The lexical representation of Siberian space concept in Esipov chronicle text

The article studies the conceptualization of space in the Russian language in Western Siberia of the XVII-XVIII centuries. The semantic field of space reconstructed on the base of the Esipov chronicle text is examined as a fragment of the spatial picture of the world. Specific features of the lexical representation of peripheral semantic paradigm are defined. The article specifies author’s theoretical position on the following matters: 1) the linguistic spatial picture of the world; 2) the ‘field’ method of lexicological analysis and relevant features of a semantic field; 3) the peculiarities of diachronic reconstruction of a semantic field. The semantic field of space in the texts under consideration is reconstructed as containing a nucleus and three peripheral semantic spheres: 1) ‘Russia, the kingdom of Moscow’; 2) ‘space and spaciousness as physical categories’; 3) ‘movements in space’. From the texts of the original version of the Esipov chronicle we have chosen and analysed lexical units with the meaning subjects (‘people’, ‘tribes’, ‘nations’) as one of the signs of Siberian space. The semantic dominant of the annalistic texts under analysis is interpretation of space as of centralized state or kingdom. In the first semantic sphere its explication is meanings of common nouns ‘ казак ’ (‘kazak’, 61 uses), ‘ Ермак ’ (‘Ermak’, 62), ‘ воевода ’ (‘voevoda’, 43), ‘ атаман ’ (‘ataman’, 17), ‘ воинские люди ’ (‘voinskie lyudi’, 19), ‘ ратные люди ’ (‘ratnye lyudi’, 3), ‘ воин ’ (‘voin’, 2), ‘ посол ’ (‘posol’, 7), ‘ служилые люди ’ (‘sluzhilye lyudi’, 5), ‘ ясачные люди ’ (‘yasachnye lyudi’, 13), ‘ кочевные люди ’ (‘kochevnye lyudi’, 3), ‘ оленные люди ’ (‘olennye lyudi’, 3) (peripheral semantic paradigm ‘kingdom-state - man, hero’) and of common nouns ‘ царь ’ (‘tsar’, 65), ‘ Кучум ’ (‘Kuchum’, 68), ‘ татаровя ’, мн. (‘totarovya’, 36), ‘ татарин ’ (‘tatarin’, 6), ‘ остяк ’ (‘ostyak’, 18), ‘ тунгус ’ (‘tungus’, 12), ‘ вогулич ’ (‘vogulich’, 5), ‘ калмык ’ (‘kalmyk’, 3), ‘ пегая орда ’ (‘pegaya orda’, 2), ‘ самоядь ’ (‘samoyad’, 5) at alias (peripheral semantic paradigm ‘kingdom-state - alien man’). Semantic paradigms structured by synonymous, generic and specific relations. It is possible to say that in the texts under consideration proper names Ermak, Kuchum, Ivan Mansurov at alias make synonymic row as well with the same denotations as common nouns analysed above (ataman, tsar, voevoda). As the most important attributes of the picture of the world are anthropomorphic, reliability and veracity for subject of this picture, stability and dynamism, so we take into account intersection of the spatial notion with the notion of time and also with the notions interpreting spatial notion as social relations (‘my own / alien’; ‘authority’; ‘spirituality’, ‘faith’; ‘human’).