Russian Lexicon Research Articles

«Memory Storage of the Slavs in Words»: To the Jubileum of Zh.Zh. Varbot

The paper is timed to coincide with the jubilee of the famous Russian etymologist, Professor Zhanna Zhanovna Varbot, and analyses the scientist's fourth book «Memory Storage of the Slavs in Words. Etymological Essays». Numerous merits of the work, which includes articles united in thematic sections, such as «Semantics in Etymology», «Reconstruction and Etymologisation of Proto-Slavic Lexicon», «Etymologisation of Slavic Lexicon», «Etymologisation of Russian Lexicon», are noted. Among the articles there are those published earlier in different editions. The idea of the special importance of dialectal lexicon for the elucidation of the origin of words runs through the book. In particular, the author pays much attention to Russian dialectisms, which often play a key role in the etymologisation of Slavic words and demonstrate their pan-Slavic character. In some cases, the etymology put forward by the author seems to be debatable, so an alternative opinion has been proposed, for example, for the words: bolg. смùне са or slavon. šetrica.

Literacy instruction and lexicon size determine bilingual reading development of Russian-German children

Research question: How does Russian and German reading comprehension develop during the first 3 years of primary school in Russian heritage speakers and which factors predict performance in each language? Methodology: 40 Russian-German children were tested annually from first to third grade (age in grade 1 M = 7; 1 years). Reading was assessed with comparable Russian and German word and sentence reading comprehension tests. The Russian test was available in Cyrillic and Latin script (the latter for children who could not read Cyrillic letters). Potential predictors included lexicon size in Russian and German and rapid automatized naming (RAN) of numbers (both assessed in primary school). Other factors were assessed in kindergarten, that is, nonverbal reasoning and, derived from a parents’ questionnaire, their socioeconomic status and language input in the family. Data and analysis: Linear regressions were used to compare the development of Russian and German. Stepwise regression analyses identified predictors for reading comprehension in each language. Findings: German reading ability improved faster than that of Russian, likely due to the increasing amount of German input outside the family, literacy instruction in German at school, and the large variance in Russian literacy abilities. Children who could read Cyrillic script, who likely received some form of Russian literacy instruction, and who had a larger Russian lexicon size exhibited better reading performance. These results are discussed regarding the divergent attainment trajectories. Decisive factors for German were German lexicon size and RAN. Originality: This longitudinal study tracked Russian and German reading development over 3 years in primary school, assessed Russian reading in Cyrillic and Latin scripts, and identified predictors for bilingual reading development in both languages. Implications: To become proficient readers in their heritage language, children need to have a substantial lexicon size and receive literacy instruction.

Modern terminology of management: Anglicisms as a means of adaptation to new economic realities

The subject of this study is an important part of the latest terminology of the modern management sphere, namely, anglicisms. The purpose of the article is to determine the role of anglicisms as an effective means of adapting participants in management processes in Russia to modern economic conditions. On the example of about 100 business terms of English origin, the article gives a classification of anglicisms according to structure, methods of formation, frequency of use and areas of application in management, provides a decoding of the meanings of individual components of borrowings, which contributes to the best understanding and use of business management terminology by specialists. Anglicisms originally entered the Russian language to denote concepts and phenomena completely new to the Russian reality, their emergence, integration into the vocabulary of the Russian language and active use seem to be an inevitable process that meets the communicative needs of society. Due to their high communicative significance, anglicisms from business sphere have firmly entered the Russian lexicon and are widely used in it.

