The concept of the steed/horse in Kursk folk tales

The purpose of this study is to analyze the semantic content of the concept of the steed/horse (in Russ. kon'/loshad') using the materials of folklore texts. The empirical basis of the study comprises Russian folk tales collected on the territory of the Kursk region. Descriptive, taxonomic, and comparative methods were used for this study, as well as methods of quantitative, contextual, dominant, linguocultural analysis and concordance compression techniques. The relevance of the research stems from the ongoing exploration of the linguistic worldview of the Russian people presented in folklore (fairy-tale) texts and reflecting their worldview. Fairy tale is one of the favorite folk genres, which was the main reason for choosing the material for analysis. The horse has always been one of the most revered animals. It was considered a symbol of wisdom, fertility, courage, the passage of time, and power. The core and periphery (near and far) of the concept of the steed/horse were established in the course of study. The analysis was carried out based on etymological and explanatory dictionaries. The findings suggest that the lexemes “steed” and “horse” are synonyms that allow one lexeme to be interpreted through another but have some semantic differences - the word “steed” means an animal that is an integral part of the image of a bogatyr hero, his assistant, savior, and friend, while the key seme of the word “horse” is “working animal”, an indispensable assistant of people who worked land for a living. Thus, it can be concluded that the concept of steed/horse is an integral part of the consciousness and worldview of the Russian people.