ROLE OF PROTOTYPE MEANING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF A WORD MECHANISM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE (using the materials of dictionaries)

Abstract

Object of the paper is to analyze semantic structure of a word mechanism in the context of the present day Russian language, and to determine the importance of a prototype meaning for its formation. Subject of the study is to analyze direct meaning of a word mechanism and its derivatives forming semantic structure. Subject matter is to study formation mechanisms of semantic structure of a word mechanism as well as its specific character. Lexical entries and word definitions, represented in explanatory dictionaries and special dictionaries of the Russian language, have been used as materials of the study. Moreover, the study applied general scientific methods of observation and description, the techniques of comparative, etymological, and definitive techniques, as well as semantic-cognitive analysis. Results of the study have traced formation of semantic structure of a word mechanism from Petrine period to our time; its topological pattern has been proposed; reasons and mechanisms concerning the development of its derivatives have been explained. The author has come to following conclusions. A word mechanism entered the Russian language as a simple lexical unit with a meaning of technical artifact; currently, the word is the asset of the whole standard language. It has found its way from technosphere to the spheres of socioeconomic and socio-political relations as well as to various academic fields. In the context of the modern Russian language, semantic structure of a word in its lexicographical interpretation, consists of 4 LSV and semantic shade; in some cases, they are bounded by means of their similarity (mechanism2 and mechanism2), in other cases — by means of their nearness (mechanism1.1 and mechanism4). As the study has shown, not only initial meaning but also prototype significatum, representing a mechanism as «that, implementing the possibility to move, to appear, to develop, and to function», are the source of semantic material for word derivatives. Despite broad valence and heurisemanticity of a word mechanism, just prototype meaning is the core, bringing together its usual and verbal meanings.