Lexical representations of the concept of Motherland in poetic texts of Tuvan writers

Abstract

This paper aims to comprehensively describe the concept of Motherland in the Tuvan linguistic worldview. Such a description involves defining the structure and content of this concept, its chronological lexical representation in poetic works of Tuvan writers. Related to the Tuvan linguistic world view, the concept of Motherland is a variant of the universal concept of one’s space existing almost in all national world pictures: Motherland is the place of birth of an individual; ancestral motherland-1 is the place of birth of the parents (ancestors) of the individual; ancestral motherland-2 is the place of origin of the people, place of residence, the territory of the tribal group. They are joined by the concept of fatherland, the country of citizenship. The representation core of Motherland is the lexeme töreen čurt and related lexemes töreen čer “home land,” čer-čurt “earth-homeland,” ada-čurt “of the fatherland,” iye-čurt “motherland,” “earth-homeland” töreen čurt, characterized by high frequency and minimal dependence on the context. The evolution of the concept of Motherland is distinctly traced in the poems of Tuvan writers of different times in comparison with the oral folk art works, allowing one to trace the content transformations of the concept of Motherland. The period reviewed represents Motherland as “large motherland” and “small motherland” by toponyms and common names. Together, they form a mobile structure of the Tuvan nation mentality, reacting to major changes in the linguacultural community’s life. The relevance of a particular conceptual sign varied in different periods of the Tuvan society’s history, demonstrated by the poetic texts of different periods.

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