A unified system of concepts on cultural universalities penetrating all the verbal practices considered has been formed. In this system, the semantic space is represented by a set of conceptual-value categories in the form of dichotomous pairs or longer rows, and the expressive side is represented by cultural codes, formed by rows of realities of different classes. Within the framework of a particular verbal culture, the combination of cultural code elements with a particular conceptual row may represent a concept, motif, or plot representing mythologemes.
In the field of folklore studies and ethnomusicology, the cultural codes of cult, calendar, labor, and family ceremonies of indigenous (Altai, Tuvinians, Yakuts, Buryats, Mongols) and migrant (Belarusians, Chuvashs, Mordovas) peoples of Siberia have been described. A classification of basic mythologems of mythoritual traditions of the Altai, Tuvinians, and Koryaks was formalized. A typology of Khakassian heroic epos characters with a definition of their genesis, functions, and semantics was made. The internal regularities of motifs, plots, and stereotypes connections in Buryat epos were characterized. Classification of Khanty bear feast poetic formulas by semantic features (“Dictionary of poetic constants of Kazym Khanty bear feast songs”) was made, a comparative typology and ritual functions of the chants of bear songs identified, and genre characteristics of the chants of personal and clan songs of coastal and reindeer Koryaks determined. Also, a description of the historical, cultural, and ethnographic context of folklorized orthodox chants in the singing traditions of Siberian peoples was carried out. A genre classification and musical typology of calendar songs of Belarusians from Siberia and the Far East was made. The study of melodies on the Mansi zither (sanqwyltap) has revealed stereotyping to be the way to create musical compositions.
Literary studies have revealed literary and documentary sources. The mythopoetic analysis of shamanistic stories in the literatures of indigenous peoples of Siberia was conducted. A card index of Siberian materials in Russian journals of the second half of the 19th century was compiled. The representation of Siberia in Russian drama of the early 20th century was analyzed. Theoretical questions of semiotic borders and mythopoetics of the Siberian text were elaborated. The local cultural constants in the Russian literature of Siberia, the myth of Siberia as a liminal space and “Siberian” chronotope were analyzed. The mechanism of self-myth-making of the Siberian writers of the 19th century was described. The structure of the subject index of secular reading of the 18th century Siberians was worked out. The genre specificity of the “Legend of Our Lady’s Icon of Balak in Tobolsk” was described, and the main stages of studying the Tale of the monk Abrahamius (1670) were reconstructed. The problem of epic topoi in the 18th-century literary work “The Prince Archilabon’s Story” was considered.
In the field of linguistics, the concept, the structure of the dictionary article, and the vocabulary of the electronic voiced dictionary of spiritual culture of the languages of Siberia of different families in a comparative and comparative aspect were developed. The adjectives of the Altai language used to characterize a person were systematized. A voiced database of the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language was created. The features of synthesizing verbal analytical constructions in Shor folklore texts were described. The complicated analytical forms of the past tense in Altai were studied. The data on the problem of synthesizing verbal analytical constructions in Tuvan folklore texts were analyzed and processed. The intonation features of a group of Altai folklore texts were studied. By using the application to the Russian Regional Associative Database (Siberia and the Far East) to analyze psychoglosses in all of its sub-corps, the associative dominants of the Russian language were classified by evaluative features in terms of society’s value orientations. Applying the postulates of westernization of S. V. Lurie revealed the direction of the dominant influence of Western culture in a number of indicators (lexico-semantic groups “cinema and media”, “literature”, “toponyms and anthroponyms”). Some aspects of the ethno-cultural potential of morphological categories were described, with their manifestations found in irregularity, namely in the asymmetry of grammems of a category or interacting categories and in the facts of morphological variation and frequent errors.
