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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.69.09.23
How to Cite:
Khachmafova, Z.R., Karabulatova, I.S., Unarokova, R.B., Tseeva, Z.A., Zhang, L., & Loseva, R.V. (2023). Gender semiology in
folklore traditions: Russia, China and Adygea. Amazonia Investiga, 12(69), 260-269. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.69.09.23
Gender semiology in folklore traditions: Russia, China and Adygea
ГЕНДЕРНАЯ СЕМИОЛОГИЯ В ФОЛЬКЛОРНЫХ ТРАДИЦИЯХ: РОССИЯ, КИТАЙ И
АДЫГЕЯ
Received: July 1, 2023 Accepted: September 17, 2023
Written by:
Zaineta R. Khachmafova1
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4645-0683
Irina S. Karabulatova2
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4228-3235
Raisa B. Unarokova3
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8362-9944
Zarema A. Tseeva4
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2528-9678
Ludan Zhang5
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0167-5587
Ruslana V. Loseva6
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7632-8569
Abstract
The article presents an analytical analysis of the
linguosemiotic features of the female portrait in
the folklore fund of the linguocultures of Russia,
the North Caucasus and China in the aspect of the
intergender dichotomy "male-female" as the
implementation of the policy of "soft power" of
the ethnos to preserve its vitality. Hypothesis:
The dichotomy of masculinity and femininity in
traditional culture is presented as the result of the
interaction of ethno-cultural strategies of the
ancestral cult, in which the role of a woman is
defined as the keeper of the knowledge of the
people with the competencies of a housewife
who needs help and care from a man. The
relevance of the study is due to the growing
research interest in the vitality of traditional
cultures, which continue to influence the lives of
modern women. Chinese, Adyghe and Russian
1
Doctor of Philology, Ass.Professor, Head of the Department of German Philology Adygea State University, Maykop, Russia.
WoS Researcher ID: P-1214-2017
2
Dr of Philological Sciences, Professor, RUDN-university, Bauman MSTU, Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russia, Heilongjiang
University, Harbin, China. WoS Researcher ID: M-2778-2013
3
Dr of Philological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of History and Culture of the Adyghe’s, Adygea State University,
Maykop, Russia. WoS Researcher ID: HNJ-3909-2023
4
PhD of History, Associate Professor, the Department of History and Culture of the Adyghe’s, Adygea State University, Maykop,
Russia. WoS Researcher ID: JDM-2591-2023
5
PhD-student of Philology, RUDN-university, Moscow, Russia. WoS Researcher ID: JEF-6268-2023
6
Associate Professor, The Department of Vocal Art, Tyumen State Institute of Culture, Art and Social Technologies, Tyumen, Russia.
WoS Researcher ID: JPY-3623-2023
Khachmafova, Z.R., Karabulatova, I.S., Unarokova, R.B., Tseeva, Z.A., Zhang, L., Loseva, R.V. / Volume 12 - Issue 69:
260-269 / September, 2023
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folklore for the first time becomes the object of
comparative analysis of the linguosemiotic
characteristics of the image of femininity in the
form of "feminine" folkloratives identified for
the first time. The methodology uses a
linguosemiotic approach and the theory of
complex metagraphs in modeling the speech-
behavioral gender matrix of women through the
prism of folklore. The results show that folklore
is a reproducible mechanism of "soft power" of
gender regulation in the ethno-cultural practice
of folk art.
Keywords: semiotics of the female image,
traditional psycholinguistic characteristics of a
woman, "feminine" folklorative, semiotization,
signs of femininity, Adygea, China, Russia,
ethno-cultural mechanism of "soft power".
Introduction
Semiotic verbalization of the gender stereotype
of femininity actualizes the experience reflected
by the collective consciousness (Xiaoxiao,
2022), which plays a key role in understanding
the history of the development of the linguistic
picture of the world in traditional communities,
which include speakers of Adyghe, Chinese,
Russian linguistic cultures with the dominant
standards of traditional society. At the same time,
the uniqueness of the role of verbal markers in
the folklore subcorpus from this point of view
practically remained beyond the attention of
researchers. As a rule, the situation of the vitality
of tradition was considered in the situation of
distraction and separation of the ethnic group
(Kudaeva, 2021; Ruan, & Karabulatova, 2021).
In this regard, "each element, being included in
the system, acquires a new quality, a new
significance, i.e. system properties, therefore it is
logical to assume that each reference word of the
folklore text receives an additional semantic load
determined by the structural properties of the
"folklore picture of the world"" (Khrolenko,
1992: 19).
