Über einige ethnolinguistische Mythen (am Beispiel des Russischen)

Abstract

The last decade of the 20th century witnessed the resurrection of some ethnolinguistic theories in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Some of them can be traced back to the 19th century in the works of such linguists as W. von Humboldt and A. Schleicher, others seem to have their origin in the studies of A. Wierzbicka and F. Kainz. The authors of these theories tend to criticise Russian mentality reflected in the Russian language as fatalistic, irrational, etc. We will show that they are prone to ignore typological and historical factors that have preordained the structure of the modern Russian.