Impact of expenditures and corporate philanthropy disclosure on company value

PurposeThe paper aims to estimate how corporate philanthropy expenditures and corporate philanthropy disclosure (in general and in different spheres) affect investment attractiveness of Russian companies.Design/methodology/approachTo assess the degree of corporate philanthropy disclosure the authors compiled lexicons based on a set of techniques: text and frequency analysis, correlations, principal component analysis. To adjust the existing classifications of corporate philanthropic activities to the Russian market the authors employed expert analysis. The empirical research base includes 83 Russian publicly traded companies for the period 2013–2019. To estimate the impact of indicators of corporate philanthropy disclosure on company's investment attractiveness the authors utilized panel data regression and random forest algorithm.FindingsWe compiled 2 Russian lexicons: one on general issues of corporate philanthropy and another one on philanthropic activities in various spheres (sports and healthcare; support for certain groups of people; social infrastructure; children protection and youth policy; culture, education and science). 2. The paper observes that the disclosure of non-financial data including that related to general issues of corporate philanthropy as well as to different spheres affects the market capitalization of the largest Russian companies. The results of regression analysis suggest that disclosure of altruism-driven philanthropic activities (such as corporate philanthropy in the sphere of culture, education and science) has a lesser impact on company's investment attractiveness than that of activities driven by business-related motives (sports and healthcare, children protection and youth policy).Research limitations/implicationsOur findings are important to management, investors, financial analysts, regulators and various agencies providing guidance on corporate governance and sustainability reporting. However, the authors acknowledge that the research results may lack generalizability due to the sample covering a single national context. Researchers are encouraged to test the proposed approach further on other countries' data by using the authors’ compiled lexicons.Originality/valueThe study aims to expand the domains of signaling and agency theories. First, this subject has not been widely examined in terms of emerging markets, the authors’ study is the first to focus on the Russian market. Secondly, the majority of scholars use text analysis to examine not only the impact of charitable donations but also the effect of corporate philanthropy disclosure. Thirdly, the authors provided the authors’ own lexicon of corporate philanthropy disclosure based on machine learning technique and expert analysis. Fourthly, to estimate the impact of corporate philanthropy on company's investment attractiveness the authors used the original approach based on combination of linear (regression), and non-linear methods (permutation importance. The authors’ findings extend the theoretical concept of Peterson et al. (2021): corporate philanthropy is viewed as the company strategy to reinforce its reputation, it helps to establish more efficient relationships with stakeholders which, in its turn, results in the increased business value.

The word nettle as a culturally marked linguistic unit

Plant names (phytonyms) are associated with the symbolisation of mankind’s achievements in cognitive studies. The primary function of these lexical units is referential. However, many of them contain additional semantic characteristics in addition to the main (referential) meaning. They perform expressive and cumulative cultural functions reflecting the specific mentality of a particular nation. Some phytonyms have strong national cultural connotations and deserve special attention. For example, one such word is the lexeme nettle. The paper aims to reveal the cultural connotations of this lexical unit. We consider the word nettle as a unit of the Russian lexicon and an object traditionally used in the Russian people’s customs as well as a characteristic element of the Russian oral tradition. The analysis enables us to conclude that the word nettle in Russian has a neutral referential "botanical" meaning, but at the same time it contains extremely negative national cultural connotations. These are most actively manifested in phraseology and folklore texts.

Names of colour in V.Nabokov’s bilingual worldview (based on the original and self-translated texts of the novel Lolita)

The article is devoted to the current problem of studying bilingual authors’ idiolects in colour aspect. This research aims to identify the features of Vladimir Nabokov’s lingua-colour worldview associated with the use of English and Russian in self-translation. Lists of colouremes of the original and translated Lolita are made; their part-of-speech facet is analyzed; dominant coloronyms are identified and compared; structural peculiarities of the selected colours in both lists are studied. The novelty of the work lies in the creation of English and Russian lexicons and frequency dictionaries of representatives of Nabokov’s color worldview, which gives objective data about the linguistic personality basing on idiolect. Along with quantitative method, the work uses the method of systematic scientific description, via which the multidimensional systematization of empirical material is conducted and the comparative method implemented in observation, comparison and interpretation techniques for the received language data. The article notes both common and specific features in the two color lexicons. With a comparable number of English and Russian colouremes, the translation language is more coloristic. Part-of-speech differences of colours are noted. In complete lists chromatic designations predominate, they are more frequent in Russian. Among the dominants achromatic colors outweigh, English achromatisms prevail. Numerous hapaxes and complex coloremes, rarely equivalent, contribute to the palette diversity. The main causes of inconsistencies are identified. The author comes to the conclusion that the ways of lexicalizing the color perceptions of the bilingual writer-translator are modified when switching to the target language that indicates differences in Nabokov’s worldview.

