Article

Name: Word-Formative Potential of Polysemic Adjectives in the Sphere of Forming Names of Persons

Authors: Vasilyeva Elena Viktorovna

Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper describes the potential of mental property adjectives used as derivational bases for forming names of persons. An attempt is made to identify the semantic factors that determine participation or non-participation of lexical items of polysemic words in the process of derivation. Analysis is made of dictionary meanings of motivating units and their semantics is specified. Semantic relations are determined between the primary words and the secondary ones (underlying words and derived ones). As a result of the research it is established that the possibility or impossibility of forming nouns from adjectives depends on the character of the feature denoted by the adjective. The constant or temporary character of the feature is a factor that regulates the possibility for the lexemes of a polysemic adjective to function as primary ones for the nouns with the meaning ‘feature bearer (person)’ This factor regulates the derivational behavior not only of different lexemes of the same adjective but also of different adjectives within a separate lexical-semantic group.

Keywords: word-formative potential, semantics of a derived word, lexeme of a polysemic word

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