Thus, for speakers of the Abkhaz-Adyghe
languages, which include Adygs, Abkhazians,
Kabardians, Circassians, the study of this
fragment of the traditional linguistic picture of
the world is the most important key to
understanding the specifics of their ethnocultures
(Bizheva 2017; Gutov, 2022; Unarokova, 2019).
At the same time, the Chinese traditional picture
of the world reflects a slightly different view of
femininity and the tasks of women in
ethnoculture, thanks to the verification of gender
policy in Chinese society for thousands of years
and the acceptance of the diversity of gender
roles, which is demonstrated by the traditional
Beijing opera (Chen, 2020). At the same time, the
Russian gender line, despite statements of
adherence to tradition, reveals lability and
variability under the influence of external factors
(Lezhnina, 2014). Femininity in the conceptual
linguistic picture of the world of the traditional
ethnosocium is one of the forms of reflection of
mentality and ethnic consciousness in relation to
a woman, explicating the source of ethnic
identity of various forms of spiritual life of the
traditional community.
Literature Review
The dispute about the mechanism of gender in
human sociocultural practice is predetermined by
interest in studying the role of social, biological,
psychological and ethno-cultural factors in the
formation of gender stereotypes in a particular
society (Dicke et al., 2019; Gasanova et al., 2016;
Anah, C., & Okere, M., 2019; Courteau, 1991;
Hongru, 2022; Khachmafova et al., 2017;
Novikov et al., 2023; Xiaoxiao, 2022;
Vykhrystyuk, 2022, etc.). The relevance of the
study is predetermined by the choice of a
semiotic approach to the study of the category of
femininity as a prototype of a woman in
traditional linguoculture, which allows us to
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identify and describe stable ideas about gender
behavior and semiotic characteristics of a woman
determined by the ethnoculture of the Adygs,
Chinese and Russians.
The study of the features of the formation of
gender stereotypes in the ethnosocium,
depending on cultural patterns, contributes to the
theoretical understanding of the features of the
formation of an axiological picture of the world.
Scientific research aimed at describing cultural
codes within the framework of linguistics
focused on the anthropocosmos (Belousova, &
Bairamova, 2020; Bizheva, 2017; Bulegenova et
al., 2023; Guketlova, 2009; Tintin, 2022;
Khakuasheva, 2014; Maslov, 2020; Ryko, 2017),
as well as the study of gender in language and
discourse (Gasanova et al., 2016; Khachmafova
et al., 2017; Xiaoxiao, 2022; Chen, 2020;
Vykhrystyuk et al., 2022) confirm this position.
As a rule, the literary form of the language levels
the genetically primary properties of identity,
revealing the determinism of the ethnic
worldview of the language. In this regard, it is
preferable to analyze paremiological,
phraseological and folklore material, where the
internal form of the language has been preserved
to a greater extent (Bizheva, & Ulakov, 2011;
Vykhrystyuk et al., 2022).
Consider gender-typed fit the theory gender
schema (Dicke et al., 2019; Kurochkina &
Shakhmatova 2014; Starr & Zurbriggen 2017; Su
et al., 2009), which evolving perceptions of it
standards in modern society with sustainable
traditional paradigms (Fleming & Agnew-Brune,
2015).
Semiotic markers of nonverbal human behavior
are aimed at translating psychophysiological
standards of response in a particular society
through body movements and voice (Eckland et
al., 2019; Unarokova et al., 2023). The principle
of the influence of the processes of
conceptualization and mediatization is
fundamental for the formation of the cognitive
matrix of the ethnosocium on the formation of
the gender conceptosphere in traditional
linguistic cultures (Starr, & Zurbriggen, 2017).
The feminine folklore of TV is embedded in the
speech-behavioral matrix (Karabulatova et al.,
2015), reflecting the value system of an ethnic
collective, which may well be represented as a
kind of cognitive map (Olyanitch et al., 2019),
"the dimensions of which reflect the semantics of
concepts and related values. This can be done if
you know (i) how to define map dimensions and
(ii) how to distribute concepts in these
dimensions" (Samsonovich, & Askoli, 2007: 1).
Materials and methods
Based on this postulate, we used as a practical
material lexical and phraseological unit
containing ethnocultural signs and characteristics
inherent in the female image, extracted from the
folklore of the Adyghe corpus of the language, as
well as folklore of Chinese and Russian
languages, which gives grounds to identify
universal features of femininity characteristic of
traditional ethnic communities in its implicit
opposition to masculinity.
