Representation of SIBERIA Linguocultural Concept in the English Fiction of the 18th – early 20th Centuries

The article describes and systematizes the constants and cultural codes of SIBERIA, a linguocultural concept, through the case of British and American linguistic cultures. Mythologization of SIBERIA, built on the «friendorfoe» dualism, reveals similarities with the mythologeme of the «World Tree» (an inner cultural space of the people’s cosmic world of firmness, desire to build the «middle world», opposite to the «lower world» of nature, vast territories, extreme cold, giantism, and terrifying social conditions). The permanent and variable elements of SIBERIA, represented in the artistic discourse, are considered; the explication found in some English works of the 18th – 20th centuries are investigated for their frequency and, further, classified.


Introduction
Concept analysis is one of the most widely used research methods, but still one of the most disputable. Major concepts can be a focus of cultural linguistics and cognitive semantics, as well.
The cultural linguistics was famously proposed by Wilhelm von Humboldt in his language philosophies: the idea of languagespeakers «inseparability» grounded the science. In modern times, Anna Wierzbicka, S. G. Vorkachyov, V. V. Vorobyov, V. I. Karasik and other linguists continue to analyse physical and spiritual uniqueness of peoples through the language they use.
C u lt u r al li ng u ist ics is com mon ly compared to cognitive semantics. In that way, S. G. Vorkachyov concludes that the concept analysis in linguoculturology has little difference from the one of cognitive semantics: they coincide in targets (typologizing and modelling representations), in study objects determination and research methods. Still, cognitive linguistics goes beyond the national conceptional framework to the universal sphere -and here is the difference, since such studies are focused on general laws of concepts creation (Vorkachyov, 2003). This science investigates the whole body of grammar and lexis that can be described by the terms coined for knowledge representation (frames, scenarios, etc.) (Baranov, 1997: 14). Linguaculturology, in turn, concerns culturebound items, and the studies aim at description and classification of the marks that distinguish certain cultural items. Cognitive studies are likely to be of a semasiological nature (sense -> language, concept -> representations), while linguaculturology researches are onomasiological (concept naming -> possible cultural meanings).
This article represents an attempt to integrate these approaches and analyse concept SIBERIA (further referred as SIBERIA), which, on the one hand, is very nation-bound, but on the other -bears certain interest for the list of world concepts. Here, SIBERIA is considered as a part of mythological, daily, and artistic worldviews, and deeper reflected on its description in the English literature of the 18 th -20 th centuries.
Conventionally belonging to logics and philosophy, «concept» has drawn linguistic interest as another way to understand complex language -cognition relationships. Owing to its cross-disciplinarity, the term has contributed to exceed the scope of linguistics, through covering the fields of cognitive psychology and linguistics, linguoculturology, philosophy, logics, semiotics, literature studies, etc. (Vorkachyov, 2003). Its capacity is mainly bound to a term system where it operates: in philosophy and classical logic, «concept», «meaning», «essence» are basically synonyms. Concept is defined as the meaning of a name, comprehension, while its extension is the denotata (Vrazhnova, 2004: 12). As for semiotics, concept means what information a sign expresses, what it denotes, and thus, becomes a part of «signconcept -denotate» triangle (ibid: 14).
The volume of «concept» is interpreted assuming the entity it equates. Some consider concept as a representation (Askoldov, 1997, Babushkin, 2001, others -as a notion (Stepanov, 1997, Zusman, 2003, or a certain attribute of mentality (Kubryakova, 1996). Anna Wierzbicka supports the same idea by naming concepts «the objects of «Ideal», which reflect culturally determined beliefs about the real world» (Wierzbicka, 2001).
Concept is a complex mental entity which involves different aspects of peoples' knowledge and experience. In that manner, S. Kh. Lyalin assumes that a «discreet integrity» is determined by a notion, an image, and an action (Lyalin, 1997: 18). Yu. S. Stepanov points out a «notional side» and «everything that makes it a cultural element» (Stepanov, 1997: 41). M. V. Nikitin notes that any concept is a mix of «two correlating elements, i. e. cognitive and pragmatic» (Nikitin, 2004: 54). V. I. Karasik and G. G. Slyshkin describe «an image -notion -value structure where the last component is dominating» (Karasik, 2002;Slyshkin, 2000). In (Vorkachyov, 2003), concept contains three different sides: notional (including definitions, implications, definition excessive features, etc.), image-bearing («association set expressed in metaphoric connotations, or precedents»), and meaningful (linked to verbalization, and to its lexical status) (Vorkachyov, 2003). According to V. V. Kolesov, concept's content has notional, imaginative, and symbolic elements: a) image bears a «psychological base» for the sign, b) notion expresses cognitive logic, and c) symbol reveals «general cultural component which determines the conscious mental field» (Kolesov, 2002: 42).
