13. Vocabulary People are constantly discouraged about their vocabulary. – Mr. Polito, I have a very hard time finding the right words; my vocabulary is poor, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t do anything about it. – What exactly are the problems you have with your vocabulary?

Vocabulary

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

• Biographical dictionaries
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See what “Vocabulary of a language” is in other dictionaries:

VOCABULARY COMPOSITION OF THE LANGUAGE- a set of words (vocabulary) of a given language. The object of study of lexicology and lexicography... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary of the language- a set of words (vocabulary) of a given language. Object of study of lexicology and lexicography. * * * DICTIONARY COMPOSITION OF A LANGUAGE DICTIONARY COMPOSITION OF A LANGUAGE, a set of words (vocabulary) of a given language. The object of study of lexicology and lexicography... Encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary of the language- The entire set of words that make up a language, including its main vocabulary... Dictionary of linguistic terms

LANGUAGE VOCABULARY, VOCABULARY- the entire set of words that make up a language, including its main vocabulary... Vocational education. Dictionary

vocabulary- The totality of all the words of a particular language, one of the main components of the language, along with the sound and grammatical structure. The constant enrichment of the vocabulary of a language is one of the laws of the historical development of language as a social phenomenon.... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

compound- noun, m., used often Morphology: (no) what? composition, why? composition, (I see) what? composition, what? composition, about what? about the composition; pl. What? compositions, (no) what? compositions, what? composition, (I see) what? compositions, what? compositions, about what? about the composition 1. Composition... Dmitriev's Explanatory Dictionary

VOCABULARY- DICTIONARY, dictionary, dictionary. adj. to the dictionary. Dictionary publishing house. Vocabulary composition of the Russian language. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

compound- A; m. 1. only units. whom what, which one. The totality of what l. parts, objects, people, etc., forming something whole. S. court. S. flotilla. Social s. population. Personal s. (the totality of people who make up some kind of institution, enterprise... Encyclopedic Dictionary

vocabulary- see dictionary; oh, oh. From this article. S oe publishing house. Word composition of the language... Dictionary of many expressions

The USSR Academy of Sciences, a scientific research institution, was founded in Petrograd in 1921 as the Institute of Japhetological Research, and since 1922 the Japhetic Institute. In 1930, the Russian Language Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences became part of it; from 1931 it was called the Institute of Language and... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Books

• Vocabulary composition of modern English at an advanced stage of learning / Vocabulary Acquisition as Ongoing Improvement, T. B. Nazarova. The textbook examines current problems in studying the vocabulary of modern English and offers extensive practical material, mastery of which improves the quality... Buy for 148 rubles
• Vocabulary composition of modern English at an advanced stage of learning, Nazarova T.. This educational publication contains: frequency vocabulary, stable compatibility patterns, key English-language business terminology with Russian equivalents. Intended both for work in…

The vocabulary of a language is all the words that are used in a given language.

But not all words in a language are used equally often. If you conduct research and observe people’s speech, and the use of words in a language in general, you will soon notice that in every language there is a circle of words that are used most often. These are the words the main vocabulary of the language.

Basic words are words that are used, firstly, historically for the longest time, that is, throughout the entire written history of the language. Secondly, they are known and accepted not only in the general literary language, but also in dialects. Thirdly, the words of the main vocabulary can be used in any situation by any speaker. In direct meanings, these are words of neutral vocabulary. The words of the main fund are the material for the formation of new words with the same root.

The main vocabulary is the core of any natural language. If a word does not meet the three criteria listed above, but works in the language, then this word belongs to the vocabulary of the language, but not to the main vocabulary fund.

The words of the main vocabulary include the words: water, good, head, house, mother, brother, fire and others equally common.

Non-core vocabulary words include: emancipation, cousin, airplane. These words do not correspond to the condition of long existence in the language, nor to the condition of being generally known.

But language is a living spiritual organism, it is constantly changing, not always noticeable to contemporaries, but quite noticeable when considering the historical process, the vocabulary composition is especially obvious.