Emotions and attitudes in present day Russian through the prism of new words: Cultural semantics of zhest’ and related concepts

Contemporary Russian lexicon is characterized by rapid change which involves borrowings, the use of new words and expressions as well as the development of new meanings from the existing word forms. The new meanings are indicative of new attitudes or the reinforcement of the existing ones. In this context, the paper considers the recently emerged colloquial use of the word zhest’ (from the primary meaning of zhest’ ‘tin’ as a type of metal) and the increase of use of the words zhestkii ‘hard/tough/firm’ and zhestko ‘firmly/toughly’ as examples of ‘internal’ language processes. The word zhest’ is a colloquial word mainly used in youth slang, but also infiltrating other types of discourse. We analyze its use as an interjection, as well as a noun in predicative and attributive functions. Zhestkii and zhestko are shown to rise in use and to be prevalent in the political discourse as a sign of power. The paper aims to trace the rise in frequency of the words under the analysis, study their semantics and establish links between the meaning of the words and broader Russian cultural themes. This kind of linguistic analysis with focus on cultural aspects allows us to identify culturally prevalent ideas in present day Russian. The paper uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) as a method of semantic analysis relying on data from the Russian National Corpus. Based on a detailed semantic analysis, the paper proposes NSM explications of zhest’ , zhestkii and zhestko , identifies connections between their meanings and the cultural themes of ‘emotionality’, ‘not being in control’ and ‘strait talk’, and recognizes the increased cultural salience of these words in present day Russian. The study uncovers trends of the contemporary Russian language uses and can be applied in culture-enhanced language teaching and cross-cultural training.

FUNCTIONIG DEFINITIION OF THE CONCEPT OF ARABISMS ZAKT/ ZAKAT, IBADAH, WUDU, HIJIRA, AND OTHER WORDS TYPES OF WORSHIP

Статья связана с критическим изучением в рамках сравнительного метода.Она связана с уточнением лингвистического, глагольного и практического значения слов " хадж, ибáда, хи́джра, закя́т / закáт, вуду́, ху́тба, азáн", связанных с обрядами богослужения в русском языке по сравнению с арабским языком. Она подчеркнула их роль в большом русском лексиконе и его взаимодействие с остальными другими иностранными словами в русском языке на материале «Национального корпуса русского языка».
 слово хадж (الحج)
 слово ибáда(عبادة) 
 слово хи́джра (هجرة)
 слово закя́т / закáт (غروب الشمس، فريضة الزكاة )
 слово вуду́ (وضوء)
 ху́тба ( خطبة دينية، خطبة زواج
 азáн (اذان)

Methods for representation of translation in a bilingual dictionary of the 18th century (French- Russian lexicon of 1786)

Methods for representation of translation in a bilingual dictionary of the 18th century (French- Russian lexicon of 1786)

Функціонування інтерферем і росіянізмів у текстах інтернет-видань

Introduction. Researchers of media discourse, along with the positive aspects of the development of modern Ukrainian literary language in the media, point to the decline of media speech culture. The purpose of the article is to record examples of Russification and language negligence in online publications, to provide practical recommendations for improving the speech culture of journalists. Results. Interferems and Russianisms in online mass media are studied. The source base of the study was journalistic texts of online publications of national and regional significance ("Ukrainian Truth", "Doba").The analysis of the revealed deviations from lexical norm is carried out, the basic erroneously dangerous places are specified. It is proved that a common type of lexical errors in the language of the media - interferems and Russianisms. According to the classification of interference, in the analyzed online publications can be divided into two groups of such non-normative units. The first group includes single tokens-interferems. They form a small system of representatives. The second group of formations of interferomic character consists of non-normative combinations of several tokens. In the process of linguistic examination of journalistic materials, non-normative tokens-Russianisms (a word or phrase borrowed from the Russian language or built on the model of Russian words and expressions) were revealed. The inappropriateness of using nouns with the suffix -k- to denote an action in appropriate contexts is characterized, instead the analyzed materials distribute such formations. A number of extra- and intralinguistic factors have been identified, which have led to the spread of Ukrainian Russian-language interference elements in speech. The main extralinguistic reasons are the following: living in Ukraine a significant number of people who only understand the Ukrainian language, but do not speak it; knowledge of the majority of Ukrainian citizens in both languages - Ukrainian and Russian; improper knowledge of Ukrainian speakers of its norms; poor vocabulary of speakers; imperfect language policy in the state; lack of an effective mechanism for implementing the Law on Languages. The main intralinguistic factors are the typological affinity of the East Slavic languages and the formal (sound-letter) similarity of a large part of the Ukrainian and Russian lexicons. Results. Thus, online publications, both national and regional, are characterized by a low degree of language competence. In particular, activity in the use of interference tokens and Russian tokens has been demonstrated.

