Religious Terminology in Russian Sign Language
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2023-4-9-22
The article describes the religious vocabulary in Russian Sign Language (RSL). It shows that the effects of visual modality in sign languages, namely iconicity and the use of space, are clearly expressed in RSL religious terms. There is also a clear tendency to distribute the mechanisms of direct iconic representation, visual metonymy, and metaphor to different subgroups of the lexemes studied. Material objects such as priestly vestments and ecclesiastical paraphernalia are primarily described by direct iconic representation. In contrast, religious rituals, denominations, holidays, and some religious and mythological figures are primarily described by visual metonymy, where a sign is based on an iconic representation of one of its visually perceived attributes. The signs whose meaning is in some way related to the concept of spirituality are mainly based on visual metaphor. The influence of the surrounding Russian spoken language is also clearly felt in the religious vocabulary of the RSL. There are different types of borrowings: fingerspelled lexemes, lexicalized fingerspelled lexemes, initialized signs, and replication. A large number of borrowings can be explained both by the complexity of the meanings expressed and by the constant use of sacred texts written in spoken Russian in this domain. At the same time, the article shows the differences between RSL and spoken Russian in the division of the religious semantic domain. Some terms for which there are several words in spoken Russian, differing in subtle nuances of meaning or contexts of use, are expressed with the same sign in RSL. On the other hand, some meanings in RSL are more differentiated than spoken Russian when a Russian word corresponds to several signs that differ in more subtle nuances of meaning or contexts of use.
Keywords: Russian Sign Language, religious vocabulary, effects of visual modality, iconicity, metonymy, metaphor, borrowings
References:
Aristov K. S. Surdoperevod liturgii svyatitelya Ioanna Zlatousta: Vypusknaya kvalifikatsionnaya rabota bakalavra [Sign language translation of the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom: Bachelor's diploma]. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, 2013. 57 p.
Burkova S. I., Kimmelman V. I. (eds.). Vvedenie v lingvistiku zhestovykh yazykov. Russkii zhestovyi yazyk [Introduction to Sign language Linguistics. Russian Sign Language]. Novosibirsk: NSTU, 2019. 356 p.
Burkova S. I., Filimonova E. V. Reduplikatsiya v russkom zhestovom yazyke [Reduplication in Russian Sign Language] // Russkii yazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii [Russian Language and Linguistic Theory]. 2014. No. 28. P. 202–258.
Dyatlova E., Zavaritskii D. Slovar' zhestovogo yazyka: religioznaya leksika [Dictionary of sign language: religious vocabulary]. Kiev: TRK «GLAS», 2006 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.surdonika.ru/metodics/video (access: 15.07.2023).
Zavaritskii D. A. Uchebnoe posobie po surdoperevodu Bozhestvennoi liturgii [A textbook on sign language translation of the Divine Liturgy]. St. Petersburg: GIPP «Iskusstvo Rossii», 2002. 63 p.
Zavaritskii D. A. Uchebnoe posobie po surdoperevodu Vsenoshchnogo Bdeniya [A textbook on sign language translation of the All-Night Vigil]. St. Petersburg: GIPP «Iskusstvo Rossii», 2003. 87 p.
Zavaritskii D. A. Anafora na russkom zhestovom yazyke [Anaphora in Russian Sign Language]. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the Polytechnic University. 2015. 100 p.
Mel'chuk I. A. Kurs obshchei morfologii. T. II [General morphology course. Vol. II]. Moscow, Vienna: Yazyki russkoi kul'tury; Venskii slavisticheskii al'manakh, 1998. 644 p.
Mechkovskaya N. B. Yazyk i religiya: posobie dlya studentov gumanitarnykh vuzov [Language and religion: a manual for students of humanities universities]. Moscow: FAIR, 1998. 352 p.
Molotok A. M. Osobennosti podbora leksicheskikh edinits pri perevode tekstov bogosluzhenii na zhestovyi yazyk i vozmozhnost' predotvrashcheniya ikh bogoslovskogo iskazheniya [On the selection of lexical units when translating the texts of divine services into sign language in order to prevent theological distortion] // Khristianskoe chtenie [Christian reading]. 2017. No. 2. P. 140–148.
Rukhledev V. N. Problemy glukhikh lyudei: interv'yu s prezidentom Vserossiiskogo obshchestva glukhikh V. N. Rukhledevym ot 30.10.2014 g. [Problems of the Deaf: An interview with the President of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf V. N. Rukhledev dated October 30, 2014]. [Electronic resource]. URL: https://er.ru/interview/2014/10/29/problemy-gluhihlyudej (access: 25.05.2023).
Slovar' bibleiskikh zhestov [Dictionary of Biblical Signs]. SPBBPOOIPS «KOVChEG» [Electronic resource] URL: https://youtu.be/UIozSLd0wR0?list=PLJE5EgFisRhn7powfoeyB4E1wqsuzTfsF (access: 06.06.2023).
Slovar' russkogo zhestovogo yazyka po religioznoi i bogosluzhebnoi tematike [Dictionary of Russian Sign Language on religious and liturgical topics]. Novosibirskii pravoslavnyi tsentr glukhikh, slepoglukhikh i slaboslyshashchikh vo imya svyatitelya Makariya Altaiskogo [Novosibirsk Orthodox Center for the Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing in the name of St. Macarius of Altai] [Electronic resource]. URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0y8j6zHJyLKtt-uwFqGo9A/videos (access: 25.05.2023).
Slovar' pravoslavnoi leksiki russkogo zhestovogo yazyka: Proekt Vserossiiskoi organizatsii glukhikh, 2016–2018 [Dictionary of the Orthodox vocabulary of Russian Sign Language: Project of the All-Russian Organization of the Deaf, 2016–2018]. [Electronic resource]. URL: https://voginfo.ru/lexicon/enter.html. (date of access: 25.05.2023)
Sokolov N. N. Voprosy perevoda bozhestvennoi liturgii svyatitelya Ioanna Zlatousta na russkii zhestovyi yazyk: uchebnoe posobie [Issues of translation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom into Russian Sign Language: A textbook]. Novosibirsk: St. Makaryevsky Novosibirsk Orthodox Theological Institute, 2012. 142 p.
Shvedova N. Yu. (ed.), Russkii semanticheskii slovar'. Tolkovyi slovar', sistematizirovannyi po klassam slov i znachenii [Russian semantic dictionary. Explanatory dictionary, systematized by classes of words and meanings]. Shvedova N. Yu. (ed.). Moscow: Azbukovnik, 1998. 720 p.
Kimmelman V., Burkova S., Filimonova E. Number in Russian Sign Language. Number in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Daniel M., Acquaviva P. (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2022. P. 805–832.
SpreadTheSign: Sign Language Diuctionary [Electronic resource]. URL: https://www.spreadthesign.com/ru.ru/search/ (access: 25.05.2023).
Taub S. Language from the Body: Iconicity and Metaphor in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 256 p.
Wilcox S., Wilcox P., Jarque M. Mappings in conceptual space: Metonymy, metaphor, and iconicity in two signed languages // Jezikoslovije. 2003. No. 4(1). P. 139–156.
Wilcox P. A Cognitive Key: Metonymic and Metaphorical Mappings in ASL // Cognitive Linguistics. 2004. No. 15(2). P. 197–222.
( 1.03 MB ) 
( 1009.2 kB )
Issue: 4, 2023
Series of issue: Issue 4
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 9 — 22
Downloads: 339