Means of Expressing Dualism in Sermon “Slovo na Novyy God. V Chem Schastye Cheloveka, i Gde Ego Nayti?” [Word for New Year. What is Human Happiness, and Where to Find it?]

Abstract

The present study examines Archbishop Anastasy (Dobradin)’s famous sermon «Слово на Новый годъ. Въ чемъ счастіе человѣка и гдѣ его найти?», dealing with the question of the dual understanding of “happiness” (philosophical, i.e. secular, and religious). Attention is paid to the means of verbalising the concept of happiness in the text under study. The text under analysis is a unique example of the homily, distinguished by its atypical for this genre appeal to a secular element, associated with the preacher’s dual understanding of “happiness”. The article presents the results of the analysis of etymology and development of semantics of the noun счастье. Its lexical compatibility in the text of a sermon is investigated. Full and short forms of adjectives, which serve to express positive and negative connotations, are identified. It has been proved that in the studied homily the preacher attributes the concept of “happiness” not only to the high register but also to the low register, which is related to the two concepts of “happiness” considered by him, reflected also on the graphic level (счастіе, счастье). Particular attention is paid to the most frequent attribute in the sermon, истинный, which has in common with the noun счастье the seme God. The epigraph of the homily, which usually presents the main point of the sermon, does not include the lexeme счастье because the entire sermon is devoted to redefining this concept.