Russian lexicon in the lexical-semantic space of the newspaper “Tercüman”

The subject of this article is the Russian lexicon used in the Turkic-language texts of the newspaper “Tercüman” (Translator) of the late XIX century. The author determines the following thematic groups of the Russian loanwords: military, journalistic, political vocabulary, legal, pedagogical, economic, and literary studies lexicon, as well as the names of food and consumer goods. The examples of sociopolitical borrowed lexicon are most common, as they are the leading feature of the newspaper language. Description is given to the methods of explaining Russian lexicon in the Turkic-language text. In the provided examples, the Russian lexicon is both explicable and explanatory. Semanticization is carried out via explanatory conjunction “yani” (that is). In some examples, Russian equivalents are given in parentheses or comma separated. Use of the Russian lexeme in the text without clarification, indicates its earlier borrowing into the Crimean Tatar language. The scientific novelty of this research consists in determination of the Russian loanwords used in the Crimean Tatar written language of the late XIX century, as well as in broadening knowledge in the field of the history of lexicology of the Crimean Tatar language. The conducted research allows tracing the diachrony of infiltration of the Russian loanwords into the Crimean Tatar language, as well as reveals the international lexicon that came into the Crimean Tatar language through the means of Russian language and retains the Russian phonic sounds. Leaning on the provided examples, the author examines grapho-phonetic peculiarities and spelling of the Russian loanwords in Arabic text in the Crimean Tatar language. This work may be valuable for further research of the history infiltration and peculiarities of the use of Russian loanwords in the Crimean Tatar language.

«Русское» в музыке зарубежных композиторов на «русскую тему»

The article poses the question, how the “Russian element” is viewed by composers who belong to other national cultures. We are able to judge about this by a convincing number of works written on the “Russian theme.” The “Russian element” is realized in it by means of finely illuminative subtitles and an arsenal of musical means and techniques. Very diverse approaches to this theme are systematized and combine three “images” of the “Russian element.” In one of them it is interpreted as an appellation of the state (“russky,” i.e. “Russian” in the sense of the nationality is identified with “rossiyskiy,” i.e., “Russian” in the meaning of pertaining to the state), whose referential substance is expressed by the geographic names (Russia, its rivers, regions, capitals and cities), the North as a geographical dislocation, the landmarks of the historical past, the crowned heads and the events of the life of the tsar’s family. Another aspect shows the social and private lives of people (the “Russian element” is transformed into the “ethnographic”), which reveals by endowing musical compositions titles with words from the Russian lexicon, Russian proper names, attributes of everyday life (“sani,” i.e. sleds or “troika,” i.e. three horse carriage), through the sound of Russian songs and folk tunes, dance genres, timbres of national instruments, fragments from works by Russian composers and texts by Russian poets and writers. The third angle of reclamation of the “Russian element” accentuates Orthodox Christianity as the religious constituent of the Russian world (the “Russian element” manifests itself as the “confessional element”). The religious aspect of the Russian element is revealed by the efforts of such masters as Baldassare Galuppi, Caterino Cavos, John Tavener and Arvo Part. An overview of the numerous examples of manifestation of the “Russian theme” by composers from other countries shows the flexibility and the diffuseness of the geographical and the ethnic boundaries of the “Russian element” in their music. Keywords: Russian theme in the music of Baldassare Galuppi, Caterino Cavos, John Tavener, Arvo Part, Russian folksong.

