Ethnolinguistics and mythology

In the case of the relationship between ethnolinguistics and mythology It is known that
mythological elements permeate the folklore creativity of the people, are the basis of folk art
culture in general. In turn, language is also the basis of folk culture. Thus, the mutually
bordering spheres of linguistics and mythology belong to ethnolinguistics.

It must be said that myth occupies a special place in the culture of the people and in folklore.
Mythology is a world cultural heritage, a kind of storehouse of motives, plots and images on
which modern artistic thinking develops.

Most Indo-European languages have a relatively long historical record, i.e. developed in two
forms - oral and written. As for the written fixation of mythology, this is a "privilege" of only
certain Indo-European ethnic groups. Ethnic groups such as the Baltic and Slavic are almost
devoid of it. It is quite obvious, however, that the early written fixation of mythological texts
(religious ideas), as in the case of language, is not the only historical source for living ethnic
groups and languages (Tolstoy, 1995, 32).

A variety of Slavic folk oral traditions in the field of rituals, beliefs and customs, i.e. the
dialectic nature of spiritual culture makes it an irreplaceable and almost the only source for the
history of mythological views and forms, for diachronic mythological studies, for determining
the dynamics of the development of individual mythological systems, for their ethnic, territorial
and chronological confinement in the past.

Moreover, both mythology and ethnolinguistics use a number of methods and starting points,
for example, a semiotic analysis of the rite.

An important element of the cultural sphere of the national language is the mythologeme.
Mythologemes are traditionally considered pre-Christian (pagan) ethno-cultural units: "over
time and the establishment of Christian doctrine, direct perception of mythology gave way to
other forms of awareness" [Kononenko, p. 64]. It is logical to assume that with the adoption of
Christianity, the mythologeme as a component of ethno species disappears. But if we take into
account that myths are legends about the life and deeds of gods and heroes, and mythology is
the totality of all national myths that reflects nature and society, then it is obvious that the
mythologemes, representing a plot or image, still exist today.

There is no consensus among scholars on the term mythologeme. Makovskiy (2014) defines
mythologemes as the unity of several concepts that are inseparable from each other in terms of
magical thought about primitive man. Bykova and Rakitina (1999) consider the mythologeme
as an actualized meaning of the mytheme. The significant structure of the mythologeme
contains signs of denotative and connotative aspects. Its actualization is based on the transition
of the denotative or connotative characteristics pass from the signifier to the signified, so the
connotation penetrates into the denotative meaning of the mytheme. According to Pitina (2002),
a mythologeme is a discrete unit of collective consciousness, a concept that reflects the objects
of possible worlds, which is verbally represented in the national memory of native speakers.
The verbal way of representing the mythologeme is carried out using dictionary units, lexemes
and word combinations used in the direct and figurative meaning. In cases of secondary
nomination, various external and internal characteristics of the mythologeme appear, giving
reality to the initially ideal images. Krutalevich (2016) defines a mythologeme as a concrete
interpretation of the universal model of the collective unconscious possessing such features as
retrospectivity, and regional and ethnic special character. A mythologeme is a meaningful unit,
stored in the ethnic memory, which reflects the cultural features in the particular language
worldview (Ivanov, 2019; Kayumova, 2019; Kleymenova, 2019; Stoyanova, 2018)

Mythologemes can belong to a culture in general and reflect the general features of
mythological thinking that have been preserved in modern society (e. g: giant, fairy, dwarf) due
to the mutual influence of cultures and stereotypical reflection of the unreal in all peoples
(Rettig, 2017; Rubert, 2015; Sushiy, 2016; Vorob’eva, 2018). Such universal, understandable
mythologemes are called international. International mythologemes represent only a part of the
mythological conceptual sphere. In a specific mythological worldview, international
mythologemes acquire specific characteristics and vary depending on the specific linguistic and
cultural situation. the mythologeme is the main linguistic unit of mythological representations.

Within a mythological text, mythologemes function in their primary meaning. In non-

mythological texts, they appear as the result of “poetic thought”, as a unit of secondary
nomination – a symbol, an image, a metaphor. In this case, an image is used as a means of
explanation, and only some features are used (as compared with the mythological way of
perception, when the image is completely transferred into the meaning). In a neo-mythological
text, the mythologeme loses those characteristics that are due to the originality of mythological
thought – verity and genuineness. It is no longer a form of knowledge storage, since there is no
denotatum in the environment. A mythologeme retains such features as locality, ethnic
connotation, sign characteristics, and affectiveness, and acquires some new ones, i.e.,
symbolism and figurativeness

