The National Corpus of the Russian Language as a Tool for Comparative Analysis of the Megaconcept “Woman” in the Poetry of A. Akhmatova and M. Tsvetaeva
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2026-6-55-64
The study addresses the empirical verification of cognitive structures in poetic discourse, aiming to overcome the subjectivity of intuitive interpretations in idiostyle analysis. The relevance of the work lies in the insufficient elaboration of the mega-concept in linguistics, the potential of the Russian National Corpus (RNC) as a tool for obtaining objective quantitative data, and the significance of comparative research on Silver Age poetry. The goal is to identify and compare the linguistic representation of the mega-concept “Woman” in the idiostyles of Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva using RNC data. The mega-concept is treated as a multidimensional mental construct reflecting the linguocultural trend of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The study employs corpus-based, comparative, and contextual methods, with Jung’s archetype theory as its theoretical framework. Analysis of the Poetic Subcorpus (1900–1970) and the Main Subcorpus (1714–2021) shows that Tsvetaeva uses the lexeme “woman” almost 3.5 times more frequently than Akhmatova. Two strategies of archetype representation are identified: extensive (Tsvetaeva) and intensive (Akhmatova). The archetypes of Victim and Citizen are expressed implicitly. The findings contribute to the methodology of conceptual analysis in literary texts using corpus linguistics and communicative stylistics.
Keywords: megaconcept “Woman”, National Corpus of the Russian Language, comparative analysis, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, communicative stylistics of the text
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Issue: 6, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
Pages: 55 — 64
Downloads: 1