Correlation between religious and military vocabulary in the Armenian text: A quantitative approach

Abstract

The study aims to identify hidden trends and patterns in the distribution of lexical units of two thematic classes – religious and military vocabulary – in the poetic texts of Russian literature dedicated to Armenia. These themes represent important parameters in the Armenian text, they are realised in most works about Armenia and reflect important aspects of its history and culture. The analysis involves poems created in the XIX-XXI centuries. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it examines the issue of the lexical representation of two figurative-thematic parameters within the framework of a quantitative approach, which makes it possible to objectively determine the nature of the coverage of military and religious themes at various stages of the formation and development of the Armenian text. The study of the relations of lexical units in the texts of the works allows the researcher to examine both general trends in the perception of this country in Russian literature and the individual features of the poets’ construction of Armenia’s artistic image. The coefficients of variation, the Busemann coefficient, the estimation of statistical significance (chi-square) and the Euclidean distance are used for quantitative analysis. The results of the analysis made it possible to establish the interrelationships of two important themes for the Armenian text and the dynamics of their changes over time. The strongest changes were observed between the second (pre-revolutionary) and the third (Soviet) periods. A comparative analysis of the works of 8 poets who wrote about Armenia made it possible to classify them and determine differences in the frequency of military and religious vocabulary.