Sobora Y. The concepts «life» and «death» in Ukrainian and Czech paroemias

The dissertation is the first comprehensive research in Ukrainian folklore studies of the concepts «life» and «death» in Ukrainian and Czech paroemias. The study reproduces the general linguo-cultural picture of Ukrainian and Czech proverbs through the concepts «life / život» and «death / smrt», their analysis in Ukrainian and Czech proverbs and sayings by identifying the language means of expression, considering the place of the delineated concepts in the texts of Czech proverbs and sayings, mental lexicon of small genres of oral folklore, as well as their comparison with Ukrainian proverbs and sayings, applying subjective experience, various pragmatic components of lexemes, connotations and associations, basic phraseological and paroemia groups of concepts in the domain of small genres of oral folklore, in particular paroemia texts in the folklore of Ukrainian and Czech ethnic groups. The thesis systematises the latest achievements of modern linguistics and folkloristics in the study of national-language worldviews and outlines the formation and development of the term «concept», particularly in the culturological aspect. A concept is a complex mental formation, a reflection of the main meanings inherent in the culture of a particular ethnic group, as well as an impetus for the creation, renewal and preservation of the linguistic cultural level of a particular nation. The study identifies the place of proverbs and sayings in the genre system of oral folklore. It has been revealed that a paroemia should be considered as a complex folklore genre, characterised by rich imagery and situationality, with a long history of development. The research investigates the structure of paroemia genres, determines the poetics of proverbs and sayings and the pragmatics of their texts on the Ukrainian and Czech material. It has been revealed that linguistic verbalization of the folklore concept is conditioned by a special axiological development of the key word meaning, specificity of its distribution and the use of etymological links.