The “Us” versus “Them” dichotomy in the linguistic consciousness of the Buryats

The “Us” versus “Them” dichotomy serves as a fundamental, universally recognized category that manifests in various domains of human existence. The study of this category is therefore intrinsically linked to the challenge of mutual understanding, which is an issue of particular contemporary relevance. This article aims to identify the nationally specific linguistic and extralinguistic components that characterize the category under study within Buryat linguoculture. The research methodology incorporates descriptive and comparative methods, an associative experiment, and semantic gestalt analysis. The significance of the dichotomy is demonstrated through an examination of national self-identification, native language knowledge, the role of bilingualism, the “own dialect” versus “other dialect” distinction, and the contrast between the Buryat and Mongolian languages. A concise lexical analysis is conducted focusing on the autostereotype buryad (Buryat) and the associative fields of the adjectives өөryn (one’s own) and khariin (foreign, alien, outsider), offering insights into how native speakers of the Buryat language perceive the dichotomy in question. The findings indicate that in the Buryat linguoculture, the dichotomy possesses certain relatively stable features, both universal and nationally specific. These are associated with stereotypes embedded in the linguistic consciousness through corresponding expressions and words. It can be concluded that for the Buryats the most significant manifestations of the dichotomy are those grounded in kinship, ethnicity, and language

Associative property · Consciousness · Theoretical linguistics · Typology · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity