Lukavyy" and "Lukav" in Russian and Serbian Language Pictures of the World

The article analyzes semantics, features of functioning and axiological evaluation of the Russian adjective lukavyy and Serbian lukav to reveal stereotypes about a person nominated by these adjectives in two Slavic language pictures of the world. The presented analysis is the second stage of the study conducted by the authors; it analyzes the stereotypical representation of a cunning person in Russian and Serbian linguacultures. Material for the study consists of monolingual dictionaries of Russian and Serbian, contexts of the use of adjectives presented on the websites of the Russian National Corpus, the Serbian National Corpus, and results of questioning speakers of Russian and Serbian. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the stereotypical representation of a crafty person in the Russian language picture of the world is as follows: on the one hand, it is a person more often assessed negatively, hiding their true intentions, false, quirky and hypocritical, deceiving for their own benefit, acting often to the detriment of another person. The mythological component - the euphemistic name for a demon and the devil - plays a great role in creating this stereotype. On the other hand, if a person is kind and simultaneously ingenious, acts for good, or the emphasis is on their facial expressions, then such a person is perceived as good-naturedly cunning and playful. Lukav chovek in the Serbian language world picture is perceived, first of all, as a cunning person, acting in their own favor. The Serbian adjective lukav mostly means a negative evaluation of an individual. In rare contexts in which the meaning of 'savvy, quirky, cunning' is actualized, this adjective may also have a positive connotation. As the study shows, in the Russian and Serbian language pictures of the world, the stereotypical idea of a person called crafty basically coincides. In general, it is possible to conclude that the Serbian adjective lukav corresponds to the Russian adjective khitryy in the following meaning: 'cunning, concealing one's true intentions, going by deceptive ways'. The difference lays in the fact that cunning as a property of a person in Russian linguaculture largely characterizes intellectual abilities. A cunning person must be intelligent, inventive, or compensate for a lack of intelligence with resourcefulness and deliberate deception in behavior. The adjective lukavyy in Russian differs from its synonym khitryy by its lesser use in characterizing the property of a human personality due to the prevailing pejorative evaluation. In both linguistic cultures khitrost'/lukavstvo is the property of certain nationalities Russian and Serbian peoples have historically been in contact with. However, cf. Russian khitryy kak yevrey, khokhol, tatarin [cunning like a Jew, a Khokhol (pejorative for Ukrainian), a Tatar] and Serbian lukav kao Turchin, Chifutin [tricky like a Turk, a Chifutin (pejorative for a Jew)]. In the Serbian language pictures of the world, craftiness is more often attributed to representatives of its own people than in Russian.

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