GORDOST’ ‘PRIDE’ IN THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND RUSSIAN CULTURE: FROM THE STRONGHOLD OF DEMONS TO SELF-RESPECT

 This paper studies the evolving meaning of some Russian linguistic expressions referring to the notion of ‘pride’ as well as the relation of these expressions to certain shifts in the Russian linguistic worldview. For a long time, the Russian linguistic model of the world conceptualized ‘pride’ as arrogance, that is, an unduly high opinion of oneself and haughty behavior resulting from this. That conceptualization had been shaped by the traditional Christian ethos, which treated ‘pride’ as the first of the grievous sins, the lack of humility befitting a creature of God. As a result of secularization and the rethinking of the traditional view, ‘pride’ came to refer to feeling something good because you or people connected with you have done or got something good. With reference to the general attitude of a person, it came to be interpreted as self-respect, that is, a knowledge of one’s own true worth and character, preventing one from doing anything base or mean.