Concept may also be regarded as a field unit with its core and peripheral features. I. A. Sternin says that a concept has its core made of a basic (intangible) image, and extra conceptual characteristics which belong to the close, far, and extreme peripheries: the first is metaphorically called «a fruit pit», since it makes the concept function as a cogitative unit, and the last one -«a fruit pulp» (Sternin, 2001: 58-59); in (Popova, 2005: 15-16), periphery is a poorly structured interpretation field. V. I. Karasik, and G. G. Slyshkin propose the idea that a concept is made of the «valuecentered» points of consciousness and association vectors: the core is shaped by the items most relevant in the society, and the periphery -by the less actual ones (Karasik, 2001: 77). N. N. Boldyrev describes the concept's structure regarding its formation and maturity, and, thus, compares it with a «running snowball» which, cycle by cycle, acquires new layers (Boldyrev, 2002: 29-30).
By acquiring new features, the concept falls under mythologization, and, thus, becomes a mythologeme. A mythologeme can be formed by abductive thinking, i. e. based on analogies, on allied or neighbour characteristics that would assemble different phenomena. A multifunctional nature of myths turns them into a source for universal historical and artistic material applicable for investigating the world, or a tool aimed at perception and modelling-based reality interpretation. A myth joins sound conflicts and crises, fails and successes, losses and achievements happened to whole nations. The long life of mythological plots allows speaking of mythologemes bound to the peoples' «historical memory». Basically, a mythologeme is expressed by mythological toponyms or anthroponyms. Conceptualization of Siberia both in the modern minds and in the arts belonging to the cultural heritage reveals the nature of mythologization.
In this article conceptual modelling, which includes definitional analysis, component analysis, contextual analysis, and concept explicates calculation, is used.

Image of Siberia in Science and
Journalistic Reports. The first time the Britishers paid their attention to Siberia was long before the official Siberia-to-Russia annexation, back to 1581. The British were especially interested in the sea route to Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen, and Siberian Land opened in the 11 th century by the Pomors (Russian ethnos). In the 16 th and early 17 th centuries, the English sailors were trying to conquer the Northern Sea route: G. Willoughby, R. Chancellor and Durfoorth (1553), S. Borough (1556), A. Pet and C. Jackman (1580), G. Hudson (1608, 1609), W. Gordon (1611) (Scheglov, 1883;Purchas, 2014). At that period British merchants were exploring Western Siberia, pursuing the idea of «free trade with India and China, along the Ob» (Scheglov, 1883: 71-72). Having quite a choppy knowledge of Siberian life, the 15 th -17 th centuries travelers did not care about detailed chronicles, sometimes quite randomly fixing everything that they saw or heard. The European researchers of the 18 th century represented Siberia differently, both in the amount of works and their quality: «they are scientifically more fundamental and profound and correspond to the natural sciences of the Enlightenment», they have less «legends», and more facts and consistency, as (Zinner, 1968: 5-6) (Beloglazova, 2020(Beloglazova, : 1903. In the 19th century, the Great Britain and the United States were interested in Siberia, as far it became a part of the global trade and economic network created through the Trans-Siberian Railway. That enabled to picture Siberia in numerous guides and references, scientific and journalistic papers, periodicals, as well as in private documents (travel notes, memoirs, personal correspondence). As A. I. Zashikhin writes, among the H. Nerhuda Bibliographic Index 161 book titles about Russia published in 1856-1916, the «British Siberian Series» is of a special pride (Zashikhin, 1994). That time, the English researchers were focused on the scope of Siberian life: engineers (R. Adams, M. Bell, I. Cole, R. Jefferson, L. Bates) were interested in mineral deposits, technical capacity of mining enterprises, gold mining management, railways construction; economists (D. Frazer, L. Lewery, D. Mavor, C. Aulagnon, W. Morfill) investigated the forest sector and agriculture, manufacturing, transport, trade, communications; journalists and political reviewers (G. Reed, M. Baring, G. Norman, E. Dillon, F. McCarthy, D. Ralph, P. Foster, Ch. Wenning, F. Moore, J. Kennan) considered Russia's expansion to the East, alongside with the problems of regional policy and social development; historians and diplomats (G. Lensdell, H. de Windt, E. Grosvenor, S. Turner, A. Beveridge, G. Pierce) analysed the birth of Siberian society, its culture and education; travellers (F. Spencer, D. Bassett, M. Chaplikki, D. Price, E. Walter) concerned the climate, natural resources, flora and fauna diversity, local customs and traditions, life of minorities; missionaries (K. Marsden) were interested in the life of exiles and lepers (Ananiev, 2019;Volgin, 2003;Goryushkin, Sagaidachniy, 1983;Marsden, 1892). While the science, made up of reports in reliable sources, conveyed an expertise on problems and differed in backgrounds and complexity, the texts of most travellers «are completely wrench», and the assessments are «pronouncedly subjective» and marked by «the stamp of ethnocentrism and prejudice» (Volgin, 2003: 8-10).
