Explication of the Central Features of the Concept of "Fidelity" in German and Russian Literary Texts

The concept of fidelity is a linguocultural concept, as it has all the characteristics of concepts of this kind, namely integrity, mental nature, conventionality, blurriness, value, variability ^[1]. Linguistic and cultural concepts can be classified on various grounds. On the basis of relevance, concepts are classified as leading and secondary. The leading concepts are those that are widely represented in folklore and fiction. Secondary concepts are less relevant, their representatives are less frequent ^[2]. Therefore, the concept of loyalty can be attributed to the leading concepts of German and Russian language consciousness.

The relevance of the chosen research topic is due to the following factors:

1. in modern linguistics, there is a scientific interest in the study of the verbalization of the concept of fidelity;

2. the specifics of the representation of the conceptual component of the concept under study in German and Russian literary texts have not been sufficiently studied.

Achieving the set research goal involves solving the following tasks:

1. to analyze the existing definitions of the conceptual component of the concept in modern linguistics;

2. to identify and compare the central features of the concept of fidelity, reflecting its conceptual part, based on the material of German and Russian literary texts.

The following methods were used in the study: definitional analysis, component analysis, comparative method, quantitative calculations.

The solution of the set tasks became possible thanks to the theoretical basis presented by the works of leading representatives of cognitive linguistics ^[3-11].

The theoretical significance of the work consists in the development of methods for establishing the verbalization of the conceptual component of concepts in a comparative aspect.

The practical significance of the research lies in the fact that the data obtained during the analysis of the linguistic and cultural concept under study can be used when reading a course of lectures on the comparative typology of German and Russian languages, comparative lexicology, cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology at the university.

The material for the study was literary texts of the first half of the twentieth century of one literary orientation – realism in German and Russian, the total volume was 1860 pages.

The concept has, along with the core, the center - a number of the most strongly expressed concepts closely related to the subject of the concept, and the periphery - a set of stand-alone weakly expressed features that formally fit the paradigm of the concept. Such signs are often controversial and/or contradictory. In this work, the understanding of the concept proposed by V.I. Karasik is taken as a basis, which distinguishes conceptual, figurative and value components in the structure of the concept ^[5-6]. The study of the verbalization of concepts when comparing several languages remains one of the actively developing areas of modern linguistics ^[12-15]. And this article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the verbalization of the center of the concept of fidelity in German and Russian literary texts of the first half of the twentieth century.

It is worth noting that in the German language, the conceptual component of the concept of loyalty can be represented by the nuclear lexeme dieu and its corresponding synonyms: die Hingabe (devotion), die Anh ? nglichkeit (attachment), die Loyalit ? t (devotion), die Ergebenheit (submission) ^[16]. According to the dictionaries ^[16-18], the central features of the concept under study in the German language are such an understanding of fidelity as:

· loyalty,

· commitment,

· loyalty.

In the Russian language, the nuclear lexeme is the loyalty lexeme, and the center of the concept is formed by its synonyms: fidelity, steadfastness, immutability, correctness ^[19-21]

The central conceptual signs of fidelity on the material of dictionaries are:

· true compliance with any sample

· perseverance, perseverance in achieving the goal

· constancy

· error-free.

Let us turn to the analysis of the semantics of synonyms of nuclear lexemes used in German literary texts of the first half of the XX century in order to establish the central features of the concept of fidelity. In German texts, synonyms such as: die E where be phe it (submission), die Anh? nglichkeit (attachment), die Nipda be (devotion) find their use. The frequency of use of these synonyms can be displayed in the form of Diagram 1.

Diagram 1. Frequency of use of synonyms of the nuclear lexeme die Treue, demonstrating the central features of the concept of fidelity in German literary texts

Die Ergebenheit (submission) – 66%

Die Hingabe (devotion) – 22%

Die Anh? nglichkeit (attachment) – 18%

Diagram 1 showed a high frequency of using the synonym d ie Ergebenheit (submission) (66%) in German texts and a low frequency of other synonyms – die Hingabe (devotion) – 22%, die Anh? nglichkeit (attachment) – 18%.

Let's consider the features of the use in German literary texts of the synonym die E where be phe it (submission).

Erika Weinschenk, nun einunddrei?igj?hrig, war ebenfalls nicht die Frau, sich ?ber den Abschied von ihrer Tante zu erregen. Sie hatte Schwereres erlebt und sich fr?hzeitig ein resigniertes Wesen zu eigen gemacht. In ihren m?d blickenden, wasserblauen Augen — den Augen Herrn Gr?nlichs — las man Ergebenheit in ein fehlgeschlagenes Leben, und aus ihrer gelassenen und manchmal ein wenig klagenden Stimme klang dasselbe ^[22].

