Representation of the Concept "Forest" (On the Material of Dialect Speech)

The aim of this article is to describe the concept "forest" that functions in dialect discourse, to identify the constants and transformations of folk culture that are reflected in its internal structure. The material is dialect texts recorded in the Middle Ob region from 1946 to the present day. The main research method is cognitive-discursive analysis, which allows detecting the structure of concepts and the content of their conceptual, axiological, figurative components, as well as determining the specifics of their functioning in the dialect culture. Due to the sufficient development of all layers of the concept in the material, only the conceptual layer is described in this article. The units involved in the representation of the concept "forest" in the dialects of the Middle Ob region are nouns les [forest, wood], lesok [small wood], lesochek [small wood], an adjective lesnoy [forestial], as well as names of forest species depending on its composition, quality, age, place of growing, use (for example, belyy les [white forest], bor [coniferous forest], tayga [taiga], yar [ravine], etc.), names of forest (wood) as construction material (timber); names of activities related to work in the forest and state enterprises and farms engaged in logging, cutting and removal of wood: lesozagotovka [timber cutting], lesosplav [wood floating], lesoperevalka [transshipment of timber], shishko-boy [place where pine cones are picked], okhota [hunting], leskhoz [forestry farm], lesprom-khoz [logging company], lesnichestvo [forest district]. In dialect speakers' minds, the forest is primarily associated with utilitarian values. It is a place of work, a source of life, a space that provides for the satisfaction of people's food needs, a source of building material, leather and fur; it also provides resources for treatment. Dialect texts contain reflections on the forest as part of the environment. For example, they actualize ideas of the forest as a space opposing the city as a place of rest, on the one hand, and opposing the village as a dangerous unknown place causing fear, on the other. The taiga is specifically represented in the concept "forest": it is a space with harsh conditions, a complex system in which it is impossible to survive without certain knowledge. The structure of the concept includes ideas about the role of the forest in different periods of history, understanding the forest as an undeveloped space unsuitable for life, as well as a space inhabited by mythological creatures. In single cases, the aesthetic significance of the forest is reflected. The forest is conceptualized as part of the global natural world and space in which everything is interconnected. The loss of knowledge about the influence of nature on human existence has negative consequences for man's life and work, according to dialect speakers. The content of the concept "forest" has undergone transformations due to economic, social, environmental factors.

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