The formation of Siberia's image in the English-speaking world has suffered significant transformations and was influenced by the participants of its reclaiming and their desires. Thus, in the early stages, the core of the myth about Siberia, similarly to the myth about Russia (Korolyova, 2014: 8), is centred on a vast, ungraspable space. This space is remoted somewhere, where the Earth ends; it is inaccessible, underdeveloped, unexplored (terra incognita), and characterized by harsh climatic conditions (a frozen land, a sunless country); and local exotic life attracts and frightens at the same time.
As far as the Russian Empire was exploring the area and expanding it with new regions, the West regarded Siberia as an Asian colony, as Asian (Eastern) Russia, or as the Russian «Wild East» (similar to the American «Wild West»). The British perceived Siberia as a part of the «Russian World», but very extreme one, remoted from its centre; as a place where, on the one hand, one can escape from a tyrant tsar, or the autocratic regime and live by independently, and, on the other, -a place where politically unwelcomed people were sent.
The way of perceiving Siberia as a place of exile, deportation, prisons, and hard labour was determined by real historical conditions. In 1599, Boris Godunov exiled Fyodor Romanov's brothers to Siberia; in the 17 th century, Siberia was a settlement and katorga (forced labour) for state criminals, even foreigners who lived at the tsar's court, later war captures, just criminals (Scheglov, 1883). In the 19 th century, many political prisoners were sent to Siberia, and, by 1899, the exiles and their families made up 1/6 of Siberia's population (Salnikova,211: 171). The English researches are deeply interested in the life of transported criminals, regarding them as a very specific stratum of Siberian society. While some authors (J. Kennan, F. Wright, G. Norman) believed that «the number of criminal exiles in Siberia is exceed-ed and negatively affects its social life», giving Siberia a «bad reputation», the others (A. Beveridge, J. Goodrich, H. Pierce, L. Bates) noted that «the exile contributed to Siberia's colonization by involving people into economy» and stimulated its development (Volgin, 2003;Dahlmann, 2009).
A seismic moment for Siberia's image was the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway: a regular railway service made travellers, specialists and scientists rush to Siberia. Thus, in the eyes of the Western world, Siberia gradually transformed from an agrarian region, inhabited by indigenous minorities and exiles, into a prospering industrial and economic zone, into a «land of promise», and the Trans-Siberian Railway became a key to its natural resources, a bridge between Russia and China, Europe, and Asia. British and American researchers and travellers were especially interested in the structure of Siberian society, but not only and not so much in transported criminals (exile to Siberia was abolished on June 12, 1900), but also in the socio-economic development, interaction between different social categories (peasants, Cossacks, merchants, industrialists, and government officials), in languages and cultures interpenetration, customs and morals, traditions and beliefs of the Russians and indigenous peoples of Siberia.
Thus, in the British mind, the image of Siberia has been drastically changing throughout the whole history. The real political, socioeconomic, and cultural-historical facts have made the Western researchers mythologize and mystify Siberia, leaning either towards the myth of the Promised Land, or (more often) to the myth of a disastrous space. Also noteworthy is describing Siberia as a rather homogeneous space, which somewhat contradicts the idea of an infinite space, which requires at least climatic and cultural differences between the regions, as well as similarity in the myth of Siberia and a general myth about the Russian culture.
