The paper examines the cognitive characteristics, semantic extension and language explication of the concept «pokayanie» («penitence») according to the data of encyclopedic sources and of the main Russian explanatory and etymological dictionaries. We also consider the problem of peculiarities of language appropriation of the concept «penitence» within the framework of opposition between religious and secular components of the Russian traditional culture as reflected in ordinary consciousness of Russian native speakers. In the functioning of the concept in the national sphere of concepts, the tendency of «concept desacralization» becomes apparent: this tendency is interpreted as stylistic lowering of words that originally expressed high spiritual, religious and moral values. This reflects one general trend to the lowering of the value level of high concepts in the course of their transition from the religious communicative medium to the secular one.
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