The “Stone” Paradigm of Mandelstam’s “The Slate Ode”: On the Mechanisms of Semantic Derivation

The main aim of the article is to identify the mechanisms of meaning-generation of Osip Mandelstam's “The Slate Ode”. The hypothesis of the work lies in the fact that at the basis of the semantic structure of the poem there are semes associated with the image of the stone and its derivatives. The theoretical basis of the work was the idea of the semiotic potential of images that are correlated with the shape of the object, its genesis and instrumental function. In this aspect, the primary signs of the stone as a specific natural phenomenon are the basis for meanings of a semiotic order. The article shows that the physical aspect of the stone (its shape and external features) determines the key visual metaphors of the ode and the patterns of the development of its plot. Thus, the common seme “layering”, turning out to be a place of a semantic junction of air and stone paradigms, gives rise to a number of reversible metaphors. At the same time, the external feature of the stone is disconnected from the carrier-object, connecting individual images into a single conceptual and metaphorical field and causing new meanings of the text. The genetic aspect of the stone as a physical object is associated with the development of the lyric plot, which is the plot of natural morphogenesis. The top layer of this plot refers to the Crimean realities, the deep geological stratum to the processes of rock formation. The stone viewed as a tool in culture organizes the conceptual-semantic structure of the ode and initiates a system of metaphors, the basis of which is the semantic isomorphism of nature and culture. Thus, in “The Slate Ode”, the flint paradigm is intertwined with the semantics of language and writing. It is hypothesized that the “geological philosophy” of “The Slate Ode”, associated with the isomorphism of nature and culture, was inspired by Vernadsky's noosphere concept, which Mandelstam could be familiar with. The ontological similarity of nature and culture is proved by the very complex intertext of “The Slate Ode”, the stone paradigm becomes its centering component since it is the stone that attracts quotes from various literary sources. The structural analogue of the intertext of the ode is the structure of a stone-crystal. The article shows that the quotational images of the poem have a wide archetypal content (day, night, stone, water, etc.) and therefore can be associated with different sources, which leads to the polygenetic quotation. This “intertext foliation” can be metaphorically explained through the formative crystal power, in which the archetypal meanings of the citation images turn out to be a crystal-forming factor. The idea of organizing a poetic text as a mineralogical entity was theoretically interpreted by Mandelstam in his “Conversation about Dante”. However, its poetic embodiment in “The Slate Ode” preceded this famous essay. It is in “The Slate Ode” that specific mechanisms for the growth of the poem's meanings associated with the implementation of archetypal motifs in cultural and literary fields are revealed.

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