‘Lightning’ and ‘Thunder’ Stones in Traditional Culture of Perm Krai

The article deals with the vocabulary and texts devoted to the so-called ‘thunder’ and ‘lightning’ stones that Perm Krai residents use in magical practices. Study of the ‘stone’ semantics of the nominative combination thunderbolt, which is most often used to refer to such a stone, has led us to the conclusion that the meaning of the lexical unit developed as a result of metonymic transfer of the name from an atmospheric phenomenon (lightning) to an object that was struck by lightning (stone). The mythologization of thunderstorms, thunder and lightning provided understanding of the stone thunderbolt as something possessing supernatural properties. The context analysis of the records of dialect speech that were made in rural areas of Perm Krai allowed us to identify several groups of meanings for the composite categories considered in the article (thunder stone, lightning stone, thunderbolt, lightning bolt). This identification is based on the presence / absence of semantic cohesion of these units with meteorological phenomena: a stone that is sand fused from a lightning strike – fulgurite; a stone that was struck by lightning; a dark red or brown stone; a smooth rounded stone; a conical stone representing the fossilized remains of extinct cephalopods – belemnite; a piece of exotic wood; a piece of metal elongated in shape. According to the records of the Russian dialectic speech of Perm Krai, these stones can be used for different purposes. First of all, they are used in folk medicine (for the treatment of people and livestock), they can be used by shepherds for apotropaic purposes (to protect livestock from predatory animals). According to the data from other territories, a thunderbolt can be used for producing purposes

Archaeology · Geography · Meteorology · Thunder · Thunderstorm · Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution