Peculiarities of speech realization of the concept «Soul» in the Russian linguistic worldimage

The concept is a concept basic to several directions in modern linguistics. In cognitive linguistics the term is interpreted as «serving to explain units of mental or psychic resources of our consciousness». In psycholinguistics, a concept is understood as a mental formation, which has the character of a well-established and typical image and performs the function of substitution.

The concept «Soul» is one of the core concepts in Russian linguistic culture. It is described in the fundamental works of the Russian scientists: V.V. Kolesov, Y.S. Stepanov, A.D. Shmelev, V.A. Maslova.

As N.F. Alefirenko notes, the greatest phrase-formation productivity is inherent in the lexemes that contain a long-standing mythological understanding of reality: fire, earth, water, death, soul, devil, sky [Alefirenko, 23].

In the Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary «Soul» in the usual usage is the totality of motives of consciousness of a living being, especially a human being, the antithesis of the concepts of body and matter. The scientific concept of soul is different: it is a totality of mental phenomena closely connected with the body, in particular feelings and aspirations (vital soul). The result of observations on the soul in this sense is analyzed by psychologists (soul ‒ greek. psyche, lat. anima) [Pimenova, 19].

The philosophical understanding of the soul as a substance led to it first being ascribed the properties of «subtle substance». According to Plato, the soul is immaterial and precedes existence. Aristotle calls it the first entelechy (active beginning) of a viable body.

Before the New Age, the subject of metaphysics was whether the soul was a substance. At the origin of the ancient conceptions of the soul as a breath from outside, observations of the breath of a living being were used. It disappeared from those who died. Researchers note that observations of blood and the disappearance of the soul in a great loss of blood led to the fact that in the blood began to see the carrier of the soul. Thus, the notion of the soul existing independently of the body was formed [Pimenova, 36].

The core part of the semantic field of the concept «Soul» consists of lexemes, synonymous with the dominant «inner world of a person». They are actively used when expressing the archiseme of the field Soul: nature – «a person's character, temperament»; disposition – «character, the totality of mental properties»; appearance – «character, mental structure»; nature – «basic property, essence» [Vardanyan, 4].

The linguistic expression of this concept is widely represented at the morphological and word–formation levels. Thus, in A. N. Tikhonov's Dictionary of the Russian language there are 132 derivative units, created on the basis of the derivative lexeme «soul» [Tikhonov, 44]. Each of these units actualizes in the discourse not only an explicit, but also an implicit bundle of meanings. Depending on the intentions of the linguistic personality, they acquire additional occasional expressive–emotional connotations. Language in this aspect is «the space of thought and the home of the being of the spirit»: «the image of language» acquires the features of «the image of space» [Bragina, 298].

The phraseological component of the semantic field «Soul» includes phraseological units of different grammatical types. Adjective phraseological units have a categorical meaning of attributes. They can act as a characteristic of a person: soul. In nominative phraseological units, the concept contains a figurative meaning ‒ the inspirer of something, the main person: the soul of the company. Verbal phraseological units have «psyche» and «consciousness» semantics: to ache with soul.

A large number of phraseological expressions with the word «soul» in the Russian language picture of the world are associated with the concept of «living» and have religious connotations: «living soul», «soul burns», «soul turned over». There is a similarity of lexemes, phenomena and concepts «soul» and «spirit» [Kolesov, 132].

The multifaceted actualization of the concept soul in the Russian language picture of the world testifies to the significant position that this concept occupies in the national consciousness of the Russian people. The significance of this concept is determined, firstly, by the fact that the soul is one of the most important fundamental features of man in general, and secondly, by the fact that it expresses a special spiritual hypostasis of the «inner» man – the core concept of the Russian mentality.