Representing SIBERIA in the English literature of the 18 th -early 20 th centuries. In English, SIBERIA is represented by a basic lexical unit -Siberia (noun). There is a need to analyze its meaning and stem words to reveal the original cognitive features of SIBERIA. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says: Siberia. The name of a region of the U.S.S.R. in Asia used as a type of a cold, inhospitable place, or a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment. Also fig. (OED, 1989: 405). Siberian (adj., the same source) means «Of or belonging to, characteristic of Siberia» and is followed by such examples: A) 1789 G. White Selborne cvi, The writer … thinks he never before or since has encountered such rugged, Siberian weather. B) 1802 Pinkerton Mod. Georg. I. 317 Russia exchanges her precious Siberian furs for tea, silk, and nankeen (OED, 1989: 406).
The stem noun Siberian (sb.) -a native of Siberia (OED, 1989: 406) -is exemplified by three examples, only one of which has emotional colour: 1782 J. Brown Compend. View Religion I. ii. 35 The Siberians … cast their newly born infants into rivers (OED, 1989: 406). Obviously, this sentence has negative connotations: it points out cruelty of Siberian people.
Leaning on the description of Siberia, Siberian, Siberianize in the OED and the examples taken from the English literature, one can summarize the main cognitive features of SIBERIA as follows: 1)aregionoftheU.S.S.R.(inthe18 th century-thebeginningofthe20 th century -a re-gionofRussia)inAsia; 2)acoldplace; 3)aninhospitableplace; 4)aplaceofexile,banishment,orimprisonment; 5)cruelpeople; 6)preciousfurs. These cognitive features can also be found in the 18 th -early 20 th English fiction, where Siberia is mentioned. To sample, D. Defoe's novel The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, first published in 1719, tells the readers about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe in Madagascar, Southeast Asia, China, etc. As his way home lies through Russia, namely, through Siberia, Chapters XIV-$5VI describe this part of his trip.
As the lexicographical analysis has revealed, «a cold place» and «an inhospitable place» are among the main cognitive features of SIBERIA. They are introduced in D. Defoe's novel through the description of nature and landscapes where Robinson Crusoe travels, as well as the weather conditions, etc.
The first thing that grabs his attention is a vast Siberian territory, and its savagery: «… we entered the wilder part of the country …»; «In passing this frightful wilderness …»; «We now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth that is to be found in any part of the world …» (Defoe, 1719). Interestingly, great (adj) occurs 43 times in Chapters XIV-$5VI; the stem words emphasizing the uninhabited territorywild, wilder, wildest, wilderness -6 times; adjectives characterizing the distance from «civilized Europe» remote (-st) -4 times. Siberia is so distant from the capital that it is easier to leave it uninhabited, than to try to settle in and protect: «… the Muscovites having abandoned that part of the country … being so very remote, and so difficult to send troops thither for its defense …» (Defoe, 1719).
The author describes everything in Siberia as something magnificent, huge, deserted and frightening: «After this we passed several great rivers, and two dreadful deserts; one of which we were sixteen days passing over…»; «…we enter the Muscovite dominions, … a continued desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over»; «We had entered a vast desert, and had passed by a great lake called Schanks Oser…»; «From this city we had a frightful desert, which held us twenty-three days' march»; «… half of it being another desert, which took us up twelve days' severe traveling, without house or tree …» (Defoe, 1719). The occurrence of desert (noun) for 23 times (in the studied part) emphasizes the desolation of Siberia; adjectives dreadful and frightful, which express Crusoe's gloomy mood created by that journey, are met 2 times each; severe traveling and such words as danger / dangerous / dangers (8) speak of the obstacles and trials that wait a traveler crossing Siberia around the corner.
As known, Siberia is a place with severe climate, so in most fragments of the novel, there were winter (13), north (7), cold (6), dark (6), snow (5), frozen (3). Moreover, the chapters have a bright description of the most harsh weather conditions in which people have to survive: «I had been here eight months, and a dark, dreadful winter I thought it; the cold so intense that I could not so much as look abroad without being wrapped in furs, and a kind of mask of fur before my face, with only a hole for breath,andtwoforsight:thelittledaylightwe hadwasforthreemonthsnotabovefivehoursa day…» (Defoe, 1719). The whole-winter frosts are seen as: «extremity of cold», «the cold so intense», «the weather was extremely cold».
