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Medvedeva T.V. [The concept of «mother» as the core of the concept sphere «family» in children’s literature M.M. Prishvin (on the example of the cycle of stories «Golden meadow»)] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 2. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/03FLSK224.pdf (in Russian).

The concept of «mother» as the core of the concept sphere «family» in children’s literature M.M. Prishvin (on the example of the cycle of stories «Golden meadow»)

Medvedeva Tatyana Vladimirovna
Samara State Institute of Culture, Samara, Russia
E-mail: medvedeva@smrgaki.ru

Abstract. Prishvin is a singer of nature and children’s writer recognized by literary scholars. However, the writer is attracted not only by nature, but also by man as a part of this nature. A large place in Prishvin’s children’s stories is occupied by man as a member of a certain traditional community based on closely related relationships between members of this community — the family.

When conducting linguistic studies of the content structure of a text, including fiction, today they often use the method of conceptual analysis, the implementation of which can be facilitated by methods of component analysis of lexical units, a description of their paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections, linguistic modeling, semantic analysis of dictionary definitions, and contextual analysis.

In this article, to analyze the content structure of the author’s text, one of the basic concept spheres that has a special aesthetic significance in Prishvin’s work is chosen — the concept sphere «family».

The source of the research is the texts of stories from different periods of the author’s creative activity, collected in the «Golden Meadow» cycle. The factual material, collected using the continuous sampling method, is represented by more than two hundred uses of lexical units involved in the organization of the concept sphere under study. 109 stories included in the cycle were considered. Quantitative indicators indicate the importance of the concept of «family» for the author and the significance of the conceptual sphere under study in the worldview of M.M. Prishvina.

Observations revealed that the very word-name of the concept sphere «family» is used extremely rarely by the author. To name the subject of his narration, along with direct designations of persons or animals, the author often uses words of a lexical-semantic group with the meaning of family and closely related connections that make up the semantic field of the concept sphere «family»: «mother», «father», «brother», «son», «daughter», «matchmaker», «grandfather», «grandmother», etc.

The core of Prishvin’s concept sphere «family» is the concept «mother». The lexeme «mother» is frequently used; in the cycle of stories there are about 50 uses of different case forms of this word in two meanings.

Throughout the entire cycle, the author gradually creates the image of the «Great Mother»; Prishvin’s motherhood is natural, desired, instinctive on the one hand and meaningful, sacrificial on the other.

For Prishvin, the family has both specifically human and generalized natural and supernatural significance. This is the only possible form of coexistence of similar individuals, necessary for the survival of the species. This is a huge world, the center of which is the mother as a powerful instinctive force that creates and preserves life in all its manifestations. Thus, an analysis of the concept sphere «family» showed that reading Prishvin’s children’s stories in preschool age and studying his work by younger schoolchildren contributes to the formation of a system of traditional family values, respectful attitude towards older generations and care for younger ones.

Keywords: concept; concept sphere; conceptual analysis; world-generating analysis; core of the concept sphere; syntagmatic connections; paradigmatic connections

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