Axiology in Comparative Studies (The Notion of ‘Life’ in Russian and Bulgarian Languages)

Abstract

This article scrutinises the axiological parameters of the notion of ‘life’ in Russian and Bulgarian languages on the grounds of lexicological and folklore data. Comparative analysis of the two related yet distant languages, Russian and Bulgarian (with regard to the Balkan character of the Bulgarian language), is aimed at the detection of common and differing attitudes towards values in general and for the ascertainment of language evaluative potential. The notion of ‘life’ is the most important in the hierarchy of basic values; it determines the very being of other concepts, since without life they do not exist or are not relevant. It is no coincidence that ‘life’ is tightly connected with ‘death’ as evidenced by languages, folklore and rituals. The notion of ‘life’ includes other basic axiological concepts, which reflect the archaic idea of life as a road and a fate (“health”, “happiness / good luck”, “family”, “love”, etc.), thus constructing the idea of well-being. When ‘life’ has negative connotations, such notions as “disease”, “unhappiness / bad luck” and “loneliness” become an integral part of it. The quantity of the topical values for the notion of ‘life’ increases when synonyms, dialectal expressions and all the members of the word-building process are taken into account. In the Bulgarian language, Turkish borrowings are important, as they demonstrate a hedonistic “Eastern” axiological view of life.  Comparison of Russian and Bulgarian clichés and idioms with corresponding words, denoting ‘life’ and similar concepts, and interlanguage synonyms are at the core of this article. The study allows us to conclude that the evaluation of ‘life’ depends to a great extent on the combinations of words and the context; the value can drastically change a positive marker to a negative, which is a typical process in the evaluation system of languages in general.