important psychological motivation and cognitive mechanism for translation skills such as substitution as it brings the relationship between the corresponding items of the target language and the source language into a unified interpretation framework. Hence, this may add some significance to the research of translation theory and translation practice. This also contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goal number 17 which seeks global parternship for sustainable development.

Verbal descriptors of the frequency of side effects: implementation of EMA recommendations in patient information leaflets in Poland.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommends a description of drug side effects based on the frequency format and the associated verbal description. Although the recommendations refer to English-speaking countries, in several non-English-speaking states, official authorities have accepted the proposed recommendations on how the patient information leaflets should be designed for descriptions of side effect frequencies. The aim of the study was to examine how manufacturers of authorized medicines in Poland implement the EMA recommendations regarding the verbal descriptors of the frequency of side effects. A qualitative study. As a first step, we identified which of the 150 pharmaceutical companies operating in Poland had the largest market share. Then, five manufacturers were selected at random from the list of the top 15 drug manufacturers in Poland by market share of the pharmaceutical sector. Lists of medicinal products authorized for marketing in Poland were downloaded from manufacturers' websites, and then five products from each manufacturer were selected based on random sampling. The study included only prescription medicines and excluded over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements from the sample. Subsequently, for each of the 25 drugs, relevant patient information leaflets were obtained from the manufacturers' websites. We evaluated how information on the frequency of side effects was provided in each leaflet, including the use of EMA-recommended terms (verbal descriptors such as 'very common,' 'common,' 'uncommon,' 'rare' and 'very rare') and additional notes explaining their meanings. For all manufacturers, word labels of the frequencies of side effects selected for the study were the same, but the additional notes explaining their meanings were different. There were various explanations of how to understand verbal descriptors of the frequency of side effects not only across different manufacturers but also across different medicines from one manufacturer. There is no single standard in the Polish pharmaceutical industry for implementing the EMA recommendations into the written information about the frequency of side effects. The observed differences for an explanation of how to understand a given verbal term do not favor a uniform interpretation of the verbal frequency labels meaning by patients.

An EFQM-Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model for Efficiency Assessment in Organizations

One of the new concepts that have found a considerable position in many countries of the world is organizing EFQM organizational excellence models. Different organizations and institutions have been evaluated and compared on its basis, and the move towards improvement and promotion is strengthened in them due to creation of competitive space. The EFQM organizational excellence model cannot remove the managers’ and users’ need for the levels of quantitative goals’ operation solely. Thus, requirement for a tool which considers quantitative goals and present environment was felt, and in this manner, various assessment processes were created to be used in different organizations; one of the most important ones is the technique for Data Envelopment Analysis. Evaluating organization efficiency based on the EFQM model is one of the strategic managerial tools in many organizations. The classic DEA models were designed to work with deterministic data and cannot deal with uncertainties in their inputs. The techniques developed so far for fuzzy performance evaluation are also very limited. Given that the inputs and outputs of a real system are not always definite and accurate and that some data can only be expressed in vague verbal and subjective terms, the use of fuzzy sets in modeling is inevitable (Ali et al., 2019). In this paper, a Network Data Envelopment Analysis Model is proposed in fuzzy conditions for assessing units of an organization based on an organizational excellence model. The suggestive model utilizes the privileges of both Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis and EFQM organizational excellence models simultaneously in order to assess organization’s efficiency. The Fuzzy Network Data Envelopment Analysis model is able to calculate the whole organization’s efficiency as well as organization’s efficiency separately for various phases of the organizational excellence model. Another privilege of the suggested model is that it utilizes fuzzy theory and concepts for modeling and observance of existing noncertainties in the experts’ views while assessing organization’s excellence criteria. The EFQM-fuzzy network DEA model is applied for assessing a holding’s organizational units within the discipline of “project management.”

Developmental Trajectories in the Understanding of Everyday Uncertainty Terms.

