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Introduction
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It is empirical and objective. Linguists seek to describe succinctly the structural properties of languages, and to understand their interactions, how they change, and how they serve the broader functions of language as a tool of communication that is embedded in human physiology, cognition, interaction, society, and culture. Explaining how individual languages work and how language works more broadly constitutes the aim of linguistic theory (Genetti, 2018). Linguistics shares with other sciences a concern to be objective, systematic, consistent, and explicit in its account of language. Like other sciences, it aims to collect data, test hypotheses, devise models and construct theories. Its subject matter, however, is unique: at one extreme it overlaps with such 'hard' sciences as physics and anatomy; at the other, it involves such traditional 'arts' subjects as philosophy and literary criticism. The field of linguistics includes both science and the humanities, and offers a breadth of coverage that, for many aspiring students of the subject, is the primary source of its appeal (Crystal, 2019).
Albury (2017) emphasizes that language is a social phenomenon influenced by and regulated by social factors in addition to being a cognitive characteristic similar to Chomskyan linguistics. The speech community, where special linguistic tools and tactics are taught to attain communication goals without necessarily following the rules of a designated language, is said to be the evidence. Since language is socially rooted, communities can make normative statements about how language functions in society. This means that language is also subject to human judgement and when some claims or norms are elevated above others, this in turn establishes and maintains power structures and disparities among speakers of various language types. The aforementioned factors influenced the development of the discipline of sociolinguistics, which focuses on studying the societal dimensions of language. In this manner, sociolinguists make an effort to identify the linguistic traits that are specific to a scenario, mark the numerous social interactions between the players, and highlight the important aspects of the situation.
On the other hand, as noted by Ben-Amos et al., (2020) folklore began to develop in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. It originally connoted traditions, myths, legends, folktales, songs, dances, and other forms of cultural expression like sayings and proverbs. Folklore also implied irrationality: beliefs in ghosts and demons, fairies and goblins, and spirits. The urbane literati who came up with the concept of folklore believed that these two characteristics, traditionalism, and irrationality, could only be found in peasant or primitive civilizations. As a result, they assigned the third quality of rurality to folklore since folklore was best cultivated in rural areas and in the wide-open spaces of nature. Man's myth and poetry were thought to have their origins in his close interactions with nature while living in villages and hunting bands. Folklore itself was seen to be a natural expression of man before cities, commerce, civilization, and culture tainted the purity of his life as an offshoot of his contact with nature.
According to Mansimova (2022), folklore in modern usage, is understood as an academic discipline the subject matter of which (also called folklore) comprises the sum total of traditionally derived and orally or imitatively transmitted literature, material culture, and the custom of subcultures within predominantly literate and technologically advanced societies (notice that comparable study among wholly or mainly nonliterate societies belongs to the disciplines of ethnology and anthropology).Thus, folklore as an expression of traditional knowledge is primary evidence used by an analyst to produce findings and generalizations about tradition as process (Honko, 2013).
Language and folklore have a close relationship (McDowell, 2018), since although folklore is an important part of a society's culture, language is the fundamental tool for transmitting and preserving folklore. Language also plays an important role in the creation and development of folklore, since the words and expressions used in folklore can reflect the beliefs and values of a society and contribute to the formation of its cultural identity. Furthermore, language can be used to adapt and modify folklore as circumstances and the needs of society change. The relation is so close that Hendricks (2019) emphasizes that the major research problem for the linguist is exactly how text ('folkloristic') structure might be integrated into the linguistic structure being this an extremely complex subject
However, there is still much work to be done in describing and analyzing the ways that languages and dialects are used within a particular culture, including the types of speech events, the interactions between speakers, addressees, audiences, topics, channels, and settings, as well as the ways that speakers use the tools of their language to carry out specific tasks. With this method of sociolinguistics, the study of utterances' formal features is expanded to include the social contexts in which they are used as well as the participants in communication acts. The distribution of linguistic items, or who speaks what language to whom, when, and for what purpose, is crucial to understand, as is how a given linguistic variable might relate to the formulation of a particular grammatical rule in a given language or dialect, as well as the processes by which languages change
Considering the previously established, the objective of this work is to discuss the different approaches to the study of the folkloric text as a linguistic object. For this, the main research methods used were documentary analysis, the historical-logical method and language stratification.
Development
The content and context of folklore and the manner in which folklore activity is organized are obviously closely correlated with the institutions of the society in which it is situated. This results from taking into account function and circumstances, which are related to particular social groups in any culture as well as its social gatherings and activities. It is also obvious that the structuring of folklore activity, outside the specific groups and occasions on which it is practiced, and without the participants necessarily considering this among their conscious aims, plays a wider role in society. Folklore and its performance can also be considered as a vehicle for social ideals and ideas to be passed down from one generation to the next. There will undoubtedly be modifications and developments, but there will still be a basic continuity of artistic form and outlook. So, sociolinguistics can study the language that conveys folklore to find out how it relates to an specific society (Maniruzzaman, 2022).
