“Friend-or-foe” opposition and its implementation through the concepts “house” and “forest” in Russian fairy-tale discourse

• Main Author: Aliaksandr V. Shakolo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2020-12-01
• Series: Russian Language Studies
• Subjects: concept; forest; house; fairy-tale discourse; key opposition; russian fairy-tales
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/russian-language-studies/article/viewFile/23216/17980

Researches of the discursive analysis become more and more significant sphere of linguistics. Both forest and house act as two main and never identical worlds. The fundamental conceptual opposition of fairy-tale discourse is based on the concepts of house and forest, fundamental opposite worlds. The purpose of the article is to examine the two concepts as crucial components of friend-or-foe opposition, and to reveal features of their representation in Russian linguistic culture. During the research, the author used descriptive, inductive and cultural-historical methods. The research showed that the concepts of forest and house are key components of fairy-tale discourse, have nationally specific features in Russian fairy-tales revealed in the texts. The theoretical relevance of the article lies in the fact that contributes to working out the problem of national worldview representation and Russian ethnos mentality. The practical relevance of the article consists in possibility of using its materials in the process of teaching, while compiling lectures, guides for teachers, seminars on fairy-tale discourse. A role of house and forest for Slavic people is really significant. Besides, the results of the study show the necessity of further analysis of fairy-tale discourse, more detailed description of the concepts and their comparison with the concepts of other national fairy-tales.