Dealing with uncertainty and different degrees of frequency and probability is critical in many everyday activities. However, relevant information does not always come in the form of numerical estimates or direct experiences, but is instead obtained through qualitative, rather vague verbal terms (e.g., "the virus often causes coughing" or "the train is likely to be delayed"). Investigating how people interpret and utilize different natural language expressions of frequency and probability is therefore crucial to understand reasoning and behavior in real-world situations. While there is considerable work exploring how adults understand everyday uncertainty phrases, very little is known about how children interpret them and how their understanding develops with age. We take a developmental and computational perspective to address this issue and examine how 4- to 14-year-old children and adults interpret different terms. Each participant provided numerical estimates for 14 expressions, comprising both frequency and probability phrases. In total we obtained 2856 quantitative judgments, including 2240 judgments from children. Our findings demonstrate that adult-like intuitions about the interpretation of everyday uncertainty terms emerge fairly early in development, with the quantitative estimates of children converging to those of adults from around 9 years on. We also demonstrate how the vagueness of verbal terms can be represented through probability distributions, which provides additional leverage for tracking developmental shifts through cognitive modeling techniques. Taken together, our findings provide key insights into the developmental trajectories underlying the understanding of everyday uncertainty terms, and open up novel methodological pathways to formally model the vagueness of probability and frequency phrases, which are abundant in our everyday life and activities.

Arithmetic Word Problems Revisited: Cognitive Processes and Academic Performance in Secondary School

Solving arithmetic word problems is a complex task that requires individuals to activate their working memory resources, as well as the correct performance of the underlying executive processes involved in order to inhibit semantic biases or superficial responses caused by the problem’s statement. This paper describes a study carried out with 135 students of Secondary Obligatory Education, each of whom solved 5 verbal arithmetic problems: 2 consistent problems, whose mathematical operation (add/subtract) and the verbal statement of the problem coincide, and 3 inconsistent problems, whose required operation is the inverse of the one suggested by the verbal term(s). Measures of reading comprehension, visual–spatial reasoning and deductive reasoning were also obtained. The results show the relationship between arithmetic problems and cognitive measures, as well as the ability of these problems to predict academic performance. Regression analyses confirmed that arithmetic word problems were the only measure with significant power of association with academic achievement in both History/Geography (β = 0.25) and Mathematics (β = 0.23).

Application of Mathematical Logic for Cytogenetic Definition and Risk Stratification of B-Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (BCP-ALL)

BCP ALL is the most common phenotype of ALL. Identification of recurrent genetic abnormalities specific for BCP-ALL [i.e., t(12;21), t(17;19), t(1;19)], has become an essential tool for confirmation of diagnosis and risk stratification. It can also be used for assessing response to treatment and for detecting the re-emergence of malignant cells. Although the definition of BCP ALL with recurrent genetic abnormalities can be correctly expressed in verbal terms, Mathematical Logic may provide a definition that is more concise. We defined the semantics of conjunctions by the truth values “1” or “0”. In a simplified syntax of English, the conjunctions “and”, “or”, “if and only if” were replaced by the symbols “∧ “, “V”, “↔” respectively. This method permitted definitions stripped from all ambiguous elements.

On the Measurement of Subjective Apprehension Risk

Do people think about offending risk in verbal or numerical terms? Does the elicitation method affect reported subjective probabilities? Rational choice models require potential outcomes (e.g., benefits/costs) to be weighted by their probability of occurrence. Indeed, the subjective likelihood of being apprehended is the central construct in criminological deterrence theory—the so-called certainty principle. Yet, extant literature has measured the construct inconsistently and with little attention to potential consequences. Using a series of randomized experiments conducted with nationwide samples of American adults (aged 18 and over), this study examines the degree of correspondence between verbal and numeric measures of apprehension risk, assesses the durability of numeric estimates specifically, and attempts to elicit how respondents naturally think about apprehension risk. The findings suggest that laypeople are somewhat inconsistent in their use of both verbal and numeric descriptors of probability, their numeric estimates of probability are unlikely to be precise or durable, and many seem to prefer thinking of risk in verbal terms (compared to numeric terms). Researchers should consider including both verbal and numeric measures of probability and explore alternative measurement strategies, including anchoring vignettes, which have been valuable in standardizing verbal responses in other disciplines.

