SEMANTICS OF THE OPPOSITION SENIORITY — “JUNIORITY” IN MONUMENTS OF THE BORISOGLEBIAN CYCLE

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 24
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Abstract:

The article examines the functions of lexemes with the meaning of age contained in the works of the Borisoglebian cycle, belonging to the correlating and opposing semantic fields of seniority and “juniority.” The young age of Boris and Gleb is paradoxically combined with wisdom, denoted by lexemes with the meaning of old age, and thus indicates their holiness. Svyatopolk, older in age, but acting insanely, falling into the power of demonic temptation, in one of the sermons of the cycle, contrary to the actual truth, is defined as junior in relation to the “brotherhood” against whom he started the war. It is demonstrated that the lexeme old/oldest in the works of the cycle is used both with the semantics ‘senior in age’, and with the semantics ‘senior in importance, superior’ and ‘adult, mature, wise’. The uniqueness of its use and functioning as one of the elements of the opposition seniority ↔ “juniority” in the texts dedicated to Boris and Gleb lies in the fact that three meanings, in other cases potentially (and very often actually) combined in one lexeme, enter into complex relationships and are partly opposed.
Keywords: monuments of the Borisoglebian cycle, opposition older — younger, semantics of lexemes with the main meaning of age.
Author: Andrey M. Ranchin
Information about the author:

Andrey M. Ranchin, DSc in Philology, Professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Philological Faculty, 1st housing, Leninskie gory, 1, 119991 Moscow, Russia

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-5106

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:

Ranchin, A.M. “Semantics of the Opposition Seniority — ‘Juniority’ in Monuments of the Borisoglebian Cycle.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 24. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova, sci. ed. M.V. Kaplun. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 218–231. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-218-231(In Russian)
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/KVJIVO
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2025-24-218-231
Received: 26.12.2024
Approved after reviewing: 12.02.2025
Date of publication: 13.07.2025

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