Отражение на елементи от народния мироглед в езика
Impact of Elements of the People's World Outlook on the Language

Summary/Abstract: In this article certain sides of the people's world outlook, which have had an impact on the language, are considered. They are concentrated mainly around taboos and phenomena akin to them which were inherent in various earlier stages in the development of human thinking and are characterized, above all, by beliefs in the magical and miracle-working power of human speech and in the existence of a direct link between language and reality. Today this type of phenomena are only relicts, but their earlier existence is traced in the linguistic system. Taboos and phenomena akin to them are outlined in several lexicosemantic spheres: a) the names of animals; I) the names of diseases; c) the names of natural phenomena and supernatural beings; d) the names of certain states in man; e) personal names. Observations have been made on the basis of a wealth of material, most of it newly discovered in various regions of the Bulgarian ethnic territory. A typological distribution is made of interdictions as an extralinguistic factor which leads to linguistic changes. Their most essential sign — the end result of their impact — is the presence of substitution, i. e. the replacement of one name by another. The conclusion is drawn that taboos and phenomena akin to them interweave ethnographic and linguistic processes. This proves that these phenomena are complex in character, all the more so as we cannot now study the course of the processes leading to taboo formation, but only their results.

• Details
• Contents