In this regard, the study of a folklore text is based on the understanding of the language of folklore as a complex formation, “where its constituents are dialectically fused, i.e. and specific folk dialects, and the dialect language as a system of all relevant dialect phenomena, and the national language as a whole as a language metasystem. The text is a complex object of study. Due to the multifaceted and multilevel organization, the text “is difficult to fit into the usual linear framework of that linguistic science, which was formed on the identification of a certain corpus of units and their further classification” (Burvikova, 1991, p. 12). Thus, the text is the main, but not the only component of the human speech-thinking activity.
The most important components of its structure are the author, its reader, the displayed reality, knowledge about which is transmitted in the text, and the language system from which the author chooses language tools that allow him to realize his creative idea. This, as well as the interdisciplinary status of text theory, its connection with a number of scientific disciplines, is the reason for the approach to its study (Babenko, 2005). Following the work of this author, we single out the following main approaches to the study of the text.
The linguocentric approach is based on the study of the functioning of language units and categories under the conditions of a literary text. The subject of consideration here are phonetic, lexical, grammatical, stylistic units, and categories (Novikov, 1988). The possibilities of this approach are realized in identifying the functional properties of certain units and describing the style of a certain author. The text-centric approach is based on the idea of the text as a result and product of creative activity. The text is considered an integral completed object of study (Kovtunova, 1976). A reasoned, consistent analysis of the text in full of its categories is demonstrated in the work of Galperin (2004) "Text as an object of linguistic research", and in the work of Turaeva (1986) "Linguistics of the text". The anthropocentric approach on the other hand is associated with the interpretation of the text in the aspect of its generation and perception, its impact on the reader, and in derivational aspect. Within the framework of this approach, depending on the focus of the study, several areas are distinguished in text study:
Psycholinguistic direction, which is based on the idea of the text as a dual process of generation/perception, which underlies communicative activity. The generation and perception of a text are two sides of its dynamic nature. The study of the text by the speaker (author) and listener (reader) is dynamic since it aims to reveal the psychological mechanisms of text formation.
The pragmatic direction considers the text as a complex speech act, which is carried out with certain intentions and goals, and which uses a complex of linguistic means and methods of influencing the addressee. The basis of such an approach to text analysis is the fact that “language creation by its very nature is socially effective” (Kuznetsov, 1990, p. 109).
Significant for our study is the derivational direction of studying the text. To form a text means to form a thought, since the thought contained in the text constitutes its deep level, the content basis. It is at this level that the future foundation of the text is laid, and the universal laws of its construction operate. According to the observations of Murzin (1984), two interrelated and oppositely directed textual mechanisms operate at the lexicon-grammatical level: contamination, which aims to expand the text, and compression, intended to collapse it. These mechanisms are also actively functioning when creating a folklore text, being realized in many variants of one fairy tale plot.
The cognitive direction of studying the text comes from the understanding of language as the main means of expressing knowledge about the world. The key concepts of cognitive linguistics are the concepts of "concept" and "conceptualized area". A concept is a global thinking unit, which is a quantum of knowledge (Popova, 2000). Concepts are ideal and encoded in consciousness by units of a universal subject code, which are based on individual sensory images that are formed on the basis of a person’s personal sensory experience. The generalization of the components of the semantic space allows the researcher to describe the conceptualized text areas and identify the basic concepts for them.
Thus, in the study of the text, there are many approaches and directions that complement each other friend and contribute to a fuller disclosure of its nature in the linguistic aspect. That's why the study of folklore text is based on the analysis of objects in different directions.
Of great interest for our study is the work of Artemenko (2001) “Folklore text formation and ethnic mentality”, carried out within the framework of the anthropocentric approach. Based on a deep analysis of the material of a lyrical song and an epic, it was proved that the construction of an oral poetic text is carried out with based on special text-forming models. "Such the model serves as a semantic framework for an artistic micro-situation of a certain type. It includes a number of links, each of which represents in a generalized form a certain side, a detail of the canonical microsituation” (Artemenko, 2001, p. 12). Such models serve as the basis for building text blocks. In the process of recreating a folklore text, the model is usually implemented several times in text-forming blocks that differ in the number and semantics of the links used in them and the nature of their combinations. In folk lyrics, there is a model of a lyrical situation in which Artemenko identifies seven links with different type semantics.
