The types of truncated derivatives in contemporary Russian speech

Abstract

This article studies a highly productive way of Russian word formation — truncation. This method of word formation, considered to be the "youngest", plays an important role in the contemporary compressive word formation. The purpose of this article lies in identifying new trends in the area of truncation in the Russian speech of the early 21st century. The author reveals the structural types of truncation and determines their relationship in the contemporary Russian language. The largest group of truncated derivatives includes personal nouns; there are also other new subject groups of the truncated units noted. The results show that truncation in modern Russian speech is becoming more widespread than before and it begins to extend to other parts of speech besides nouns. The author pays attention to the interaction of truncation with the suffixation characteristic of contemporary Russian speech. The derivatives, formed by truncation, are different from univerbated nouns, which are formally attributed by adjectives, which are part of the substantive word formation; thus, a criterion for differentiating truncated univerbated words seems in order. The material for analysis includes modern fiction, texts from mass media, and oral recordings. Using them has helped in revealing the dynamics of truncation processes.