LEXICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT “CUNNING” IN RUSSIAN, BELARUSIAN AND CZECH FAIRY-TALE DISCOURSE (BASED ON RUSSIAN AND BELARUSIAN FAIRY TALES “MASHA AND THE BEAR” AND CZECH FAIRY TALE “VODNÍK”)

The article is devoted to the analysis of the lexical representation of the concept “cunning” in the Russian fairy tale “Masha and the Bear”, in the Belarusian fairy tale of the same name and in the Czech fairy tale “Vodník” for the purpose of finding universal and idioethnic features in Russian, Belarusian and Czech linguistic cultures. Descriptive and comparative methods were used in the article. The concept “cunning” has a special place in the fairy-tale discourse. The study revealed the following peculiarity: the lexical representation of the concept “cunning” in Russian and Czech fairy tales is more pronounced than in the case with the similar concept in the Belarusian fairy tale. In addition, the concept “kindness” takes the place of the concept “cunning” in the Belarusian variant of the fairy tale. This difference is confirmed at lexical and plot levels of fairy tales. Another difference should be considered the fact that the antagonist in the Russian and Belarusian fairy tales is the bear, and in the Czech fairy tale it is the vodník, while both the bear and the vodník are ambivalent characters. The similarities between three fairy tales included the importance of the concept “cunning” for three linguistic cultures, the important role of initiation, and the anthropomorphism of the antagonists.