Title of the article:

HISTORICO-CULTURAL CONTEXT AND WORD SEMANTICS IN THE ANCIENT PERIOD (BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE VERB KISS)

Author(s):

Andrey V. Grigoriev

Antonina V. Orlova 

Information about the author/authors

Andrey V. Grigoriev — DSc in Philology, Professor, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Malaya Pirogovskaya, 1, 119435 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: greg988@yandex.ru 

Antonina V. Orlova — Master’s student, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory, GSP-1, 119991 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: antonina-orlova@rambler.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2018

Volume

Vol. 49

Pages

Рp. 238–243

Received

March 30, 2018

Date of publication

September 15, 2018

Index UDK

811.161.1'04

Index BBK

81.2-3

Abstract

The paper raises the issue of necessity to verify definitions, represented in existent Russian historical dictionaries. It brings to notice that varied ways of thinking, rites and rituals of different cultures can be traced in Old Russian words semantics. That is why addressing historical and cultural context tends to be of great importance in providing more precise definition of a given word. We have demonstrated through the example of the verb kiss that determination of the word`s semantics in the quotation from The XIII Talks of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and in the fragment of “The reading concerning Life and Murder of SS. Boris and Gleb” needs bringing a focus on Christian unifying idea. So the meaning “to kiss”, represented in “The materials for the Old Russian dictionary” by I. I. Sreznevskij, is not exactly appropriate to abovementioned contexts. The definition “to welcome, to meet friendly”, illustrated in “The dictionary of Russian language of the XI–XVII centuries” drawing on the example of the fragment from “History of the Jewish war” by Josephus Flavius, appears to be questionable as well. The verb δεξιόομαι is used in the original text. It denotes “literally: to raise a right hand to welcome”. This context seems to describe greeting of Palestine’s inhabitants applied to Roman army, perceived as pagans and invaders. Therefore, as author concludes, analysis of material allows for showing the necessity of correction or adding supplementary, in a number of cases, historical and cultural commentary to the historical dictionaries of Russian language.

Keywords

Old Russian language, ancient Greek language, historical dictionaries, verification, historical and cultural context, Judaic tradition, semantics, Christian tradition.

References

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