From Ukrainian linguocultural space. Хмара (Hmara)

Abstract

The article considers the image word хмара which is among the important constituents of Ukrainian linguocultural space; the peculiarities of its semantic content are defined, the specific character of the way the mythological implications are expressed in various folk literature genres is outlined. Special attention is paid to the nominative polyphony of the concept ʻхмараʼ (literary ‘cloud’), to the existing variations in the naming units and to image representations. In the national linguistic worldview, there are numerous common-language naming units with the meaning ‘cloud’, which accentuate the specific character of the visual perception of the named phenomena. Very diversified evaluative characteristics of the analised image serve as markers of the linguocultural significance of the semantics of the word хмара. Among the secondary nomination units that denote cloud, attention should be paid to the zoomorphic images which are closely connected with the myths that are fundamental to archaic cultures and are condensedly represented in the mythologems of the sky serpent, sky cow and sky horses. The value significant opposition of the black and white clouds that is realised in the stereotypical folk images of horses is singled out. Folk texts register the historic dynamics of the mythological characters connected with cloud (serpent → witch). The extensive nominative field of the cloud denotatum registers the rootedness of the anylysed phenomenon in the folk culture and literature. The functional specialization of the image word хмара in the texts of incantations, folk fairy tales and lyrical songs is analysed. The evaluative ambivalence of cloud is emphasized. The paradigm of poetic use of the image word хмара in folk poetic texts and texts of fiction shows the peculiarities of the development of its evaluative semantics towards detailed representation of mental states, emotions. The derivational nest with the root -хмар‑ is given, its denotative versatility is pointed out.