Changes in vocabulary, in turn, are closely related to the frequency of use of words in a language. Some words are used often, others rarely, some become the property of poetry or history books. In terms of frequency of use, all words can be divided into words active And passive dictionary

Active vocabulary words- these are words that a native speaker not only knows, but also uses.

As a rule, the active dictionary consists of words from the main fund of the language like bread, sleep, white, day, walk and others no less significant. However, the active vocabulary is not exhausted by these words, since it also contains new vocabulary units.

New words are included in the active vocabulary because language reflects the reality of life, and it changes very quickly, especially recently. Consequently, new words appear in the language, however, new words are created extremely rarely, and more often they are borrowed from other languages ​​along with concepts. New words actively work in the language, but they do not belong to the main vocabulary.

Each individual person has his own individual active dictionary. Individual active vocabulary differs from person to person. In this regard, a good illustration is reading literature in a foreign language. When we read something in Russian, we rarely notice that different writers have different favorite words and expressions; we get used to the author's language without effort. When we start reading a more or less complex book in a foreign language, we have to turn to the dictionary, which we don’t always want to do.

But, if we read patiently, memorizing the words from the dictionary, then we soon notice that the dictionary is needed less and less often, because we know the words. After some time, the book will be easy to read, and other books by the same author will also be easy to read. But as soon as you pick up a book by another author, you will again need to look up the words in the dictionary. The essence of the matter is that we are dealing with an individual author's dictionary. Once the reader gets into the flow of the author's vocabulary, reading becomes easy.

This is no more than an illustration of a general phenomenon that is less noticeable in spoken language. Even a person with the richest vocabulary has a limited set of actively used words.

The active dictionary of a language (not individual) also consists of a limited number of words common to all groups of the population; the main feature of an active dictionary is that its words are constantly in someone’s language.

The active dictionary is opposed to passive dictionary, which in turn can also be individual and general linguistic. An individual's passive vocabulary is a set of lexical units that an individual native speaker understands, but does not use in spontaneous speech. Such words constitute the majority in the language. These are terms of various purposes, expressive expressions, obsolete words, words from poetic works, words from fiction and borrowed from other languages.

In the general linguistic understanding, words of passive composition include lexical units, the use of which is limited due to the rarity of the phenomena they call, or limited to a special sphere of use, or limited territorially in comparison with the general territory of distribution of the language. The border between passive and active vocabularies is fluid. For example, the word airplane was on everyone's lips in the twenties, but now it is a word in the passive dictionary.

For translators, understanding the issue of passive and active vocabulary is vital. When learning a foreign language, one must remember that, on the one hand, there is no impassable barrier between the words of the active and passive dictionary, that is, words easily move from one dictionary to another. For example, words lump, cooperative, Komsomol member, coupons, voucher, which were in the active dictionary in the early 90s, are now in the passive. Words like sale, discount, promotion were not in the active dictionary, but now their frequency of use is growing.

Translators should be aware of which words in a foreign language are more frequently used and which are not, and remember to update their vocabulary so that their speech is more natural.

In this regard, it is important to note that simplified language words like “basic English” are only useful at a certain stage, but can even be harmful for a person who is seriously studying the language. You should always pay attention to the year of publication of such word lists so that they do not become outdated. A translator needs to constantly expand his vocabulary, including using the most modern original material. Knowledge of a language at a professional level and the ability to communicate are not the same thing.

Neologisms and occasionalisms

The main reasons for the transition of words from active to passive vocabulary and vice versa are the obsolescence of words and the emergence of new ones, as we have already discussed. But in general, the movement of words in a language is a broader phenomenon, and we will consider it in general terms.

Neologisms- these are words created to denote new phenomena of life, new objects or concepts. Languages ​​are constantly replenished with neologisms, which arise in two main ways. Firstly, they arise as a result of word formation, for example, turtleneck. Secondly, new words come into the language through borrowing from other languages ​​along with new concepts, for example, design, computer.

There is also a special kind neologisms- This semantic neologisms. Semantic neologisms are old words that have new meanings: wall, platform, wiper, diplomat, studs.

