Ethno-Cultural Concept ‘Reindeer Breeding’ in the Even Language

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Ekaterina Afanas’evna Krivoshapkina1 & Svetlana Mitrophanovna Prokopieva2

1Senior lecturer, Department of Northern Philology, North-Eastern Federal University, 677000 Yakutsk, Belinskijstr, 58. Email: e_keimeti@mail.ru. 2Head of the Research-Educational Center Typology of Languages and Cross-Cultural Communication, North-Eastern Federal University, 677000 Yakutsk, Belinskijstr, 58. Email: dsmplana@mail.ru

  Volume 8, Number 3, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n3.03

Received May 16, 2016; August 08, 2016; Accepted August 12, 2016; Published August 18, 2016


Abstract

The paper reveals ethno-cultural value of the concept ‘reindeer breeding’ in denotation formation of the Even language. The work is aimed at an analysis of the ethno-cultural concept of ‘reindeer breeding’ in Even. The investigation is based on lexical units reflecting reindeer characteristics, traditional ways of locational orientation, calendar selected from lexicographic sources of the Even language. The concept ‘reindeer breeding’ has not been subject of special investigation although this very layer of lexical and phraseological units reflects ethno-cultural specifics of the Even language. The analyzed lexical units are subdivided into three groups: 1) vocational vocabulary reflecting general denotations of reindeer, gender-age related reindeer denotations, reindeer color, viscera, reindeer diseases, movements and actions of reindeer, grazing and feeding land, reindeer character and habits; 2) spatial vocabulary (oikonyms, hydronyms, oronyms, toponyms); 3) temporal vocabulary. The study is of complex character; to reveal specific ethnic-cultural features of the linguistic picture of the world we used the inductive-deductive method. The semantic analysis of lexical units involved dictionary definitions of the concept‘reindeer breeding’. Using the component analysis, lexical units were separated into smallest meaningful parts. The research results are of interest for further investigation of other layers of the Even language.

Keywords: concept, the Even, reindeer breeding, toponymy, space, locational orientation.