Numerical code in a ritual riddle (based on the “Rig Veda”)

The ritual riddle is a cultural and linguistic phenomenon of a dialogical nature. The relevance of our research is determined by the importance of studying the early stages of polycode communication in the context of culture. Appealing to the riddle of the mythopoeic age makes it possible to implement the historical and genetic approach and provides a key to understanding the essence of modern phenomena of this kind. The ritual riddle is studied on the basis of the “Rig Veda” hymns, which are a valuable source for exploring this phenomenon. The scientific novelty is determined by the systemic approach to its description. The research uses a set of methods, including discursive, semiotic, linguistic, cognitive, and pragmatic analyses. The purpose of the paper is a holistic description of the ritual riddle, which is studied in the context of the Vedic ritual in three dimensions: culturally semiotic, discursive, and cognitivesemiotic. In the cultural-semiotic aspect, the numerical component of the ritual riddle is considered as additional to the basic (verbal) semiotics. The rules of generating and interpreting meanings within the numerical code of the riddle are revealed in the context of ritual pragmatics. We discuss the semantics of numbers, numerical codes of reality objects, and numerical dynamic models. In the discursive aspect, the riddle is considered as a communicative event, taking into account the pragmatics of the ritual. One of the main strategies of the ritual riddle is its decoding and interpretation management strategy. The numeric code is considered as a means of implementing this strategy. The cognitive-semiotic aspect of the study includes the problem of using the numerical component in the metaphorical understanding of the riddle objects. We also focus on the interaction between various codes within the ritual riddle. The results show that the ritual riddle is a complex integrative cultural and linguistic phenomenon. The meaning of its text is encoded by means of several semiotic systems. The numerical code in a ritual riddle has a number of important functions. To understand them, the integrated approach to its consideration is used, taking into account extralinguistic factors in the context of culture and the general pragmatics of the mythopoeic age ritual discourse.

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