The media space of the 19th century in the mirror of the Russian language: Lexico-phraseological aspect

Abstract

The study of the history of Russian vocabulary during a particular period makes it possible to identify dynamically developing groups of vocabulary that are united according to some principle (lexical and semantic fields, word-formation nests and types). The differential principle of forming a word list for the “Dictionary of the Russian language of the XIX century” provides such an opportunity with regard to vocabulary and phraseology related to the thematic group “journalism”. The article analyzes lexical neologisms (zhurnalizm, zhurnal’nost’, gazetnost’) from the point of view of the verbalization of concepts related to the awareness of a new socio-philosophical reality in Russian social life in the 19th century. The semantic content of the word-terms is analyzed and chronological data regarding their appearance in the Russian language are corrected. The broad lexical compatibility is considered with regard to su ch lexemes as zhurnal’nyj (zhurnal’naja kritika; zhurnal’nyje stateyki, melochi; zhurnal’nyje vykhodki, shutki, pochesti, zakidat’ zhurnal’noj gryaz’ju; zhurnal’nyj Aristarkh, zhurnal’nyj pisaka; zhurnal’nyj syshchik, zhurnal’nyje psy, plutni; zhurnal’nyj frant, shut, etc.), gazetnyj (gazetnyj mir, mirok; gazetnoje obshchestvo; gazetnyj yazyk; gazetnyje borzopistsy, gazetnyj genij; gazetnyj vodovorot, gazetnyj tovar, etc.) in the texts of 19th century Russian authors; the emphasis is placed on the special role of adjectives as markers of elements of a new social mentality, conditioned by the formation of the “media space”. The article also analyzes the linguistic facts that indicate the formation of evaluative vocabulary in this group of words (zhurnal’chik, zhurnalishko, zhurnalets; gazetka, gazetishka, gazetenka, gazetchina), which serves as an indicator of the attitude of society, as well as its individual members represented by the authors of texts to the phenomenon of new literature. The results of the analysis carried out with respect to the linguistic material presented in the article made it possible to characterize the collected facts as objective evidence of the identification of the media space in the linguistic picture of the Russian person’s world; the projection of the facts obtained in the course of this study onto the previously studied linguistic material confirms the presence in this picture of a certain matrix that organizes our ideas about the structure of social relations. The results of the analysis, which showed the productivity of using historical-lexicological and lexicographic methods in the study of actual linguistic material, can be used by researchers in various fields of the humanities.