Res Humanitariae

The author of the article deals with the nature of Ukrainian marriage ceremony and content of its main components. Regional differences of historical Uman wedding was investigated and revealed its educational potential. It was noted that Uman wedding with its songs accompaniment included a layering of many ages, the echoes of old ideas and beliefs, heathen symbols. The author proved that wedding had in its meaning high moral and ethical ideals of the people that included experience of many generations. The main task of the research is restoration and revival in youth-wedding ritual customary traditions, and most importantly, wedding texts with their deep educational content.

The article focuses on the study of the concept LAW / ЗАКОН in the English and Ukrainian linguacultures. The verbal representation of the concept LAW / ЗАКОН has been analyzed from a diachronic perspective. The system of semantic changes affecting the emergence of modern English and Ukrainian legal terminology has been reconstructed. The basic archetypes of the Anglo-Saxon and Ukrainian legal cultures have been detected. The comparative analysis of paremiological representation of the concept LAW / ЗАКОН in the English and Ukrainian languages has been conducted. The universal and national specific conceptions of the Anglo-Saxon and Ukrainian ethnoses of the phenomenon of law have been revealed. The influence of folklore on the development of legal thinking of the Anglo-Saxons and Ukrainians has been described.

The article deals with the peculiarities of the concept of motivation in word formative, nominative, linguacognitive aspects, as well as a general understanding of motivation in connection with the doctrine of the process of semiosis and the internal form of the word. In particular, the motivation in the derivational aspect is understood as the process of formation of the semantic and formal connection of the derived word with the formative one within the sign code of the language system, in the nominative – the formal and semantic connection between words as signs (expression and content plans), realized in the formation of words; in linguacognitive – the establishment of a semantic and formal dependence between the motivator and the derivative by a nominative unit (a motivated sign) based on the connections of different components of the knowledge structure about what is meant in the ethnic consciousness.

In context of the cultural identity and regional studies, the article evaluates the contribution of researchers from Kurzeme Institute of Humanities, Liepāja University, into research and preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of Kurzeme region. The aim, the main tasks, the development of conception and the course of implementation of The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kurzeme Culture (since 2012) are described as well as its thematic sections (biographies of the prominent personalities in literature and theatre, and the cultural values they have created after Latvia regained its independence). The examples give an insight into the dictionary’s content and provide the evidence for analysis of the main problems in material selection, development of the body, structure and content of the dictionary entries. The article also indicates the possible solutions in the future (development of other thematic sections, addition of audio and video recordings) and discusses the possibility of digitization of the dictionary in order to ensure its accessibility to large audiences.

The representation of the witch in Lithuanian mythological folk narratives and beliefs and her malicious activities as well as ways of preventive protection against these malicious activities are introduced in the present article. No focus was laid on numerous diverse malicious activities of the witch which encompass various fields of human life and the considerable number of ways and measures to protect against them in folk narratives and beliefs as passed on by people so far. Important to mention that the witch of the folk tales that is different from mythological folk narratives’ one is not ascribed to the object of research; and also, the sorceresses operating in mythological folk narratives are not ascribed there – because of their functions that do not concur with the ones performed by witches. The aim is to analyse the material found in written sources about the wrecking of the folk witch and the human preventive protection measures against witch wrecking ways. The objectives of the thesis: to distinguish the preventive ways of protection from witch wrecking found in folk narratives and beliefs; to distinguish between the potential universal protection measures against witch wrecking; to assess the intensity of witch wrecking during calendar feasts and to analyse the degree of variation of typical protection measures; to assess the intensity of witch wrecking and also the need of preventive protection during family feasts. The descriptive, the comparative and the interpretative methods were employed in the study.

This article open national connection of spring Pydlyassha folklore on the base of comparison with repertoire of neighbour ethnographical regions. The comparative analysys of song examples from Pydlyassha is realized on the foundation comparison of main motive of Pydlyassha spring songs and neighbouring ethnographical songs. The article also analyses existing different kind of names for spring calendar songs on the territory of Pydlyassha and other neighbouring regions.

In order to be distinguished from the conventional verbal interactional context deliberate violations of the metadiscursive matrix are employed: 1) the informal register instead of the formal; 2) gradable adjectives and superlatives violate the expectation of objectivity and accuracy; 3) the self-conscious pragmatic-rhetoric strategies; 4) ample use of vulgarisms and offensive addresses; 5) a diversity of rhetoric means.

Within the framework of the present work the phenomenon of the national cooperative communicative behaviour has been characterized, its basic episteme has been determined, the meta-language and tools have been analyzed. In particular, the methodological fundamentals of the study of the national cooperative communicative behaviour and the main trends in the methodology of his research have been observed. The special attention has been paid to the description of the anthropometric method as a component of an integrated method of analysis of the national cooperative communicative behaviour.

Martynas Liudvikas Rėza (Martin Ludwig Rhesa, 1776–1841) is not only one of the most famous Lithuanian in the history of Lithuanians writings, but also a famous member of the Königsberg Masonic lodge Zu den drei Krönen, who has been astonished by the amplitude of his interests and the abundance of his works that still surprising. The range of activities of Rėza, his literary ambition range are wide – from the religious writings to the publishing of secular literature and folklore. Carefully going into the professors’ Lithuanian activities, the aspect of Rėza’s Masonry is important. Masonic echoes are found in Rėza’s publishing activities, correspondence and in relationships with well-known scholars and writers. The article aims to look more closely at the Masonic relations of Rėza in his Lithuanian activities.

The object of this publication is the anecdotes about famous people and personages of the movies and literature. The research helped to identify the most popular personages and describe the images of them. It can be done conclusion that in the anecdotes which are told in Lithuanian the personages of movies and literature are more popular than the real famous people (politicians, sportsmen or pop stars). The images of personages are ambivalent, they can be shown in positive situations but more often these personages are negative: the features of the characters are drawn ironically; the results of their activities are estimated in the mocking and even scornful way.