LEXICAL MEANS OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION IN THE MARI FOLK OMENS

Marianna V. Ryabinina¹, Raisia A. Kudryavtseva², Tatiana N. Belyaeva³*,
Tatiana P. Devyatkina⁴, Vladimir I. Rogachev⁵, Irina V. Trubyanova6,
 and Irina G. Fedotova-Gradobaeva7
¹ Asst. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, mari.riabinina@yandex.ru
² Prof., Mari State University, Russia, kudsebs@rambler.ru
³ Asst. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, sokolova_beljaeva@mail.ru
⁴ Prof., M. E. Evsevyev Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute, Russia, tatyana_devyatki@mail.ru
⁵ Prof., M. E. Evsevyev Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute, Russia, cafedra.literatury@yandex.ru
⁶ Asst. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, opleva@mail.ru
⁷ Asst., Mari State University, Russia, gradobaeva-fedotova2011@yandex.ru

*Corresponding author

Abstract

The Mari people have created and tested by thousand-year practice a numerous and steady complex of folk omens. They are weather forecasts, household observations and superstitious predictions, which contain timescales for conducting all sorts of fatigue duties. They reflected the experience and knowledge acquired by the people in the process of practical perception and subordination of nature. Folk texts of such genre appear as omens-forecasts, omens-interpretations or omens-rules.
The lexical means of expressions contribute to preserve and consolidate of pantheistic, social-behavioral, philosophical, instructive-everyday, ethno-pedagogical and other meanings in them. Antonyms, phraseological expressions and various tropes (metaphors, comparisons, metonymies, epithets) most often use in the texts of the Mari omens. We consider in this article the special features of their using, their role in the imaginative recreation of objective reality and in the artistic expression of the people’s worldview.
The internal semantic links between the parts of the omens often have oppositional character, therefore the antonymous relations are very clearly marked in the language of the people’s omens, artistic expression of the national worldview. In such cases, as a rule, we are dealing with complex syntactic constructions: in one text, in fact, there are two signs, which are connected with each other on the principle of opposition.
Phraseological established collocations give the omens a high degree of imagery, vivid bright picturesqueness.
In the Mari omens from among the trope’s ways of expressiveness different types of metaphors, including reification, are the most demanded. In some texts there are metaphorical monologues, that form elements of the mise-en-scene. In such cases metaphorical expressions give omens a humorous tone. Metonymy is mainly represented by synecdoche. The figurativeness of language of national omens is also achieved by use of different types of comparisons – direct, developed, etc. Epithets (figurative definitions) strengthen some one feature of a subject, which is the most significant in the omen, as it forms its meaning (forecasting, warning, hortative).

Keywords: Folkloristics, Mari folklore, folk omens, lexical means of expression, antonyms, phraseological expressions, and trope.