Idiolect of a Russian storyteller Trofim Ryabinin (drawing on the lexical dictionary of Russian bylinas)

This research into the creative experience of an outstanding Russian storyteller Trofim Ryabinin is a part of a fundamental study on personality in the cultural and language process. The authors assumed that individual differentiation of speech can be observed not only in everyday communication, but also in professional or creative spheres. The texts of bylinas (Old Russian heroic narrative poetry) vividly show the authenticity and individuality of gifted Russian storytellers. Ryabinin’s versions of bylinas recorded near the northeastern shore of Lake Onega and represented lexicographically in the dictionary of the Russian folklore language composed by the authors formed the empirical base for the research. The search of the specific language characteristics of the epic poems was facilitated by the structure of the bylina lexis dictionary entries which contained such additional information as the bylina plot, its circulation area and the storyteller’s name. The research revealed that Trofim Ryabinin’s storytelling idiolect is characterized by hapaxes, original compound words created by Ryabinin, a large number of diminutives, unconventional epithets, prevailing word usages, and fixed collocations. It was confirmed that the dictionary of the Russian folklore language composed by the Kursk linguofolklorists with its multifaceted entries can be used as a solid base for addressing various theoretical issues, including those connected with the idiolects of bylinas narrators.