Article

Name: Literary and dialect variants of the lexical-semantic field of “vred” (harm): comparative aspect

Authors: Liu Yanchun

Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

This paper compares the semantic structure and motivational characteristics of the lexical-semantic field of “vred” (harm) in the literary and dialectal Russian language. The analysis has shown the similarity of the conceptual basis for dividing the field into subfields in the literary language and dialects (“harm to the health of the subject,” “harm to the material condition of the subject,” “harm to the life of the subject and society (in general)”). The comparison of fields in terms of motivation revealed eight motivational models with different lexical representations in the literary language and dialects: three are widely represented in the Russian literary language and dialects, while five are much less productive. Absolute superiority in the quantitative realization of dialects compared with the literary language is observed in the motivational model “vred / vrednyy / vredit’” (harm / harmful / to harm), “a magical action, when the evil eye brings the subject into a painful, unnatural state,” indicating the traces of the pagan (in the form of superstition) worldview of traditional culture bearers. Combining the synchronic approach analysis with the diachronic one allowed revealing the historical depth of the formation of the concept “harm” and definite stability in its modeling since the Proto-Slavonic period. With the historical variation of the conceptual basis for the division of the field into subfields in the literary language and dialects, the similarity identified indicates the general structure of the fragment in question of the linguistic picture of the world in the national consciousness.

Keywords: lexico-semantic field “Harm”, comparative aspect, semantic structure, motivational characteristic

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