Reflection of LanguageEvolution in a Literary Text (As Exemplified by P.D. Boborykin’s Story «Fellow Students»)

Abstract

The article analyses a story by P.D. Boborykin «Fellow Students» in terms of evolutionary processes characteristic of the Russian language of the late 19th century, which are reflected in its text. Using the methods of linguistic commentary and contextual analysis, the author of the article shows that the text of the story under consideration reveals changes in sociocultural connotations of words; their semantic broadening; expansion of vocabulary through borrowing foreign words and forming new ones.