Kinship system vocabulary in Russian folklore (a study of Kursk folk tales)

The article is aimed at describing the kinship system vocabulary group represented in Kursk folklore tales based on lexicographic complexes for Kursk folk tales recorded by A. N. Afanasyev and F. Belkin, as well as students and teachers of Kursk State Pedagogical Institute in the 1940s and in 1980. The article provides a classifi cation of kinship terminology, accompanied by a quantitative and semantic analysis of the selected groups and a description of their boundaries and composition. The paper analyzes family relationships commonly mentioned in folklore, their representation in the text by specifi c lexemes with a description of the features of their compatibility. The relevance of the research is in the description of the folklore linguistic picture of the world – a signifi cant concept of modern linguistic folklore studies. The novelty of the research lies in an attempt to describe the lexical level of Kursk folk tales using new regional texts that have not been studied before. The study demonstrates that the most common models in Kursk folk tales are in-law relationships represented by a husband – wife pair, as well as blood relations represented by parent – child and brother – sister pairs, with lexemes naming members of these relationships being the most frequent ones.