Semiotic pattern and functions of omens with the cultural exponents of ‘border’

Abstract

Those superstitions, which are directly connected with the ceremony of transition, remain the least studied in terms of Semiotics and functioning. The article defines a semiotic model of such superstitions and their main functions, which represent the cognitive structure of superstitious mind. The contrastive analyses based on the data of three languages — English, Russian and French — shows that the majority of such superstitions that are formed according to the same semiotic pattern ‘border — positive or negative prediction’. Some omens demonstrate the combination of semiotic models; still all of them fulfil five main functions: apotropaic, assisting, attractive, producing and destructive