Abstract
The aim of the article is to introduce the authors’ perspective on how English loanwords are changing the structure and the content of the verbal code of Russian culture and the Russian linguistic pictures of the world, as well as on how the latter might change the former. Having used the continuous sampling method, observation method, and synchronic-diachronic approach (lexical semantic analysis, comparative semantic analysis, morphological and quantitative analysis), the authors have allocated and analyzed 487 loanwords, which led to the introduction of three distinguished types of interaction between the verbal code of the Russian language and foreign loanwords. The first interaction type is the process whereby the loanwords adapt semantically to the rules of the host language and culture, which leads to the complete change of a loanword meaning or its modification (15 words). The second interaction type is connected with the loanwords bringing new concepts to a host language and indicating borrowed ideas and objects (270 words). The differentiation of these two interaction types is based on the results of a synchronic and diachronic study of the loanwords in Russian. The analyzed interaction types are linked to the changes in the host language’s verbal code. A concept of a “hybrid linguistic picture of the world” is being introduced as the one constituting the third interaction type (201 words). According to the authors, the hybrid linguistic picture of the world is developing at the current stage of the Russian language and is caused by the process of the morphological adaptation of English loanwords, which is manifested in the production of hybrid words and Russian words being actively substituted by English borrowings.
Highlights
In research studies loanwords are discussed by many Russian (Krysin 2008, Khalevin 2010a, 2010b, Serebrennikova 2014, Rivlina 2015 etc.) and international scholars (Haugen 1950, Poplack, Sankof & Miller 1988, Veisbergs 2006, Jaworski 2014 etc.) who mainly focus on the problem of the formal and semantic adaptation of borrowings to the recipient language revealing changes of a loaned word’s meaning as well as their structural assimilation
Based on the examples obtained through continuous sampling and observation and the results of their synchronic-diachronic study the authors speculate on the role English loanwords play in the lexical structure of the modern Russian language as well as on the part they play in the construction of a cultural verbal code
Through the example of the Russian language the synchronic and diachronic study revealed the existence of different interaction types between the loanwords and the recipient language picture of the world
Summary
In research studies loanwords are discussed by many Russian (Krysin 2008, Khalevin 2010a, 2010b, Serebrennikova 2014, Rivlina 2015 etc.) and international scholars (Haugen 1950, Poplack, Sankof & Miller 1988, Veisbergs 2006, Jaworski 2014 etc.) who mainly focus on the problem of the formal and semantic adaptation of borrowings to the recipient language revealing changes of a loaned word’s meaning as well as their structural assimilation. The overall aim of the present study is to discuss the role of loanwords in their contribution to the change in a verbal code of culture and the ability of the language affected to preserve and exercise its objectives to express a culturally conditioned worldview, and to determine basic patterns of interaction between the loanwords and the recipient language, which are either determined by a linguistic picture of the world of the recipient Russian language or lead to its change. Aligned with the statement above, the main objectives in this study are as follows: (1) to specify a verbal code of culture; (2) to specify the interaction patterns between a recipient language’s linguistic picture of the world and loanwords; (3) to discuss the influence of modern English loanwords on the verbal code of the recipient language and culture. Based on the examples obtained through continuous sampling and observation and the results of their synchronic-diachronic study (lexical semantic analysis, comparative semantic analysis, morphological and quantitative analysis) the authors speculate on the role English loanwords play in the lexical structure of the modern Russian language as well as on the part they play in the construction of a cultural verbal code
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