(Erica Weinshank, who was already thirty-one years old, was also unable to be upset about her aunt's departure. A lot of sorrows fell to her lot, and she got used to resign herself. In her tired, watery-blue eyes — the eyes of Mr. Grunlich - there was written resignation to the conditions of an unlucky life; the same resignation sounded in her calm, at times slightly plaintive voice). – (Hereafter translated by L.F. Isaeva).

In this case, the specified token expresses the meaning of "submission", which gives reason to transfer the token to the periphery of the concept.

The lexeme di e Anh ? nglichkeit represents loyalty in the meaning of "attachment":

«Fein“, sagte der Reporter und schrieb. „In der wildbewegten Menge h?rt man Leute aller St?nde der treuesten Anh?nglichkeit und dem unersch?tterlichen Vertrauen zu der Allerh?chsten Person Ausdruck geben» ^[23].

("Fine," the reporter said and wrote: "In a wild crowd, one can hear people of all classes expressing the most devoted affection and unshakable trust in the Supreme Person").

As the example shows, the analyzed token expresses the meaning of "attachment".

It is important to note that in the analyzed literary texts the lexeme die Nipda be (devotion) is also used. This lexeme reflects the meaning of devotion, dedication according to explanatory dictionaries ^[16]. In the analyzed literary texts, this lexeme expresses the meaning of "devotion":

Dem ersten, der es durchschaute, schenkte er seine ganze Achtung; er war pl?tzlich still und sah ihn, ?ber den gekr?mmten und vors Gesicht gehaltenen Arm hinweg voll scheuer Hingabe an. Immer blieb er den scharfen Lehrern ergeben und willf?hrig ^[23].

(He paid all his attention to the first person who examined him; he suddenly stopped talking and looked at him, at the curved and outstretched hand full of shy devotion. He always remained loyal and compliant to wise teachers).

The given context demonstrates that the lexeme mentioned above can express the meaning of "devotion".

Consequently, the central features of the conceptual part of the concept of fidelity in German literary texts may be the following features:

· loyalty

· attachment.

Let us turn to the clarification of the central features of the concept of fidelity in Russian literary texts of the first half of the twentieth century. In Russian texts, synonyms of accuracy and immutability find their application.

In the analyzed texts, the synonym immutability is not used, but its word-derivative: invariably. For example:

            At dawn, when the yellowed Grishka opened the creaking gates of the base, the herd went out to graze and invariably headed through the dried hills of graves ^[24].

The given context reveals the meaning: invariably.

Hence , the central feature of the concept of fidelity in the mentioned texts in Russian is the following feature:

· constancy.

The analysis of the examples showed the absence of additional central conceptual features in Russian texts compared to the dictionary data ^[25-26].

Let's compare the obtained central features of the concept of fidelity, reflected by synonyms of nuclear lexemes in literary texts in German and Russian. The results obtained can be presented in the form of Table 1.

Table 1. Summary table of the central conceptual features of fidelity implemented in German and Russian literary texts

As Table 1 shows, in German and Russian literary texts of the first half of the twentieth century, only the distinctive central features of the concept of fidelity are explicated. In German literary texts, the central conceptual features are devotion and affection, and in Russian texts it is constancy.

Thus, the conceptual component of the concept can be verbally represented in the form of synonyms of nuclear lexemes, which, according to their meanings, can represent the center and periphery of the concept. The studied concept of fidelity based on the material of German and Russian literary texts of the first half of the twentieth century is verbalized by a limited number of synonyms of nuclear lexemes showing the central features of the concept of fidelity. In German texts, these are three synonyms, and in Russian texts it is one synonym, and it acts as another lexeme formed from it. In addition, the analyzed texts do not pay so much attention to the topic of fidelity, which explains the presence of a small number of synonyms of nuclear lexemes in them, on the one hand. And on the other hand, the national feature of understanding fidelity by native speakers of German and Russian languages of that time period. The comparison of the identified central features of the concept of fidelity demonstrates its uniqueness and lack of similarities, which is due to the distant kinship of the compared languages. The authors of this article do not consider the results obtained as the final version, since the expansion of the sample of examples can also offer an expansion of the established list of conceptual features, which is also seen as a further prospect of the proposed study. A possible development of this problem consists in establishing common and distinctive peripheral features of the concept of fidelity in German and Russian literary texts.