Based on the selected typological characteristics,
the "feminine" folklorative was first identified,
which means the collective image of the feminine
principle in traditional folklore. The introduction
of the term "folklorative" makes it possible to
formalize the linguocognitive characteristics of
the traditional gender code represented in the
folklore subcorpus of languages with traditional
cultural dominance.
A detailed list of thematic folklore markers of
femininity was compiled thanks to such digital
platforms as Adyghe Corps, Semantic Scholar,
RSCI, Google Scholar and such special platforms
as the Casket of Fairy Tales, with descriptions of
specific feminine folkloratives that are contained
in the folklore of traditional linguistic cultures.
The search queries included the following
keywords: the magic wife, Chinese fairy tales,
Adyghe fairy tales, North Caucasian Nart epic,
Circassian and Russian fairy tales, a hero woman,
a swan princess, a peony girl, a birch girl, etc.
This made it possible to identify about 198
documents with keywords characterizing
femininity in the repertoire list. At the same time,
these feminine folkloratives were grouped
according to the methods and types of
representation, which made it possible to build a
multigraph system for the implementation of the
"soft power" of the ethnos in the formation of a
reproducible speech-behavioral gender matrix in
the folklore.
Feminine folkloratives are considered based on
the dualism of masculine and feminine in their
polar realizations in oral folk art in traditional
cultures. The methodology of the analysis is
based on the principles of consistency and
anthropocentrism. To achieve this goal, the
following scientific research methods were used:
descriptive method (observation, typologization,
interpretation and generalization); semiotic
analysis, which made it possible to identify
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clusters of signs that actualize the stereotypical
image of a woman in traditional linguocultures;
linguoculturological analysis, which identified
and described gender-marked phraseological
units as code representatives of femininity in
traditional linguocultures.
Results and discussion
Semiotic grounds for studying the gender
stereotype of femininity in traditional
linguoculture allowed us to establish and
describe stable, determined by the analyzed
ethnolinguocultures, ideas about the external,
behavioral and status-conditioned characteristics
of a woman, which we consider as signs of
femininity in the "feminine" folklore we
highlight. The need to distinguish such a
terminological unit as a folklorative is due to the
very fabric of the folklore work, which is
characterized by stable imagery. Under folklore,
we propose to designate a folklore-conditioned
stable image that has typological features that
characterize the speech and behavioral standard
in a particular ethnic society. In turn, the
folklorative can be referred to as the sphere of
animated characters – subjects, (such as: the red
maiden – in the Russian folklore tradition; the
blue–eyed peacock - in the Chinese folklore
tradition; slender as a chamois – in the Adyghe
folklore tradition, etc.), and inanimate objects
(such as a painted portrait, a mountain river, an
extinct stove, etc.). In addition, folkloratives, as
a rule, have dual characteristics, reflecting the
traditional duality of the world. Thus, the
feminine folklore as a stable image of femininity
in folklore is contrasted with the masculine
folklore as a stable image of masculinity in the
folklore subcorpus (fig.1).
Fig.1. Sisteme of gender in traditional folklore.
At the same time, female power often exceeds
male, which is reflected in both Adyghe and
Chinese, Russian folklore. In this connection,
images with features of mixed gender appear in
traditional folklore, which ensures the
development of a dramatic conflict in a folklore
work due to the mixing of gender roles (Fig. 1).
Despite the criticism of the constants of
traditional culture, it is impossible not to admit
that traditional cultural codes have preserved the
recognition of the power and worship of female
power, as an originally laid tradition of feminism,
which has preserved echoes of the knowledge of
matriarchy. So, the Russian Marya Morevna /
Tsar-Maiden/ Blue-eyed has not only beauty, but
also wisdom, remarkable physical strength,
witchcraft magic, which allowed her to defeat
Koshchei the Immortal himself. She is the
daughter of the ancient Slavic goddess
Mary/Morena, who ruled cold, winter and death
(Dobrynya, (n/d)). It is not by chance that her
daughter Marya Morevna acts as a warrior, a
hero, as the ancient Russian forerunner of
feminism: her husband Ivan becomes a
householder, and the virgin-hero Marya herself
(not Maria, namely Marya, which has a reference
to the pronunciation of the variant of the name
Morena / Mara – Z.Kh., etc.) goes to war.