Implicit Borrowing as a Mechanism for Enriching Modern Russian
 Lexicon: Forms, Causes, Findings

Implicit borrowing implies that the recipient language receives new
 meanings from the donor language without obtaining new phonetic forms. In
 contrast to direct material borrowings, it has not been thoroughly studied yet.
 However, there is a need to subject this phenomenon to careful research since in
 recent decades it has become increasingly widespread in Russian lexicon and its
 findings may have an impact on how the language implements its cognitive and
 communicative function.
 This article attempts to investigate the mechanisms that lead to implicit borrowing, as well as to study its causes and consequences. The author analyzes the criteria available in the linguistic literature for identifying specific forms of this phenomenon and supports the view that there are only two forms of implicit borrowing such as semantic calquing (polysemy copying) and material borrowing of new words that are homonymous to previously borrowed words. These two types differ in their causes and communicative consequences. Recent semantic calques in Russian lexicon mainly appear due to «semantic restoration» which consists in expanding the meanings of previously borrowed words by copying the polysemantic patterns of their English counterparts. They usually do not have a long-term negative impact on communication. In contrast to them, homonyms of previously borrowed words appear as a result of cross-linguistic influence and, as the case study of the noun «ambition» and its derivatives shows, they can cause tangible communication problems. Hence, it is important that the linguist should be able to distinguish between these two forms of contact language influence, since only on this basis expert recommendations can be developed for each case of implicit borrowing.

Two Forest Kings? Literary sources of V. Zhukovsky’s translation of the ballad Erlkönig

The article contains a comparative analysis of early European interpretations of Goethe’s poem Erlkönig and hypothesizes that it was under their influence that Zhukovsky introduced significant innovations in his translation. Already in the first English translations by M. G. Lewis and W. Scott, translators dispense with the naturphilosophical implication of Goethe’s original and enhance its folkloric dimension; the plot is structured according to the pre-romantic and romantic folk legends of evil and many-voiced forest ‘kings.’ The early French versions embark on a new tradition of ‘translating’ the title into the native language, revealing the semiotics of the image and making it more recognizable by a foreign culture. Zhukovsky’s idea of the Forest King is shaped by his contemporary culture; he integrates the German original not only into Russian demonology as described by Russian lexicons of the early 19th c., but also into the set of translation practices already established at the time when he was writing his ballad.

LOSS OF EXOTIC FLAVOR AND THE EMERGENCE OF NEW METAPHORICAL MEANINGS OF ANGLO-AMERICAN LOANWORDS IN THE SPHERE OF MANAGEMENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE LEXICAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE RECIPIENT LANGUAGE (RUSSIAN)

The aim of the study is to reveal the regularities of Anglo-American metaphorical borrowings in Russian, and specifically in the sublanguage of management. In the course of investigation, the authors have come to the conclusion that the most important indicators of degree of lexical assimilation of the loanwords under study into the system of the Russian language, and, particularly, into the sublanguage of management, constitute the following: emergence of new meanings in loanwords borrowed from English, their word building activity, and their subsequent metaphorization. Final assimilation of Anglo-American metaphors into the Russian language is followed by their appearance in Russian explanatory dictionaries, including the dictionary of foreign words. The development of lexical meanings of a word is subject to influence of both source and recipient languages. A continuous turbulent process of semantic expansion of the new word takes place. Semantic expansion of an English loanword may be a result of secondary borrowing; and in this case it is often very difficult to draw the borderline between the secondary borrowing and the emergence of its new meanings under the influence of the etymon. One of these borrowings may be used as a narrow specialized term, while the other, in its metaphorical usage, functions as a common colloquial element of the Russian lexicon. The results of the study may be used both in practical teaching and theory of the Russian and English languages by specialists and students, as well as by those who specialize in the sphere of management, philology and intercultural communication.

