In our research, we introduce the working concept of "nominative dissonance," which we understand as a persistent, reproducible inconsistency in how the bride names herself and her groom from text to text, the proximity of two opposing nominations within a single statement, as well as a broader range of phenomena where nomination contradicts the actual position of the subject in the ritual (for example, the persistent self-designation "maiden" while actually distinguishing oneself as a bride from the community of maidens). The subject of the study is nominative dissonance in the wedding laments of Pinezhye, that is, the nominative shift in how the bride names herself and her groom. We analyze how this nominative dissonance functions as a lexical mechanism of the rite of passage, facilitating the change of the bride's social status on psychological, cognitive, and linguistic levels. The methodological basis of the study consists of the performative approach to ritual language in the concept of S. B. Adonyeva, the three-part model of the rite of passage by A. van Gennep, and the typology of wedding laments by B. B. Efimenko. Research methods include contextual analysis (when interpreting connotative meanings in the ritual context) and pragmatic linguistic analysis (when identifying the performative function of the lexicon). The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, the mechanism of the impact of ritual speech on the identity of the participants in the rite of passage has been systematically described (based on the material of wedding laments from Pinezhye). The analysis conducted allows us to formulate the following conclusions. First, this nominative dissonance is not accidental; it serves as a linguistic marker of the liminal state. Second, nominative dissonance is embedded in the very genre specificity of the lament, rather than being a simple result of the bride's individual improvisation. It is this internally inherent mechanism of changing nominations that plays a key role: it helps the bride to symbolically separate from her previous status and gradually accept the new one. Third, the wedding lament as a genre serves a dual function. On the one hand, it provides the bride with a legitimate channel for expressing emotional pain and fear of the unknown (psychological relief). On the other hand, through fixed nominative dissonances, it exerts cognitive influence on the bride-performer herself, helping her to accept her new status and bid farewell to the old one.
Wang Luolan (Mon,) studied this question.