Magiczne funkcje negacji w tekstach sakralnych
MAGICAL FUNCTIONS OF NEGATIONS IN SACRAL TEXTS
Author(s): Svetlana Michajlovna TolstajaContributor(s): Roman Lewicki (Translator)
Subject(s): Anthropology, Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: the magical functions of negation; sacral texts; ‘charm-aways’; convincing; spells; curses; cultural connotations of a mythological character; the ‘other’ world; black magic; linguistic magic
Summary/Abstract: Negative constructions in texts of a significant illocutionary force (‘charm always’, spells, incantations, curses, apotropaic formuli, ritual dialogues, etc.) become a means of affecting real-world situations. Besides their basic grammatical function and the meaning ‘it is not the case that’, negative constructions in such contexts acquire stable cultural connotations of mythological nature: a) they annihilate the evil forces — a disease, a bad spell, witchcraft — in a magical way; b) they designate ‘the other world’, whose features include non-being, non-appearance, non-action, non-place, non-time; c) they reveal dissociation on the part of the speaker from the authorship of a given act, and disclose the role of the real doer of the act; d) they are manifestations of black magic. In sacral texts negation is a means of implementing magic and a variety of ‘linguistic magic’. In the actional cultural code it is paralleled by ritual actions, symbolizing the annihilation or expulsion of evil forces. When it refers to ‘the other world’, it is paralleled by turning objects upside down.
Journal: Etnolingwistyka. Problemy Języka I Kultury
- Issue Year: 13/2001
- Issue No: 13
- Page Range: 117-125
- Page Count: 9
- Language: Polish