Russian fairy tales usually refer to a man as Ivan,
but the Russian female anthroponymicon reveals
a variety: Marya Morevna, Marya the artist,
Nastasia Mikulishna, Vasilisa the Beautiful,
Vasilisa the Wise, Elena the Beautiful, Tsar
Maiden, Alyonushka, Varvara-beauty long
braid, Snow Maiden, etc.
The Adyghe fairy–tale anthroponymicon is even
more diverse and variable:
Diguliph - the daughter of the Abkhazian god of
fertility Digul;
Dzagash (variants: Dzeguashch, Dzegashch,
Zagvash) – the woman-leader of the army;
Kiyshchkyhan (Chishkhan, Chishchkhan) – the
patroness of blacksmithing crafts, etc.
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If the European man of that time defined the
world from the angle of religion and faith in God,
then the Adygs looked at the world differently,
namely, through the prism of the so-called
"Adygeism", which means a comprehensive
moral and ethical system of an ethnic group
characterized by absolute value, since it served as
the main regulator in all spheres of life,
subordinating even religious consciousness,
which makes it similar to the system of Taoism.
These Chinese features appeared due to active
cooperation with the Kalmyk princes on the
battlefield against neighboring tribes and peoples
(Koltsova, 2022). Adygs (Circassians) This is
how religion's place in the hierarchy of spiritual
values is determined in the proverbial fund:
"Religion can be changed, you can't change the
nation." Self-identification at the level of
belonging to an ethnic group was invariably
higher than self-identification by religion. The
mythology of the Adygs, imprinted in the
monuments of oral folk art, in the past was the
main carrier of cultural traditions in the language
(Afaunova, 2019).
In Adyghe folklore there is an image of a female
hero Lashin, who fights with a hero enemy.
However, she can not only masterfully wield a
club and a sword, but also heal the sick. This
shows the strength and power of the feminine
principle, which can be both aggressive in
overcoming obstacles, and creative, pacifying to
recreate balance and harmony. Her name has
been characterized as a name with an unclear
etymology (Namitokova, 2012), however, some
researchers suggest the Turkic etymology of the
anthroponym in a distorted version: Lyachin
"falcon" in the Tatar language (Buhurov, 2018).
In our opinion, we have an interpretation in the
direction of interpreting the female name Lashin
from a male point of view. An interesting fact is
that in folklore the falcon acts only as a
masculine folklore, as a solar symbol (as in the
culture of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece,
Ancient Russia, etc.). If we look at the falcon
among the Slavs, then according to the beliefs of
the Slavic peoples, the falcon is a god-the first
bird and the first God in the male hypostasis as
opposed to the female hypostases in the form of
a swan or a duck. In Indian mythology, the falcon
is one of the deities that appeared from a
lightning strike, and therefore the falcon is a sign
of Agni. Ancient Egyptian myths brought to us
the image of the god of light and heaven Horus,
which is represented in the form of a falcon or a
man with a falcon's head. In Arab countries, the
falcon is also a symbol of courage, freedom, and
the status of masculinity (Morozova, 2021). In
this regard, the version about the falcon as the
designation of a woman in the Adyghe culture is
unfounded. The phenomenon of interlanguage
paronymy, implying the sound similarity of
words of two languages, which led to a
misunderstanding when trying to interpret the
name Lashin. This discrepancy with zoomorphic
folkloratives reflects the "obscured" etymology
of the name Lashin, as pointed out by
R. Namitokova (1976).
In folklore, the role of a warrior is not ordinary,
since tradition ascribes to her the preservation of
the biologically predetermined role of a guardian
and mother, therefore, the unusual and forced
behavior of a woman as a warrior is always
emphasized. For example: Nastasya Mikulishna
– polenitsa, or the hero maiden, the daughter of
the epic hero Mikula Selyaninovich and became
the wife of Dobrynya Nikitich. Her speech-and-
speech profile is described in the fairy-tale epics
"Dobrynya and the Serpent"; "The marriage of
Dobrynya": "Nastasia Mikulichna's daughter
took out of the leather bag of the hero here and
began to say these words: "If the hero is old, I
will cut off his head. If there is a young hero, I
will take him prisoner. If love appears in me, I
will get married. If I don't love you, I'll squeeze
in one palm and press the other on top..."
(Russian folk tale " Dobrynya" (n/d)).
