REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT “CAT” IN RUSSIAN PRECEDENT TEXTS OF COMIC GENRES

Abstract

Cats have accompanied humans for thousands of years. At the same time the attitude towards cats differs from culture to culture. The purpose of the article is to identify the characteristics of the above-mentioned concept in the Russian-language worldview. The scientific originality of this study lies in the use of Russian-language precedent texts of comic genre to reconstruct the described mental unit. The authors pay special attention to identifying the relationship of conceptual characteristics with social processes and beliefs in Russian society. The results of the study reveal an extensive representation of the concept “cat” in Russian-language precedent texts of the comic genre. It has been established that the concept “cat” is represented in five main aspects: habits and character of cats, people’s attitude to cats, understanding of cats, motives for acquiring cats, reasons for attachment to them. The specific feature of this concept is the presence of antonymous characteristics. The authors explain this peculiarity by the processes of changing values and behavioral norms in Russian culture.