Dmitriy A. Romanov

Professor, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Center for the Russian Language and Regional Linguistic Studies

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-2-128-137

Abstract. The article examines the stages of the semantic evolution of the word ballad in the Russian language: starting from the period of its adoption in the first third of the 19th century up to the present day. The meanings of the word are considered in close connection with the development of the cultural idea of the ballad as a genre of literary and artistic creation. Based on the corpus analysis of the lexeme, he author identifies the peaks of its active use in Russian. The nature of the collocates reveals the additional semantic connotations it acquires, as well as the areas of art that have had a decisive influence on the emergence of these connotations Three semantic lines of the ballad that are relevant for Russian linguistic culture are studied from a functional point of view: a possible foreign cultural prototype, the nature of its change (correction), the personal creative experience of artists in the development and transformation of Western European traditions, the features of the distribution of this semantics in the Russian language of different eras. Spanish, French and English (Scottish) ballads are sources for the formation of a lyrical line, which manifested itself in the budding of new artistic types from a cultural phenomenon, shaped by other linguistic means (for example, a heart-rending romance). The same line is associated with a parodic direction in the content of the ballad plot and with the use of the word ballad in a combination uncharacteristic for the Russian language tradition. The article touches upon issues related to the different nature of the translation of Western European ballads into Russian, and confirms the opinion of other researchers about the presence of a linguocultural phenomenon of the Russian textual equivalent of many classical ballads. Statistical data proves that cinematography, surpassing other art forms, has made the most significant contribution to the formation of the Russian linguistic and cultural representation of the ballad.
Keywords: ballad, vocabulary, semantics, borrowing, compatibility, frequency, linguistic culture, literature, poetry, cinematography.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Romanov, DA 2023, ‘The Phenomenon of the Ballad in Russian Linguistic Culture: the Own and the Foreign’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (14), pp. 128–137, http:// doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-2-128-137 (in Russ.)

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