It is also worth remembering that the mythological form is one of the manifestations of
consciousness, therefore, consciousness should be inherent at any stage of the development of
society. Even modern objective knowledge about the world can become mythological; a sign of
the human mind is belief in a miracle and its expectations. Actual facts can become a source of
myth-making. For example, local (limited by the social environment) mythologemes about
miraculous healing, about a miracle cure, about a magic healer, and so on. exist and are
inseparable from the Ukrainian worldview. In addition, such mythologemes cannot be assessed
as true or flawed, they are valid, since they are an element of consciousness and determine the
cultural and behavioral traits of the carriers. So, modern mythologemes have a shifted theme
towards the miraculous in life and the universe. The idea of the world has been changed by
facts: for an educated contemporary, the earth has become a small speck of dust in a boundless
universe. But, for example, we observe the mythologization of the scientific assumption
(theory, fact) in the field of astrophysics about the Big Bang. Part of knowledge about the world
and its defining events (for the community world and for the human microcosm) inevitably has
a mythological form. We find the national cultural component of mythologemes in folklore:
brotherhood betrayed and forgiven (the tale "Kotigoroshko") (compare the Biblical story of
Joseph and his brothers), the rebirth of a hero (a story about a fool who became a king or a
hero), an enchanted princess (for example, a fairy tale "The Frog Princess") and so on, as well
as in special mythological creatures. All of the listed cultural units create a high spiritual sphere
of culture consciousness. The sphere of everyday life was unjustifiably overlooked in
ethnolinguistic research. How in history we study culture by works of an artistic level
(architecture, painting, sculpture, etc.), Also applied things (dishes, clothes, tools, etc.).
increases; this is a sign of modern civilization, in particular the information society. The issues
of preserving national identity in the conditions of cosmopolitanism and the dominance of
cultural reference points of the material-pragmatic worldview are especially relevant

Folk mythological beliefs as an integral part of the traditional spiritual culture and vocabulary
describing them are gathered and generalized for a number of Slavic traditions in monographs,
dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as in papers.

Mythological vocabulary reflecting the archaic views of the ethnicity is of the most
interest in this regard. Some lexemes of Slavic group trace back to Indo-European roots and
represent the pre-Slavic heritage, others characterize contacts, migrations, territory of ethnic
groups’ settlements. On the one hand, conclusions drawn for a particular language as a whole
are also relevant for mythological vocabulary, on the other hand – in such vocabulary there are
features determined by the “nature of the correlation of the word and the concept in the
demonological system,” and a “special semantic status”. This refers to the unusual pattern of
interaction of the name and the “reality” denoted by it.’

Baba Yaga

The character and his name demonstrate a clear dialectal division of the Slavic territory into
West and East Slavic (we leave aside the South Slavic languages, in which the corresponding
vocabulary differs in semantics). Thus, in the Russian and Belarusian traditions, the term has a
Meaning - ‘baba Yaga’, less commonly ‘witch’ or ‘daughter of a witch’

In West Slavic languages meaning ‘kol-dunya, witch’, ‘angry, grumpy, unkempt woman’
 The character mara/mora - extremely popular in Slovak mythology. Widespread
mora(zmora, mara) and on Polish territory. In both West Slavic traditions, the MP denotes the
soul of a living person, leaving at night and harming the offender; the soul of a deceased person
(including a witch) working off his sins on earth.

The Slovak Rusyns still have an understanding mara as ghosts, that which crushes, deceives, it
seems, is characteristic of the Ukrainian and other Eastern Slavic traditions, cf .: ukr. mara
‘Ghost, spirit’, white mara ‘Ghost, heavy sleep, nightmare; shadow, the soul of a dead man,
Russian mara ‘Haze, temptation, delusion’in accordance with o.-slav.* mara

‘Ghost, apparition, obsession, deception of the senses, delusion, illness’. In Western Ukrainian
dialects, meanings crystallize ‘unclean power in general’, ‘damn’, ‘witch’, in the Galician
Lemkos marnik ‘Demon’ and further lemkos mara 'heck

In English ethnolinguistic discourse it is evidenced by the fact that in the group of classical
mythology, most of the units with semantic changes belong to derivatives (59 units):

chimerical adj often derog. imaginary, fanciful.

Quantity-wise semantic changes fixed within entries describing mythologemes (42 entry)
follow the derivatives. The change is recorded in different ways, indicating the degree of
frequency in speech and assimilation in English:

- Semantic change registered after interpretation as a secondary value (20 units): chimera,
-maera n 1 an imaginary terrible female creature, made up of parts of different animals, which
breathes fire 2 a dream that can never become true; unreal fancy.

- Semantic change registered after explanation within major meaning (7 units)

Hercules in ancient Roman stories, a hero known for his very great strength and for performing
12 very difficult and dangerous jobs known as the Labours of Hercules. People sometimes use
the name 'Hercules' to describe a man who is physically very strong.

As for other groups of origin, they are characterised by a small number of words with semantic
changes. Therefore, the lexical units of these groups were only slightly assimilated in English.
Two derivatives of the Scandinavian group have penetrated very deeply into the English
language, so that nowadays the connection between derivatives and their sources is poorly
perceived: Thursday – on behalf of Thor and Wednesday – on behalf of Woden. This fact can
be explained by the historical period when these derivatives were formed: in the old English
period, the cult of Scandinavian gods influenced the English language and two days were
dedicated to these gods