Macro-Concept of Kin in Proverbs about Kin and Tribe: Figurative-Metaphorical Layer

Abstract

The article features the macro-concept of kin and its symbolic signs. The idea of kin is embedded in many concepts of Russian culture, directly or indirectly indicating the mental schemes they have in common. However, the macro-concept of kin has received no comprehensive analysis of its associative-figurative layer. The author described the signs behind the motivation of the macro-concept kin using the proverbs from V. I. Dahl’s dictionary that contain the national-cultural layer of its figurative transformation. The methodology involved an analysis of dictionary definitions, as well as descriptive and interpretive methods. The proverbs described the idea of kin by highlighting such signs as origin, heredity, and kinship as belonging to a community of people with some permanent and distinctive features. The analysis revealed a group of proverbs about kin and tribe with three motivating features: heredity, human nature, and social characteristics. The macro-concept of kin was described through a figurative comparison of images: a person (father, mother, children), religious symbols (god), animals, symbols of nature, fairy-tale characters (fool), parts of body (palm, fist). In the national collective consciousness, the macro-concept obtained various motivating signs that actualize the following schemes: native place, native environment, kinship, family, tribe, people, generation; intra-family or intra-tribal relationships; rules, customs, traditions of the kin; attitude to the motherland; attitude to faith, God, the power of kin; military community.