The Adyghe warrior woman Lashin, the wife of
the boastful, arrogant young dzhigit Kurgoko,
also acts similarly: her strength is equal to the
strength of three men, and her figure resembled a
jug, she could throw a cow over the fence with
one hand. She enters into battle with China Khan
(Shartanov, 1977). Regarding pragmatic labeling
with the help of symbol names, it can be noted
that anthroponyms do not always correlate with a
real historical character. Although some
researchers believe that either Genghis Khan's
troops, Tatar tribes, or Nogai neighbors are
hiding under the name of Kitai Khan (Buhurov,
2018). Reconstruction of events recorded only in
the oral tradition is difficult. However, the facts
of the use of the Buddhist 12-year animal cycle
in the culture of the North Caucasus and the
activity of the Great Silk Road for several
centuries in this territory were naturally reflected
in folklore. The creation of branches of the Great
Silk Road has made a great contribution to the
development of the culture of the North Caucasus
(Koltsov et al., 2019; Tikunov et al., 2018).
Such symbolic names (Lashin, Kitai-khan) can
create a narrative of understanding the
intersections of Chinese, Russian and Adyghe
folklore as a mythopoetic history of intercultural
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communication of these peoples, so far apart
from each other. So, in Chinese linguoculture,
the image of the goddess Lishan Laomu, the
daughter of the first creative goddess Nyuva, is
especially revered. This image of the goddess
Lishan is interesting because she is represented
in Chinese folklore as the heavenly wife of the
northern barbarian prince Xuyuan/ 胥 轩,
descendants from this marriage who represented
the Shang dynasty (17th-11th centuries. BC) and
Zhou (11-221 BC) were able to rule the peoples
who lived far to the west. In the image of the holy
mother Lishan, real and fantastic features were
intricately intertwined, which allowed her to be
attributed to one of the hypostases of the
Heavenly Mother Guan Yin. It is quite possible
that the images of Lishan and Lashin have the
same basis on the basis of contamination. This is
supported not only by the connection of the
names Lishan and Lashin.
Chinese folklore has preserved the names of five
warrior heroines, some of them were real
historical persons who were sacralized in the
Chinese fairy tale tradition:
1) Hua Mulan/
花
木蘭
, whose image has been
repeatedly filmed by the Disney film
company. This image echoes the Russian
beauty Nastasya Mikulishna, who also
changes into men's clothes and goes to
battle;
2) Fan Lihua/
樊
梨花
is a female warrior, a
popular image in traditional Chinese opera.
It acts as an allegory of feminist heroism in
traditional Chinese culture, becoming the
basis for various post-interpretations in our
time. The fairy tale tells how, in the name of
love, Fan abandoned her family, her
homeland, giving her land to enemies for
love, so in Chinese culture she acts as a
symbol of all-consuming passionate love,
the personification of the fire of love;
3) Mu Guiyin/
穆 桂 英
female warrior, is a
collective image of women with leadership
qualities of the Yang family. One of the
important feats is not only the victory over
the terrifying military formation of the
Heavenly Gate and the repulse of the
invasion of Western Xia, but also the support
of her husband, the general, whose work Mu
Guiyin continued after his death;
4) She Saihua, or She Taijun/
佘
賽
花
, the
matriarch of the aforementioned Yang clan.
In Chinese folklore, she is portrayed as
elderly but defiant matron with a dragon-
headed staff. The staff, as the legends say,
was given to her by the Emperor of Song.
However, this heroine is considered a real
historical character in contrast to the
fictional image of Mu Guying. The
mythologization of the image of She Saihua
contributed to the consolidation of the
symbol of loyalty, devotion, perseverance
and female courage behind him;
5) Liang Hong Yu/梁紅玉, also a real historical
character who has undergone
mythologization, is considered a symbol of
patriotism, since she managed to pay off the
debt of her father, who sold her into slavery,
with her military skills. While in slavery, she
met her husband, with whom she defended
the independence of China.
In this regard, it is interesting to consider the
archetypal representation of women in the
traditional value codes of a particular linguistic
culture we are considering (Ryko, 2017). So,
folklore nominees of gender identity in
traditional linguocultures do not so much refer to
the designation of biological sex (such as:
bzylfyg/ woman in the Adyghe language; 女人/
nǚrén - woman in Chinese), as they indicate a
social role in society according to the criteria of
social belonging: orphan, girl, widow, wife,
bride, mistress, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law,
girl, etc. Thus, the archetypes of a woman in the
Adyghe linguoculture are verbalized by
nominating signs that have emoticems of a
positive or negative attitude towards a woman in
a particular ethno-linguistic culture:
Shykheageus (wife), Shyuguashche (mother–in-
law), Nyse (bride), Kyese bzylyfyge (mistress),
Schyyuage (angel, beloved woman), Tyuane
(rival). It should be noted that the Adyghe
language taboos the concept of a virgin, using
instead the euphemism ipsheshashkhye zereshyt
– meaning "as beautiful as in her youth."
