Soul in culture and language

Russian language lexicographic studies note the meaning of the word duša having at its foundation the deliberations of a theological, psychological, ethical and philosophical nature as well as expressing common knowledge of the people, their beliefs and superstitions. For this reason the concept being analyzed is strictly connected with culture. The attempt to define the essence of the soul dates back to the Antiquity and is related to the works of such great philosophers as Democritus, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. The first part of the article is dedicated to the presentation of the cultural background referring to the problem of the soul, its place in human consciousness, the soul’s relations with the animal world, beliefs dealing with the position of this immaterial element in the universe. The second part of this study is a linguistic analysis of the Russian idiomatic units with the duša component in the context of the soul dynamism problem and its reference to the aforepresented beliefs