Apart from the terrible weather conditions, the novel explicates another cognitive feature of SIBERIA -«an inhospitable place», and among the factors that damage the perception of Siberia there is «cruel people» -when describing the tribes of pagan barbarians wandering in Siberia and robbing travelers: «Tartars, who rob in great armies …»; «As it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against them, as against armies of robbers …»; «… sable-hunters, who are all Tartars of Mogul Tartary … and they frequently attack small caravans…» (Defoe, 1719). The barbarians' attacks on the caravans were so much important for the plot, that the author named one of the chapters on Robinson Crusoe's journey through Siberia as «Attacked by Tartars» (Chapter XIV). The high frequency of these barbarian tribes also emphasizes their role in D. Defoe's ideas about Siberia: Tartars (39), Tartar (9), Tartary (3), Tartarian (1), pagans / paganism / pagan (9), barbarous (4), barbarians (1), barbarity (1), Mogul Tartars / Tartary (5),theTonguses/tonguse(3), Kalmuck (2). Thus, the most often used nomination is Tatars, but, as the author admits, there are also other ethnic communities among the Siberian nomads. The most widely used characteristics of the barbarians attacking the caravans in Siberia are miscreant(-s)(3), cowards (2), harm (2), hunters (2), horde / hordes (2), murdered (1), robbers / rob / robbed (4), that is bringing to picture them villains, robbers, and murderers.
For Defoe, another distinguishing characteristics of these people was heathenry, which he concerned to be an absolutely negative side: «… the people, given up to strong delusions, worship the devil, and prostrate themselves to monsters, elements, horrid-shaped animals, and monstrous images»; «… The inhabitants were mere pagans, sacrificing to idols, and worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, except only that they did noteatmen'sflesh» (Defoe, 1719). The author believed that their customs are so terrible that they are not far from cannibalism.
The figures above demonstrate that when picturing the barbarians' life and customs, Defoe was particularly focused on their idolatry, which provoked negative feelings: the author calls their idol a «scarecrow» and says about their devil worship. Worth noting is the role of fire: on the one hand, fire is involved in barbaric rituals, and on the other, it becomes a thing, which helps the travelers to burn the idol and, thus, to cleanse the world.
Moreover, the lexis expressing the features of barbarian tribes are in negative colours that, in turn, represents the author's negative attitude towards these people. Their life is described in such a way as to highlight weak civilization in their settlements and to present them as impolite people, being unfamiliar to the Christian world: «… for rudeness of manners and idolatry no people in the world ever went beyond them. They are all clothed in skins of beasts, and their houses are built of the same; you know not a man from a woman, neither by the ruggedness of their countenances nor their clothes; and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they live underground in vaults, which have cavities going from one to another. … these had idols in every hut and every cave»; «The people are mostly pagans; their houses and towns full of idols; and their way of living wholly barbarous …» (Defoe, 1719). Any clash with these people is fraught with property losses, or even could one's lives: «… we must have been plundered and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of thieves …» (Defoe,1719).
Regarding these nominations and their frequency, the military, weapons, and actions aimed at defending and ordering, as well as positive lexis outlining the essence of governmental army in the novel, means that D. Defoe generally accepts the Russian policy and its presence in Siberia. By that, he stresses the role of the tsar and his army for peacekeeping in this area: «…abundanceoffinethingsofthe greatness, the magnificence, the dominions, and the absolute power of the Emperor of the Russians» (Defoe, 1719). The Tsar's concern about his subjects, his willingness to increase their living standards to normal even in the harsh climate of Siberia are seen in sophisticated dwelling layouts and interiors, in the towns built by the Russian ruler: «It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close, the walls thick, the windows small, and the glass all double» (Defoe, 1719). Thus, the role of the Russian tsar for Siberian settlements may well be interpreted as another representation of SIBERIA concept, i. e. a feature called «a region of Russia in Asia».
