Images of fear in language communities and cultures: the case of Slavic, Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages

Образы страха в культурно-языковых сообществах (на материале славянских, германских и кельтских языков)

Pavel Dronov

The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7533-7420

Yevgeniya Ioanesyan

The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4950-6315

Maria Kovshova

The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8920-8638


Abstract

Being a case study of lexical and figurative units in Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, as well as Irish, the paper deals with the means of naming fear, revealing its connection to other concepts. The paper covers models of naming this emotion represented in the underlying metaphors, synchronous polysemy and phraseology. As the analysis shows, different languages have different primary associations with fear, e.g. darkness, uncertainty, insecurity, loneliness, high altitude, etc. To investigate underlying images and metaphors found in the naïve worldview, the authors use the corpus-based approach, as well as (for the Russian data) the technique of modified semantic differential. The technique, based on an experiment involving Russianspeaking respondents, allowed for distinguishing and detailing criteria of perceiving names and predicates denoting fear.


Keywords:

Semantics     phraseology     models of naming     emotion     psychosemantic experiment


БИРСЛА (2011), Волкова, А. С./Михеева, Н. Ф./Кузнецов, В. В. и др. Большой испанско-русский словарь. Латинская Америка. Под ред. Фирсовой, Н. М. Москва. [BIRSLA (2011), Volkova, A. S./ Mikheyeva, N. F./Kuznetsov, V. V. i dr. Bol’shoyispansko-russkiy slovar’. Latinskaya Amerika. Pod red. Firsovoy, N. M. Moskva.]

ГрГр (1988), Гринева, Е. Ф./Громова, Т. Н. Словарь разговорной лексики французского языка (на материале современной художественной литературы и прессы). Москва. [GrGr (1988), Grineva, Ye. F./Gromova, T. N. Slovar’ razgovornoy leksiki frantsuzskogo yazyka (na materiale sovremennoy khudozhestvennoy literatury i pressy). Moskva.]

ИСРС (1988), Загорская, Н. В./Курчаткина, Н. Н./Нарумов, Б. П. Испанско-русский словарь. Под ред. Нарумова, Б. П. Москва. [ISRS (1988), Zagorskaya, N. V./Kurchatkina, N. N./Narumov, B. P. Ispansko-russkiy slovar’. Pod red. Narumova, B. P. Moskva.]

ЛРС (1976), Дворецкий, И. Х. Латинско-русский словарь. Изд. 2-е, перерработ. и доп. Москва.

[LRS (1976), Dvoretskiy, I. Kh., Latinsko-russkiy slovar’. Izd. 2-ye, pererrabot. i dop. Moskva.]

ПЭ (2006), Психологическая энциклопедия. Под ред. Р. Корсини, А. Ауэрбаха. 2-е изд. СПб.: Питер. [PE (2006), Psikhologicheskaya entsiklopediya. Pod. red. R. Korsini, A. Auerbakha. 2-e izd. SPb.: Piter.]. В: http://yanko.lib.ru/books/psycho/psych-enc.htm [доступ 20 IX 2019].

DA (2010), Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira. Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Brasil. In: http://dicionariodoaurelio.com [accessed 20 IX 2019].

Duden.de. Duden – Startseite. In: https://www.duden.de [accessed 20 IX 2019].

DMFR (1992), Greimas, A.-J./Keane, T. M. Dictionnaire du moyen français. La renaissance. Paris.

DRAE (2014), Real Academia Española: Diccionario de la lengua española. La 23.ª edición. In: http://lema.rae.es/drae [accessed 20 IX 2019].

OUD (1955), The Oxford Universal Dictionary on historical principles. Third edition, revised with addenda. Oxford.

PR (1970), Robert, P./Rey-Debov, J./Rey, A. Le Petit Robert. Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française. Paris.

RC (2007), Rey, A./Chantreau, S. Dictionnaire des expressions et locutions. Paris.

SCD (2007), Il Sabatini Coletti. Dizionario della Lingua Italiana. Milano. In: http://dizionari.corriere.it [accessed 20 IX 2019].

TR. Le Trésor de la langue française informatisé. In: http://atilf.atilf.fr [accessed 20 IX 2019].

Published
2020-12-30

Cited by

Dronov, P., Ioanesyan, Y., & Kovshova, M. (2020). Images of fear in language communities and cultures: the case of Slavic, Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages: Образы страха в культурно-языковых сообществах (на материале славянских, германских и кельтских языков). Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski, 11(2), 445–454. https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.6522

Pavel Dronov 
The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7533-7420
Yevgeniya Ioanesyan 
The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4950-6315
Maria Kovshova 
The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8920-8638