The Way of listven’ in the Russian and Siberian Worldview: From Phytonym to Concepts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the semantic properties of the dialect word listven’ (“larch”) in the narrative prose. Based on the material of encyclopaedias, fiction and travel prose, observations on the lexical and semantic properties of the word “larch” (lat. Larix dahurica; in the studied context – larix sibirica) are presented. It is shown how, being a dialect nomination, the word becomes a part of the individual author’s system. In the treatise of Vitruvius, the word Larix is associated with the name of the citadel Larignum. The historian talks about the fire that started during the storming of the fortress and mentions the amazing durability of the tree. The idea of Larix as being of the same root as the Latin laridum is widespread, which gives the tree a metaphorical resemblance to body. As M. Statley notes, in European shamanism the world tree was often depicted as a larch. It is significant that all these options are equally reflected in the modern village prose, in particular, in the work of V. Rasputin “Farewell to Matera” (1976). The purpose of the article is to trace the stages that a given lexeme goes through on the way from a phytonym to a concept. In particular, the word begins to appear in non-fiction texts related to the development of Siberia and the Far East from the end of the 18th century, for example the Russian travel logs and subsequently reports. In almost all of the considered contexts, a characteristic enumerative intonation is used, while the word is included in the same row as the normative phytonyms. In some contexts, the properties of the tree are recorded, which can be considered proto-metaphors: the extraordinary strength of the wood, the ugliness of the tree itself, and, finally, frequent comparisons of the bark of larch with human skin or paper are noted. These remarks are given in passing and are not developed into a narrative. Ethnographers were not very interested in the picture of the world of the indigenous people, so the rich folklore, pagan idea of larch as the center of hulde. That’s correlated with the spirit or personality of a person in the religion of the Druids, remained out of sight. The considered path of the word demonstrates the specific mechanism of the transition of a marked dialect word into non-fiction writing and narrative reflection on the essence of the word in fiction writing. Referring to the local dialect, D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak and V. G. Korolenko gave to the word the necessary imagery and expressiveness, which became a constructive part of the language of rural prose of the second half of the 20th century, that is to say the new travel prose of the 21st century. Of course, with the development of Siberian literature, these ideas reached their positions in the prose of L. M. Leonova, V. N. Rasputin, E. Aypin and many others. “Farewell to Matera” becomes a precedent text, where larch as a world tree is not only transformed into a dialectal “larch”, but also acquires a different morphological and semantic genus (Nf + sing → Nm + sing). In modern literature, the word turns into a topos, or rather a narrative element that is variable, repeated and recognizable by the reader. In this regard, of course, the question arises of translations of the word “larch” into other languages. Of course, bringing this lexeme to its exact literary equivalent, “larch” significantly impoverishes the style, discourse and plot possibilities contained in the lexeme under consideration.