CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECT IN THE STUDY OF VERBAL FOLKLORE (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF BULGARIAN AND UKRAINIAN PAREMIA AND FAIRY TALES)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruslan Serdeha

1. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-4-4RS

Abstract. The universality and endemicity of different national cultures, including folklore, which is undoubtedly an important component of the national value system, is determined in the process of projecting different cultures into each other. The use of a cross-cultural approach makes it possible, on the one hand, to identify in folklore those features that are universal, those that are generally significant for the human world, and on the other hand, those that are the direct property of a particular people. Such features manifest themselves in the language through the language itself, that is, through the verbal means inherent in a particular language. The scientific novelty of the article is that it is the first attempt to examine the folklore of Ukrainians and Bulgarians through the prism of a cross-cultural approach using elements of the lexicographic modelling method. The language of oral folklore undoubtedly deserves lexicographical study, and it may well emphasize the specifics of the folklore of different peoples. The folklore texts of the genres analysed in this article are capable of accumulating those socio-cultural meanings that are common to many peoples, as the above examples from Ukrainian and Bulgarian proverbs confirm. At the same time, the traditions under study also contain elements that give these texts a distinct national flavour. The national colouring of proverbs and sayings is achieved through the use of specific personal names peculiar to a particular people, or local variants of national human names, geographical names characteristic of a particular region, names of local realities that are either completely absent in other peoples or do not have exact equivalents in their language. Fairy tales have much more common elements due to the expressive wanderlust of this genre, but they can also include an element that emphasizes the specifics of a certain time in the life of the people. Everyday details can bring a distinct national flavour to a fairy tale.

Keywords: language of folklore, cross-cultural linguistic folklore studies, Bulgarian folk sayings and proverbs, Ukrainian folk sayings and proverbs, Ukrainian folk sayings and proverbs,  Bulgarian folk tales.

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