Chinese folklore is also characterized by a
special attitude to the virginity of the heroine.
So, according to legend, a quarter of all varieties
of tea in China are still collected exclusively by
virgins, or young girls who are considered as
such, are not married. In this regard, in China
there is such a concept as
茶处女
/ chá chùnǚ /
tea virgins. A reverent attitude to tea was formed
in ancient times, it is believed that the useful
properties of Shen-Nong tea were discovered
(about 2700 BC), who is also revered as the
founder of the culture of plant care and herbal
medicine (Krayushkina, 2013).
At the same time, in the Russian folklore we will
not find the designation of a mistress. But the
following will be more widely represented:
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orphan, stepdaughter, stepmother, grandmother,
princess, merchant's daughter, etc. The status
and class affiliation of a woman are indicated by
the following linguistic signs: goschepshash
(princess), orkpshash (noble girl), fekol1pshash
(peasant), une1ut pshash (young maid), etc.
In the Chinese folklore subcorpus, such
nominations as: herbalist, healer, pharmacist,
peasant, townswoman, mother, old woman,
single woman, bride, mother-in-law, etc. are
widely represented (Yellow Stork (n/d)).
The correlation of the influence of the
mechanisms of ethno-cultural and gender
identity on the formation and reproduction of the
speech-behavioral matrix in traditional linguistic
cultures has been actively developed recently,
taking into account in-depth modeling in
neurotargeting (Corbett, 2006; Tintin, 2022;
Luchinskaya et al., 2018). The analysis of gender
differences in the aspect of social semiotics
makes it possible to understand the socially
approved palette of gender behavior in traditional
linguistic cultures from the point of view of
stable and floating gender identity.
According to the fair statement of U. Eco, the
code is "a system of communicative conventions
that paradigmatically connect elements, a series
of signs, with a series of semantic blocks (or
meanings) and establish the structure of both
systems: each of them is governed by a rule of
combinatorics that determines the order in which
elements (signs and semantic blocks) are
arranged syntagmatically" (Eco, 2019). And the
culture of an ethnic group is a space of cultural
meanings that are verbalized in the form of signs
and codes in the language (Astafurova, &
Olyanich, 2008; Khachmafova et al., 2017). In
this regard, an important perspective for studying
the ethnocultural specifics of the gender
stereotype of femininity is the analysis of
verbalized markers of femininity with semiotics,
since it operates with basic concepts in the form
of a sign and a code.
In principle, these cultural codes translate the
ideas accepted in a certain ethnic society,
ensuring the constant reproduction of tradition
(Karabulatova et al., 2017). Semiotic
mechanisms of gender actualization in
communication have recently become in demand
in scientific research of various profiles
(Afaunova, 2019; Anah, & Okere, 2019;
Vykhrystyuk et al., 2022). The code of culture in
semiotics is understood as a set of signs and
mechanisms formed by stereotypes of linguistic
and cultural consciousness, i.e. a matrix that
determines the way of thinking and designations.
Cultural codes, according to V.M. Savitsky,
"when verbalized, they turn into linguistic and
cultural codes that function in speech
communication and are the verbal embodiment
of cultural codes" (Savitsky, 2016: 57). He notes
that cultural codes are assimilated by native
speakers in the process of ontogenesis together
with their native language.
Conclusion
The semiotics of gender juxtaposition is vividly
represented in the folklore subcorpus, therefore,
the analysis of the initial sign structure itself is
important, which can implicitly represent the
components of the cultural paradigm of the
people, with the peculiarities of their thinking
and speech-behavioral standard. The linguistic
and cultural approach taken in the article is aimed
at identifying a system of unique archetypes and
images of femininity in different structural
languages, which captures the values that make
up the architecture of the identity of the people,
in which mentality and spiritual and moral
attitudes play the role of connecting links.
The presented analysis of the features of the
semiotic representation of the image of a woman
as a feminine folklore in the traditional
linguocultures of the East and West in Eurasia
allows us to trace the process of gender
dichotomy in the linguocognitive map of the
ethnos.
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