The following electronic interactive databases of languages and folklore of the peoples of Siberia and the Far East are being formed and replenished: 1) a database on the folklore of indigenous and migrant peoples of Siberia and the Far East: Altai, Belarusians, Buryats, Mordovians, Koryaks, Alyutorians, Tuvinians, Khakass, Khanty, Shorians, Chuvash (the body of folklore texts placed on the electronic portal “Folklore of peoples of Siberia” https://folkont.philology. nsc.ru/index.php?ent=262); 2) an online database of folklore texts in Siberian German dialects (as part of the online archive of German dialects of Russian Germans living in Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions https://www.tomdeutsche.ru/dialects/); 3) a demo version of the electronic atlas “Vocabulary of spiritual culture of Siberian peoples”; 4) an expert-training Application to the Russian Regional Associated Database was developed: Siberia and the Far East (http://adictru.nsu.ru/).
Implementation of research results
The research results have been implemented into:
1) the lexicographic practice. The structure of the specialized entry of spiritual vocabulary has been developed, which includes information of linguistic and ethno-cultural nature. A semantic-pragmatic questionnaire for the concepts related to the topic “the Native – the Foreigner” has been worked out;
2) the educational process. The results of the study are being applied in the following educational courses, with the developers and lecturers being the members of the Laboratory: NSU – “Communication Theory”, “Motivational Analysis of a Literary Text” (program developer and lecturer I. V. Silantyev;) “Anthropological Linguistics”, “Linguistic Typology” (program developer and lecturer N. B. Koshkareva); “Psycholinguistics”, “General Linguistics”, “Sociolinguistics” (program developer and lecturer I. V. Shaposhnikova); “Modern Russian Language. Morphology”, “Functional Grammar of the Russian Language” (program developer and lecturer I. E. Kim); NSPU – “Theory of Literature”. (program developer and lecturer Y. V. Shatin).
Education and professional development
The following theses have been defended:
1) Popova T. P. – “The problems of genre and narrative in the memoir trilogy of P. D. Boborykin” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 10.01.01 – Russian Literature (Philological Sciences). The defense took place on April 3, 2021, in the dissertation council of RSUH.
The theses prepared for defense:
2) Shulbaeva N. V. – “The world of characters of Khakass heroic epos: artistic and aesthetic aspect” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 10.01.09 – Folklore Studies (Philological Sciences).
3) Kolomakina B. A. – “Metamorphism of characters in folklore of peoples of Siberia (experience of classification of motives of transformation)” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 10.01.09. – Folklore Studies (Philological Sciences).
4) Daineko T. V. – “Calendar songs of Belarusians from Siberia and the Far East: genre composition and musical typology” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 17.00.02 – Musical Art (Art History).
5) Darydzhy (Bidinova) A. K. – “Speeches of Telengit dialect of Altai language (in comparison with Turkic languages of South Siberia)” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 10.02.20 – Comparative-historical, typological and comparative linguistics (Philological Sciences).
6) Timkin T. V. – “The system of vowel phonemes of the Surgut dialect of the Khanty language according to the experimental-acoustic data (in the comparative aspect)” – the thesis for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in the specialty 10.02.20 – Comparative-historical, Typological and Comparative Linguistics (Philological Sciences).
7) Urtegeshev N. S. – “Complex description of the phonetic-phonological system of the Shor language in the South Siberian Turkic context (comparative-typological aspect)” – the thesis for the degree of Doctor of Sciences in the specialty 10.02.20. – Comparative-Historical, Typological and Comparative Linguistics (Philological Sciences)
Infrastructural transformations.
Experimental and phonetic studies of the languages of peoples from Siberia and Far East have been brought to a new level by equipping the Laboratory of Verbal Cultures with the most advanced equipment for phonetic research under the support of the Mega-grant: electromagnetic articulograph, electropalatography device, device for studying articulation with ultrasound, logometric nasal-oral system, device for electroglottography, camera for video recording of oral cavity.
International and national cooperation
A. P. Ershov Institute of Informatics Systems, SB RAS: development of an ontology, improvement of software for the corpus of folklore texts on the portal “Folklore of the peoples of Siberia”; Faculty of Information Technology, Novosibirsk National State University: the creation of new modules and software tools in the “Russian Regional Associated Database: Siberia and the Far East”.