Following the lexicographical data, another cognitive feature of SIBERIA, is «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment». In The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe this feature is quite explicit and detailed: «… for this is the country I mean on both sides the riverObywhithertheMuscovitecriminalsthat are not put to death are banished, and from whence it is next to impossible they should ever get away»; «… they were in a prison every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the castle at Moscow…» (Defoe, 1719). Thus, as Defoe notes, despite a freedom to move around the settlements, the exiles have no possibility to escape, and, thus, they are equal to prisoners. At the same time, thanks to the exiles, some Siberian settlements made a good impression by their educated communities: «But this being the country where the state criminals of Muscovy … are all banished, the city was full of Russian noblemen, gentlemen, soldiers, and courtiers»; «… at Tobolski, in Siberia … where I was sure of … excellent company» (Defoe, 1719). Interestingly, political exiles are described only as noble, educated, kind people with high morals. So, for example, when Robinson Crusoe suggests escaping, one noble man, a friend of his, refuses, preferring to remain an honest man: «… I decline it, … you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man» (Defoe, 1719).
It seems clear, that when depicting the exiles, the author uses mostly positive words, telling the reader about people's nobility and high blood. Criminals (noun), which conventionally conveys negative connotations, in this novel loses them and operates as an official term denoting people who have committed certain violations of the law -insignificant and in no way diminishing their high impression and good appearance. Thus, the cognitive feature of SIBERIA «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment» reveals as «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment for noblemen / gentlemen».
Considering the data in OED (one of the most authoritative English explanatory dictionaries), one has found that SIBERIA can also be characterized through «precious furs». In The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, it has less intensive representation than all the cognitive features described above. Thus, the novel introduces the following words: fur(-s) (6), sables / sable (5), black fox-skins (1), fine ermines (1). For example, Robinson Crusoe mentions that he bought precious furs in the Siberian city of Tobolski for the onward selling in Europe: «I had bought a considerable quantityofsables,blackfox-skins,fineermines,and such other furs as are very rich in that city» (Defoe, 1719).
Taking into account all of the above, it can be argued that in The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by D. Defoe the main cognitive features of SIBERIA concept can be classified with a certain degree of specifics: 1. «A region of Russia in Asia» has a double explication: by geographical names and through the role of government and power of the Russian tsar in Siberia.
2. «A cold place» is verbalized through the lexis, which means «extreme cold» that covers Siberia in winter.
3. «An inhospitable place» is represented, first, through the depiction of vast and desert-ed territories, frightening with their scale and desolation. In Chapters XIV-$5VI (a story of Robinson Crusoe's journey across Siberia), the most frequently used lexical unit is great (adj), which occurs 43 times. All this suggests that in D. Defoe's work «an inhospitable place» cognitive feature is transformed into a rather negative and frightening attribute -«great dangerous wilderness».
4. «A place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment» takes on more noble colours, i. e. «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment for noblemen / gentlemen», since the exiles are pictured there as noble people with high morals.
5. «Cruel people» is realized when describing the wild tribes of heathen barbarians inhabiting Siberia. They worship idols, rob, and kill travellers; they also have barbaric traditions and customs. In that way, this cognitive feature is transformed and extended to a «cruel people: paganism and barbarity».
6. There is also a place for «precious furs» in this novel.
Apart from the novel considered above, representation of SIBERIA can be found in a few other English literature works of the 18 thearly 20 th . However, they represent not all the cognitive features of the concept -one or two, that are essential and required by the context where Siberia is mentioned. For example, in Jane Eyre one can find such cognitive features as «a cold place» and «an inhospitable place»: «… the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with» the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space -that reservoiroffrostandsnow,wherefirmfieldsof ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigors of extreme cold … death white realms …» (Bronte, 1847).
In Under Western Eyes, the author emphasizes the feature called «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment»: «To mention him at all would mean imprisonment for the «bright soul», «… a journey to Siberia in chains»; «Nobody could doubt that he had wandered in Siberian forests, naked and girt with a chain» (Conrad, 1911). This cognitive feature is represented together with «an inhospitable place», since in the novel Siberia is shown as a death trap, where a person, especially a criminal, has no chance to survive: «The poor creature had come out to the mines to join one of his fellow convicts … But she arrived too late. Her lover had died only a week before» (Conrad, 1911). Thus, the cognitive feature «an inhospitable place» in this case takes darker colours associated with death -«a death trap».
In The Three Brides, Siberia is also a place of exile, «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment»: «…hereIfindmyselfmiles' no, leagues further off banished to Siberia» (Yonge, 1876). However, unlike Joseph Conrad, Charlotte Mary Yonge does not write that the heroine will die in Siberia but shows how far Siberia is from her first resident place.
