Lexico-grammatical characteristics and features of the functioning of reduplicated nouns in modern Russian

Abstract

Reduplicated nouns such as krasota-krasota, mama-mama, and others, have been widely used in modern colloquial speech and attracted the interest of Russian and foreign linguists. This paper identifies how the functioning of these words depends on their relation to the lexico- grammatical classes and thematic groups. The characteristics underlying the peculiar seman- tics of all reduplicated nouns are specified: the comparison of several objects, with one of them fully expressing an individual / general image of a phenomenon; the substantive nature involving more than one feature in the word meaning. The classification is based on several criteria, the main one being the attributability to personal nouns (muzh-muzh, podruga- podruga) or impersonal nouns (veter-veter, derevnya-derevnya). For impersonal reduplicated nouns, the essential characteristics are their correlation with adjectives or their belonging to material, abstract, or concrete nouns or thematic groups (celebrations, seasons, clothes). These characteristics determine the following functions: the intensification of one characteristic, the combination of a greater intensification and a subject’s image of the best model, a complete correspondence to an individual / common image of a phenomenon, a high emotional evalua- tion, and others. The range of functions of personal reduplicated nouns is highly varied, de- pending not only on their belonging to a particular group (nominations based on gender and age, family and interpersonal relations, kind of activity) but also on extralinguistic factors, semantic peculiarities of a basic noun, and others. Reduplication can change a hierarchy of semes in the structure of a lexical meaning, actualizing the role of peripheral and implicit semes.