A proposal for perception measurement on a linguistic scale coded with unconventional fuzzy numbers

The aim of this paper is to formulate a new proposal for perception measurement on a linguistic scale coded with fuzzy numbers. Additionally, an attempt is made to show the assessment process of the adequacy of a linguistic scale. The basis for the proposal is the discussion of issues related to the ambiguity of the results of measurements made by means of a subjective type of measurement scales. The proposed assessment technique is relevant when the results of the measurement based on a linguistic scale are coded with numerical equivalents in the form of e.g. unconventional fuzzy numbers. The issue the subjective perception of the products’ quality illustrates the objectivity level of measurement results. Subjective perception is measured with a specially designed IT tool allowing the respondent to determine all the characteristics of the resulting fuzzy numbers. The scale adequacy assessment tool is based on the Item Response Theory, and particulary so on the model devised by Georg Rasch. The measurement of socio-economic phenomena, including material and subjective wellbeing of households, the quality of households’ durable goods, and the assessment of the quality of goods available on the market requires special tools. It seems that one of the most useful and powerful tools for the measurement of socio-economic phenomena is a linguistic scale. The problematic issue in the analysis presented in the paper is coding verbal terms with their numerical equivalents.

Introduction to the special issue on syntax and verbal short term/working memory in developmental disorders

In the field of developmental disorders, two main research approaches, the linguistic approach and the cognitive psychology of memory approach, have been used to a great extent independently. Recently, researchers have investigated simultaneously the language and verbal memory abilities – especially verbal short term memory (VSTM) and verbal working memory (VWM) – of individuals with developmental disorders. The present Special Issue contributes to the discussion of the relation between VSTM/VWM and syntax in developmental disorders. It reports empirical data from six studies on the relation between verbal memory and syntax in different disorders and languages, and it raises theoretical issues concerning these cognitive mechanisms. It concludes with three commentary articles where the authors raise crucial theoretical and methodological issues: they pose questions concerning the status of VSTM/VWM and syntax, and spell out directions for future research in this field.

Дефиниция глагольного термина как языковая форма выражения действий, процессов, состояний, отношений (на материале подъязыка медицины)

The paper suggests a new approach to defining verbs - medical terms often not represented in special lexicographical dictionaries. Definitions of verbal terms are formulated taking into account requirements for such definitions. Conceptual and verbal models that express hypero-hyponymic and part-whole relations between special notions are described. The conducted research has allowed compiling a sample dictionary fragment, which can be used to develop a semantic classification of the Russian-language verbal medical terminology.

ДРЕВНИЕ САКРАЛЬНЫЕ СМЫСЛЫ ОБРАЗА ХВОЙНОГО ДЕРЕВА (ЕЛЬ, СОСНА) В ТВЕРСКОЙ ТРАДИЦИОННОЙ КУЛЬТУРЕ

The article is devoted to comprehension of ritual and magic role of coniferous tree (spruce, pine) in traditional national culture and is based on materials of a long-term (2000–2019) folklore and ethnographic expeditionary survey of villages of Tver region made by teachers and students of the State Academy of Slavic Culture (nowadays — Russian State University named after A. N. Kosygin). In addition to expedition materials, the work includes identified folklore and ethnographic archival records and publications of past years, related to the evidence of the coniferous tree's sacral meanings and reflecting the ritual tradition of not only Tver land, but also of territories associated with it. In Tver folk culture there is often a ritual synonymy of spruce and pine, which manifests itself both in attributive and in verbal terms. The logic of this article is primarily associated with Tver traditional calendar and agrarian complex, in which the spruce (pine) tree acts as a mythopoetically saturated ritual attribute of calendar rites and holidays. In addition, folklore and ethnographic evidence of the ritual and symbolic role of spruce (pine) in family and household rituals (wedding, maternity, recruiting) has been introduced. Thus, the material is built so that the archaic sacral meanings of the image of spruce (pine) in the ritual zone of Tver traditional culture are revealed, first of all, taking into account the North Russian dialect vocabulary connected with words "yel' ", "yelina", "yolka", "sosna" аnd their dialect meanings, аnd secondly, with the involvement of local ethnographical samples of traditional folk architecture and applied arts such as embroidery, weaving, wood carving and painting, which have preserved in a more or less evident form the sacred character of the depicted coniferous tree.