Article

Name: The word “individuality” and peculiarities of its functioning in the mass-media language

Authors: I. A. Ignatov

The Komi Republican Academy of State Service and Administration, Syktyvkar, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper is devoted to the analysis of the semantics of the word “individuality” in modern speech. The research was conducted by analyzing the national newspaper texts (1 060 contexts). The research shows, that at present time the word “individuality” is used primarily in 3 meanings that do not completely coincide with those given in the explanatory dictionaries: 1) the properties and qualities of the individual that distinguish him from the others; 2) the distinctive features of something; 3) a person as the bearer of the distinctive qualities and properties. The most active is the first meaning that involves a number of semantic nuances, distributed over the poles: 1) ‘bright, distinctive traits of a person’ and 2) ‘the unique qualities that make one person unlike another’. In the first case, we are talking about the properties of the outstanding representative of the class of people as a spiritual and ethical ideal of personality. In the second, that is more common, the individuality is the characteristic that creates the difference between anyone and the individuality, thus, it is an attribute inherent in all people. The word “individuality” is used to denote the distinctive features of something: phenomena, process, object, etc. (excluding the man). Naming a person with the unique characteristics and qualities is rare; the word “individuality” is used for denoting any person and is close to the word “individual”. At present, native speakers are redefining the concept “individuality,” and the semantic boundaries of this word in modern word usage are expanding.

Keywords: word semantics, lexical-semantic variants, individuality, metasemy, meaning widening

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