Religious Terminology in Russian Sign Language

The article describes the religious vocabulary in Russian Sign Language (RSL). It shows that the effects of visual modality in sign languages, namely iconicity and the use of space, are clearly expressed in RSL religious terms. There is also a clear tendency to distribute the mechanisms of direct iconic representation, visual metonymy, and metaphor to different subgroups of the lexemes studied. Material objects such as priestly vestments and ecclesiastical paraphernalia are primarily described by direct iconic representation. In contrast, religious rituals, denominations, holidays, and some religious and mythological figures are primarily described by visual metonymy, where a sign is based on an iconic representation of one of its visually perceived attributes. The signs whose meaning is in some way related to the concept of spirituality are mainly based on visual metaphor. The influence of the surrounding Russian spoken language is also clearly felt in the religious vocabulary of the RSL. There are different types of borrowings: fingerspelled lexemes, lexicalized fingerspelled lexemes, initialized signs, and replication. A large number of borrowings can be explained both by the complexity of the meanings expressed and by the constant use of sacred texts written in spoken Russian in this domain. At the same time, the article shows the differences between RSL and spoken Russian in the division of the religious semantic domain. Some terms for which there are several words in spoken Russian, differing in subtle nuances of meaning or contexts of use, are expressed with the same sign in RSL. On the other hand, some meanings in RSL are more differentiated than spoken Russian when a Russian word corresponds to several signs that differ in more subtle nuances of meaning or contexts of use.

Russian Sign Language, religious vocabulary, effects of visual modality, iconicity, metonymy, metaphor, borrowings