ВЕНИК КАК КУЛЬТУРНЫЙ СИМВОЛ: ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ПАРЕМИЙ РУССКОГО И КИТАЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКОВ
THE BESOM AS A CULTURAL SYMBOL: A LINGUOCULTURAL STUDY OF RUSSIAN AND CHINESE PROVERBS

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the linguocultural analysis of paremias in both Russian and Chinese that feature the component venik (Russian for “besom”), with the aim of identifying the symbolic functions and cultural code associated with the besom as an artifact widely employed in everyday life. The analysis is conducted from the perspectives of linguoculturology and ethnoculturology, enabling the identification of cultural information, ritual significance, and sacral functions reflected in the selected paremias. The research material comprises the authors’ own card index, compiled through a comprehensive sampling of paremias from lexicographical and paremiological resources. The methodology includes definitional, semantic, and linguocultural analysis, complemented by interpretive and descriptive methods. The results of this research demonstrate that the besom, as a common household object, possesses functional polysemy. It manifests as an artifact imbued with multiple layers of meaning, ranging from its purely utilitarian function(cleaning) to destructive, magical, productive, protective, and axiological roles. The analysis examines established folklore traditions in Russia and China, in which the besom is associated with concepts such as order and disorder, good and evil, health and illness, and life and death. A parallel examination of Chinese material enables a transcendence of national limitations, revealing universal cognitive mechanisms underlying the symbolization of the besom as a pivotal element in the articulation of cultural values, spanning from personal accountability to cosmic order.

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