It is important to highlight that the study of a folklore text is based on the understanding of the language of folklore as a complex formation, “where its constituents are dialectically fused, i.e. and specific folk dialects, and the dialect language as a system of all relevant dialect phenomena, and the national language as a whole as a metasystem of the Russian language...” (Ossovetsky, 1975, p. 69). When re-recording, the volume of the text, and its lexical and phraseological composition usually changes somewhat, sometimes- the sequence of its structural elements. The movable parts of the work in various versions replace each other, acting as equivalents, but these discrepancies are qualified by the performer as “one and the same”, i.e., not going beyond the permissible development of the topic ... The patterns according to which variational changes occur in the text cannot violate the very principles of text generation and should practically coincide with the rules of textualization” (Ossovetsky, 1975).
Artemenko (2001, p. 6) defines that “the folklore tradition consists in following generalized, typified, predetermined patterns, in their repeated (“infinitely repeated”) reproduction. This phenomenon is considered as a specific feature folklore aesthetics as one of the manifestations of the aesthetic nature of folk literature". There is an opinion that the basis of all sorts of numerous variants of folklore use (performance, recording) is a certain abstract model of an invariant property that has arisen as a system unit of the verbal level, serving in a given communicative situation as a way of intellectual or quite practical development of the world. In this regard Artemenko (2001, p. 11) notes that “the oral poetic formula serves as a means of expressing invariant traditional meaning and is the result of repeated reproduction of this meaning and the assignment of the most adequate linguistic expression to it”.
In this situation, the performer can change (correct) the content and structure of the text and extra-textual elements depending on the behavior (reaction) of the listeners during the performance. Accordingly, the result of direct "feedback" in the conditions of folklore communication is that the text and the performer become a self-regulating system. In this case, the activity of perception of a folklore work is manifested (in contrast to a similar process in artistic communication) in direct participation in the creative process of listeners-spectators who act not just as consumers of a stable text, but as co-authors who select, give life to it, comprehend and then reproducing a new version of the text in the next act of folklore communication” (Artemenko, 2001).
The existence in folklore of works that have a special structure, organized by the repetition of the structural elements of the plot, has been noted by folklore scholars for a long time. In 1915, I. Bolte and G. Polivka first used the term accumulative story (cumulative stories) to distinguish from a variety of fairy tale texts, such as which the characters or their actions seem to be strung together, forming a chain. In these tales, the main method is the repeated repetition, often almost verbatim, of individual words, sentences, or even groups of sentences and entire episodes. The American scientist S. Thompson, reworking and translating into English the index of fairy tales by A. Aarne, singled out cumulative fairy tales from the section of fairy tales about animals and offered 200 numbers for them, of which he filled in only 22 numbers. This way, in many studies, textbooks and manuals on oral folk art, cumulative tales are considered either in the series of tales about animals, or as their variety, which has a special, chain composition. In most cases, researchers, classifying cumulative tales as tales about animals, point to their special features, which they see in the original principles of compositional construction. A close examination of the cumulative fairy tale reveals in it a number of specific genre features. Using conceptual analysis in the study of folklore texts, S. E. Nikitina identified the concepts that are essential for them and developed a model for the analysis of word-concepts in the form of article-questionnaire (Nikitina, 1991).
Khrolenko (2004, p. 57) notes that, although concepts are represented by words, the word with its meaning in the language represents only a part of the concept, hence the need for synonymy of the word, the need for texts that collectively reveal the content of the concept arises. Within the framework of the lexicographic approach, which organically combines interest in a single word with attention to the entire set of words that make up the entire dictionary, the scientist offers a number of methods focused on the analysis hypertext. Hypertext is “a multidimensional network in which each point or node (word or phrase) is independently linked to any other point or node” (Burvikova, 1991, p. 152).
This way, on the basis of folklore texts, A. T. Khrolenko developed a system of techniques, including: 1) dominant analysis; 2) cluster analysis; 3) concordance compression technique; 4) applique resulting from compression concordances of dictionary entries. With the help of dominant analysis, the lexicons of the compared texts are compared in full. Cluster analysis leaves only thematically/semantically related lexemes in the field of view of the researcher. Then, methods of concordance compression and application of dictionary entries make it possible to compare the semantic structure of individual lexemes and their functionality.
Conclusions
In general, the analysis of literary texts by folklorists involves a combination of different approaches and techniques and can be a very complex process that requires in-depth knowledge of the culture and history of the community to which the texts belong. Some of the aspects when analyzing these texts may include: 1) the cultural context to understand how they relate to other elements of the folklore of the community, 2) the symbolic meaning, such as images, metaphors, and symbols, to understand the intended message transmitted through them, 3) the social function, for example, if they are used to transmit values or cultural norms, or if they have a ritual or ceremonial function, 4) the way in which the texts are structured (literary style, rhythm, and structure), to understand how these aspects contribute to the meaning and function of the texts and 5) variations to see how they have evolved over time and how they vary between different communities or groups. These analytical approaches are important because they help us to preserve and understand the culture and history of communities, offering us a valuable and enriching vision of the world and the people that surround us, as well as contributing to the development of literature once the folklore texts have been an infinite source of inspiration for numerous writers.