In The Lost Poacher, the characters perceive Siberia as a terrible place of exile, where the criminals and violators are forced to work on salt-mines or quicksilver mines, where they fall ill and die in a terrible agony, and none of their relatives will ever know where and how they died: they are buried alive in Siberia. The sailors even say that even death is less horrible than being exiled to Siberia: «In you go, Siberia and the salt-mines … Never a word will get backtotheStates…Deadtotheworldandkith and kin, though you live fifty years»; «You'd rather be dead than go to Siberia», «They put you into the salt-mines and work you till you die. Never see daylight again … And if they send you to the quicksilver mines you get salivated. I'd rather be hung than salivated … the quicksilver gets into your blood … And your gums all swell like you had the scurvy, only worse, and your teeth get loose in your jaws. And big ulcers form, and then you die horrible. The strongest man can't last long a-mining quicksilver»; «… imprisonment in Siberia a living death …» (London, 1900). Besides, the stories about a painful death in exile in Siberia are so much hair-raising, that, against Under Western Eyes, and The Lost Poacher, a combination of such cognitive features of SIBERIA as «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment» and «an inhospitable place» becomes even more heavy and expresses thoughts of imminent death, «a death trap». There is also «a region of Russia in Asia» cognitive feature, since the schooner's team violated the Russian borders, entered its water territories, and thus, must be punished in Siberia.
Mark Twain is another author who suggested an image of exile place for Siberia, from where the criminals and convicted cannot return alive: «Ten years in Siberia for being in Russia without a passport»; «In a few hours I shall be one of a nameless horde plodding the snowy solitudes of Russia, under the lash, and bound for that land of mystery and misery and termless oblivion, Siberia! I shall not live to see it; my heart is broken and I shall die»; «Siberia hung over him black and threatening …»; «… home and liberty or Siberia and death …» (Twain, 1902). In this work, such cognitive features as «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment» and «a region of Russia in Asia» are explicated, alongside with some minor signs of «a cold place» and «an inhospitable place».
Thus, the most «value-accentuated points» of SIBERIA in the English minds and associations diverging from them represent Siberia as an inhospitable, harsh, sometimes cruel space inhabited mostly by «strangers». Referring to the «World Tree» mythologeme, where the inner «in-closed» cultural space belongs to people, the higher sphere is «designed» for the gods, and the lower one is a dwelling place of dark forces, it is the last space where the English authors mostly «localize» their ideas about Siberia. At the same time, the works also introduce the people of the «middle» worldwith outstanding intellect and high morals.

Conclusion
The research and analysis have demonstrated that the linguocultural concept SIBE-RIA in the English literature of the 18 th -early 20 th centuries is revealed as, first, «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment», «a region of Russia in Asia», «an inhospitable place», «a cold place» -which are an essential part of its meaning. In the novels, Siberia have so many horrible characteristics that further combination of the cognitive features results in «a deathtrap». Thus, these features are the core, while the periphery are «cruel people», «precious furs», as well as the alternatives: «great dangerous wilderness», «a place of exile, banishment, or imprisonment for noblemen / gentlemen», «cruel people: paganism and barbarity».
SIBERIA concept can also be represented as a mythologeme. As a result of mythologization, grounded in the «friend -foe» dualism, this concept bears a resemblance to the «World Tree». The settlements of political exiles located in Siberia -noble people with high moralsrepresent some covered cultural space of the cosmic world of people who have a power of fortitude, a desire to build the «middle world», opposite to the «lower world» of Siberia's nature. The last, as known, is a world of huge, frightening spaces, extreme cold, darkness, giantism, destructive social conditions that doom a person to a painful death.
Like the «World Tree», which brings together all spheres of the universe, the image of Siberia unites the four elements: a vast Siberian territory is the earth which is a part and parcel of the air filling its space; the magnificent Siberian rivers and lakes, ice and snow mean water; peoples inhabiting Siberia cannot live without fire that warms and protects them, and often becomes a tool that cleans the world of filth.
Key differences can be found in the interpretation field, in the value-based component of SIBERIA. The contemporary mind actualizes rather positive characteristics of the associative field, while the English authors considered in this study were focused on the negative ones only.