Stylistic and Semantic Features of Epitaphs (Based on Texts of Provincial Cemeteries in Perm Krai). Part II
Authors:   Solikamsk State Pedagogical Institute, Branch of Perm State National Research University, Panteleeva Liliya M. 
Published: December 2021

The second part of the article describes semantic features of folklore epitaphs - the most numerous collection in the corpus of poetic inscriptions, which is based on field surveys of Perm cemeteries. The denotative space of folklore epitaphs has undoubted significance for characterizing the mental categorization of the world among representatives of urban culture since it reveals the worldview of city dwellers in the field of eschatological issues. The analysis of the denotative content of folklore epitaphs comes down to the identification of textual universals - “space”, “time”, “person”. The procedure for their characterization involves the definition and semiotic interpretation of the circle of vocabulary with the corresponding denotation - spatial, temporal, subjective. The analysis of the material showed that the spatial coordinates of the folklore epitaphs are set by the oppositions earth - sky and this world - that world. The movement of time is predominantly inscribed in a linear extent and is occasionally delivered vitally. The main subjects of communication are the “living” and the “dead” despite the fact that the content bias is towards the “dead”. The “dead” have social, emotional and external characteristics, and are also attributed to the type of death, the posthumous hypostasis and its signs. The “living” are only awarded cognitive-psychological portraiture. The denotative space of the text is interfaced with other levels of content - emotive and conceptual. In the emotive space of epitaph texts, the sensitivity of the “living” is characterized by love, sorrow, sadness, pride, longing, guilt, grief, pain, wound, flour, tears, and the “dead” only by love. At the conceptual level, the symbolism captured in the cemetery texts attracts attention. It includes the following linguistic and cultural signs: angel, birch, wind, eternity, city, door, house, soul, living, life, star, earth, dead, grave, heaven, peace, light, tears, death, dream, that world, grass, care, flower, this world. Their cohesion is determined by the entry into the semantic oppositions earth - sky, this - that, living - dead, life - death, light - dark. However, the text “charge” of these symbols is not the same. The nuclear vocabulary of the statistical measurement of texts, the development of emotive content, as well as the thematic elaboration of the subject category suggest that the core of the epitaphs is the category of the living and the dead. The remaining symbolism is built on this basis and contributes to its conceptualization in texts. The described semantic categories of folklore epitaphs reproduce mainly the Christian model of the universe with its three-part spatial structure, linearity of time, the posthumous life of the soul and its ability to shine. The inclusions of pagan nature in the revealed picture are almost invisible - these are the once-indicated repeatability of time and the possibility of returning to the world in other forms.