FOREIGN BORROWINGS IN THE FOCUS OF THE PROBLEM «LANGUAGE AND CULTURE»

The article reveals foreign borrowings as a result of language contacts in the focus of the problem of “language and culture”. The extralinguistic reasons are analyzed, which had served to intensify the borrowing process in modern Russian-speaking society and caused changes in the type of communication that dominates in social practice and is defined by communicative paradigm. Change in communicative paradigm had entailed changes in the communicative core of the Russian lexicon, which are comparable to the “moment of explosion” regarding the “gradual” processes in the language. The communicative core of the lexicon is understood as the totality of the most frequent and communicatively significant lexical and phraseological units, which are used in all communicative spheres, denotatively significant for the speaking collective and reflecting the actual reality.
 The question of significant role of English borrowings in the modern Russian literary language is raised. Such influence of the English language is explained by its status as a language of international communication and a language of communication in the leading economic states. This fact explains that in recent decades, Anglo-American ethnolinguistic culture has been playing the role of a linguocultural donor for other ethnolinguistic cultures-acceptors, in particular for Russian culture.
 The article presents different points of view of linguists who raise the question about the quantity and quality of borrowed words, peculiarities of their development, relevance in speech, their relationship with original and previously borrowed vocabulary, etc. Summing up, we can say that borrowing lexical units, in particular English, is now represented by the universal sign of civilization, which consists in creation and development of a single information space.

Lexis of the Russian North: State and Prospects of Study

The article analyzes the current state of the studies on the vocabulary of the Russian North dialects. The concept of the Russian North is discussed, the Russian North dialectal zone is briefly characterized in light of its linguistic features, of the Northern Russian dialectal vocabulary size in comparison with the Southern Russian dialects, and of the fundamental importance of its study for Slavic linguistics in general. The article also presents a review of the main dictionaries of the Northern Russian dialects since the appearance of the Russian North lexicography to the present day. It includes dictionaries of different coverage of the territory: macro-regional (the ones including vocabulary of the whole Russian North), the ones dedicated to certain zones (Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Karelian regions, etc.), micro-territorial (including dictionaries of certain settlements); of different types and subjects of study: lexical, phraseological, areal-thematic, areal-etymological, dictionaries of personal linguistic identity. Special attention is paid to non-professional lexicography. The review of studies (monographs, dissertations, articles) on the Northern Russian lexicon and phraseology is also presented. They are considered from a thematical point of view: these are works where the semantic and motivational analysis of different groups of concrete and abstract lexis is carried out, etymological interpretation of lexemes is given; works where beliefs, traditional rituals, folklore are considered through the prism of linguistic facts; etymological works, works on grammar, etc. The arguments in favor of the need to continue the collection of the Northern Russian dialects vocabulary and its dictionary representation are given, prospects and objectives of its study are formulated. A list of references is of high importance for researchers — dialectologists, etymologists, historians of language, etc. — it is an extensive bibliography, which contains lexicographical and lexicological works on the dialects of the Russian North.

Вопросы этимологии и роль энциклопедических сведений в лексикографическом описании заимствований в современном русском языке

ABSTRACTBased on case studies, the paper reveals some fundamental flaws in etymologies of loanwords in Modern Russian contained in the most authoritative lexicographic descriptions. Taking into account up-to-date lexicographic sources as well as the time, conditions and circumstances of loanwords entering the Russian lexicon, the article clarifies the etymology of the lexemes under survey and rejects previous doubtful or erroneous hypotheses. The article also discusses the issue of the so-called “literal” meanings of foreign language etymons and the use of the corresponding field label “bukv.” in the etymology fields of dictionary entries. Case studies show that due to the ambiguity of the concept “literal,” the “bukv.” label is used inconsistently, which can be misleading. In this connection, the paper suggests either abandoning the use of the label altogether or clearly defining its meaning in dictionary user guides.

НАЗВАНИЯ ЛИЦ В РУССКОЙ ЛЕКСИКЕ НАЧАЛА XXI ВЕКА

The author analyses nouns denoting people in the contemporary Russian language.The ways such nouns appear in the 21st century Russian linguistic system fit wellinto general tendencies of the development of the Russian lexicon, mostly involvinginternalization. Therefore the majority of new names denoting people are either loanwordsor hybrid words, i. e. lexemes derived from foreign stems with the use of Russian affixes.The most numerous thematic groups are constituted by names of professionals andpolitical activists.

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Russian lexicons: Peculiarities of the first representatives

The present paper is devoted to the first Russian manuscript lexicons, which were commonly used in Moscovy during the 16th and 17th centuries. The author discusses the origin of foreign words, literary sources, and principles of the organization of dictionary entries in synchrony and diachrony.