Representation of the concept "Siberia" in autobiographical stories of Tomsk Peasants
The article describes the representation of the concept "Siberia" in autobiographical stories of Tomsk peasants. Material of the research are texts of oral stories and autobiographical notes published in the book How We Lived: Memoirs and Oral Testimony of Tomsk Peasants, published in 2014 in the publishing house of Tomsk State University. The author refers the analyzed texts to the speech genre of autobiographical story and consider them in the context of the theory of speech genres and linguocultural conceptology. According to the latter, the speech genre is understood as a field of implementation of a certain variety of social values and linguoculturological concepts. The concept "Siberia" is a concept that takes part in the formation of the speech genre. The concept is a multidimensional formation. The author identified the conceptual, figurative and axiological components of it. They are interrelated, and the complexity of their separation is determined by the sphere of the concept functioning: information about life is more represented in the speech genre of autobiographical story, than about Siberia. It is reflected in the representation of the concept and in the predominance of the conceptual and axiological components. The authors of stories are native-born Siberians and people who moved or were exiled to Siberia. Therefore, Siberia is represented, on the one hand, as the space of the house. On the other hand, it is represented as a place of exile, migration, a strange vast space. Siberia is perceived by Siberians and back settlers as a region with harsh climatic conditions, an area of risk farming, a multi-ethnic region. In the stories of back settlers Siberia is explicated as a resource-rich place. The figurative component of the concept is poorly expressed, because there are no metaphorical models representing the concept and including both components: a unit for naming the sphere-source and a unit for the sphere-target "Siberia is X". However, there are metaphorical characteristics of the concept representatives: mother Ob (matushka Ob), freezing cold in the texts. The axiological component of the concept includes a utilitarian idea of Siberia as a vast space, with free lands, with natural resources that can be used as a food and material source. Space of Siberia in the texts is not only a unique geographical region with a definite climate and history, but a fact of autobiographies of people living here. Toponymical, geographical, natural-climatic, administrative, political, ethno-cultural and psychological components of the concept "Siberia" are represented in the stories of Tomsk peasants. Physical qualities of Siberians are less explicated in contrast to other types of discourse; cultural and scientific potential of Siberia is not represented in the texts. The conceptualization of Siberia as a place of exile is more represented in comparison with the mass media discourse.