"Khitryy" and "khitar" in the linguistic consciousness of native speakers of cognate languages (on the Russian and Serbian language material)

The article analyzes semantics, peculiarities of functioning and axiological assessment of the Russian adjective 'khitryy' and the Serbian one 'khitar' in order to identify the stereotypical idea of a person described by these adjectives in two Slavic linguistic cultures. Material for the study consists of Russian and Serbian explanatory dictionaries, contexts with these adjectives from the Russian National Corpus and the Serbian National Corpus, survey of Russian and Serbian native speakers. The analysis revealed that the stereotype about a cunning person in the Russian language consciousness is as follows: this is a person who hides their true intentions, does not act the right way. It is often a person with high mental abilities, or by nature able to compensate for their lack due to the ingenuity, ability to assess a current situation and to act in accordance with it, pursuing their own personal benefit. The adjective is ambivalent in terms of evaluation. Standards of the cunning in the Russian language world picture are a fox, a demon (devil, imp), so there are comparisons and metaphors with these units. In the Russian language consciousness there are stable stereotypes regarding trickery of representatives of certain nationalities. The adjective khitryy [cunning] can be used in the Russian language to characterize a glance, a human facial expression. In this case, it has the meaning of 'expressing cunningness and craftiness'. Khitar chovek in the Serbian language consciousness appears in two ways. In the first meaning it is a person who is capable to quickly and deftly perform any movement or action. The adjective khitar in this sense is a part of stable comparisons. Comparison standards in the Serbian language world picture are zoonyms, natural phenomena, mythological creatures, fast-moving objects or toys, proper names and weapons / ammunition. The adjective khitar used in this meaning mainly assesses a personality positively. In the second meaning ('people with mental capacity, resourcefulness and agility') the Serbian adjective khitar is used less frequently. Herewith the following idioms with this meaning are actively used: khitra (khitrog) uma, khitre pamyati. Mostly it is a positive assessment of personality traits. The adjective khitar can be used in the Serbian language to characterize a glance, a human facial expression: khitarpogled. In this case, in contrast to the Russian khitryy vzglyad, it acts within the meaning 'quick look'. As a result of the study it can be concluded that the stereotypical view of a cunning person in two kindred languages is similar only in part. In the Russian linguistic consciousness like in the Serbian one there is a high score of intellectual abilities of such a person. The image of a person who hides their true intentions and does not act directly comes to the fore in the Russian language culture. The differences between the stereotypical views are caused by the historical disparities in the development of the semantics of proto-Slavic *chytrb in ancient Russian and Serbian languages.

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