The golden dish and fish laugh. An essay in semantic analysis of motifs

The article describes the semantics of the motif, its internal structure, textual manifestations and distribution, as well as the ‘network’ of intermotif connections. The analysis focuses on several plot types, variously correlated: Prophetic / Untold dream / Animal language (AaTh 671 E*; 725; 517, 670, 672, 672D*, 673, 781; Mot. M312.2 sq.; D217; M312.0.2), The Taming of the Bride (AaTh 519, cf. 516), Victory of the Weak (AaTh 480C*, 565, 613, 735A, 930, 1535; SUS -813A**; Berezk., K27nn, K88) and on some other stories associated with these ones. The motifs that are included in this group usually have a binary or ternary structure. The elements of such structure are dispersed through the tale; they are separated by narrative fragments that are filled with other events and adventures.

The performed analysis makes it possible to systematize motifs and their structural elements as follows: 1) minimal meaningful (but not meaning-forming) differential features of plot composites (semes of ‘narrative grammar’), which are not further divided at the plot level; 2) ‘simple’ motifs; they can be considered as a set of semes, which, thanks to the connections established between them, acquire meaning-forming functions and structure the motif as a kind of narrative semanteme; 3) ‘complex’ motifs that have a binary or ternary structure, the elements of which are dispersed throughout the tale text (however, the boundary between ‘simple’ and ‘complex’ motifs is rather arbitrary).

The structure of a motif is adequately characterized as a frame, the slots of which, determined by their facet values, can be filled with both semes (in ‘simple’ motifs, but not only in them) and semanthemes (in complex motifs). Thus, inter-motif connections turn out to be either hierarchical (a motif embedded in a motif, a ‘nested doll’ principle), or networked (the same semes fill the slots of different motifs, linking these motifs through ‘semantic channels’; the latter has far-reaching consequences for the generative mechanisms of the tradition). Finally, it is expedient to consider slots that contain the ‘programs’ themselves, according to which logical relationships are established between the components of the motif, as slots designed for special ‘procedural’ (rather than ‘substantial’) filling.

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