Сорока-ворона в детской потешке
A Magpie/a Crow in the Nursery Rhymes

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the analysis conducted in the proposed work was to determine, on the basis of the selected texts, the semantics of the main actor – the magpie, which is characterized in a number of them simultaneously as a magpie/a crow, as well as a magpie/magpie, a magpie/white side, etc. There were used the descriptive and the comparative methods which allowed to present the material in a more objective and comprehensive manner. The article deals with the variants of a well-known nursery rhymes text. The story is about feeding the children with kasha. The text determines not only the role of the magpie but also of other creatures which act in the variant texts: called but usually not arriving, “unusual”, guests and five children (according to the expanded variant). The last of the five doesn’t get the food and the text explains the reason why. The nursery rhyme has educational meaning. The author of the article analyses the roles, the semantics and relations among aforesaid creatures and thus the general syntagmatic model is constructed which was represented by the formula. The comparative material is based on the proverbs, tales, predictions and a fairy-tale. The magpie acts in all of these and the bird has got some determined features. These features are also characterised and described from the point of view the text and they are also compared with the crow. The author concludes what these birds are for the folklore semantics but also as the seen and observed as well as unseen creatures from the beyond.

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