In addition to neologisms in the language there are occasionalisms - these are new words created for a specific particular case without the prospect of becoming part of the language, for example:

Pushkin wrote: “And then, friends, I felt

It’s both Kuchelbecker and sickening.”

Occasionalisms are often created by children: "pin" to the wall. This is an example of spontaneous word formation according to a productive model. Sometimes a borrowed, unproductive word-forming suffix from words may be used princess, baroness, then we get words like critic, graduate student.

Occasionalisms differ from neologisms in that neologisms can become obsolete over time, since they are a fact of language, and occasionalisms are always fresh and original - these are one-time words, which is also reflected in their name occasional.

Neologism words enter into systematic relationships with other words; they can be synonyms, antonyms and homonyms.

In turn, occasionalisms live only in the context in which they were born and retain their connection with the author. They are not part of the common language. In oral speech they die out, having played their role. Occasionalisms play, first of all, a stylistic role in language.

The role of neologisms is nominative. Neologisms are perceived by native speakers as independent meaningful words and live in the linguistic environment without connection with their author. For example, the word industry, widely used in modern language, was first invented by N.M. Karamzin, but no one except specialists remembers this, because the word industry has value regardless of the author. The word is kuchelbecker It is connected specifically with Pushkin, and its meaning is not even entirely clear.

In the 60s, the Russian language was replenished with such words as cosmodrome, lunar rover, landing on the moon, cosmophysics, cosmobiology, etc. Word satellite known as aircraft is a semantic neologism , which is used than the old meaning walking nearby.

So, it is not difficult to notice that a language is easily replenished with new vocabulary, but when studying a language we must not forget the opposite phenomena associated with the movement of lexical units - the obsolescence of words and their withdrawal from active use. There are two types of obsolete words - these are archaisms and historicisms.

Historicisms- these are words that name objects and actions that were known to our ancestors, but have fallen out of use in modern living conditions, for example, halberd, arquebus, axe, fort.

Archaisms- these are words that name things and concepts that remained in the language, but their names were replaced by other, more modern words, for example, this, very, youth, thoughtful.

Archaisms may differ from modern words only in some sounds: o chen, vran, piit, hail. There are words that in the past had a different emphasis, for example, the words symbol, sir And ghost. In the past they had stress on the second syllable and sounded like symbol, sir, ghost. Such obsolete words are called accentual, or accentological archaisms. We often do not notice changes in language because life is too short to trace such processes, but from a historical point of view, all changes have an important change.

Exist in languages morphological archaisms, such words are archaic in their morphemic structure, they include words that are understandable to modern native speakers, but obviously old, for example, ferocity, nervous, collapsed. Such words can be found in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky.

It happens that the appearance of a word is quite modern, but its meaning is archaic: disgrace Now it means dishonor, it used to mean spectacle. The word outrageous also changed its meaning since the time of Pushkin, for example, the phrase “A Bashkir was captured with outrageous sheets” means sheets that call for an uprising in the literal sense, and not sheets with content that causes an emotionally negative reaction.

Along with the disappearance of certain types of clothing, words such as Armenian, caftan, camisole, now they can only be found in historical descriptions. With the course of history, such words have disappeared from everyday language how to file, quitrent, corvée.

Repressed words do not disappear without a trace; they are preserved in the literature of the past and are used in historical descriptions. Poets often resort to archaisms, giving poetry a lofty, solemn tone:

In a blue distant bedroom,

Your child passed away. (Block)

Archaisms are also used jokingly: "The mouth is chewing".

It is very important for translators to grasp the difference in meaning and take it into account in both their native and foreign languages.

Speaking about the vocabulary of a language, in addition to the question of active and passive vocabulary, we should raise the question real And potential language dictionary. Any language, first of all, consists of words that are undoubtedly included in the vocabulary of the language - this is almost any word that first comes to your mind. But there are also so-called potential words. They represent a phenomenon that does not really exist, but is abstract.

And yet, they exist. These words that do not exist in reality, but which are ready to appear at any time when necessary, to name something new or to name something old in a new way. For example: straightforwardness, kindness, crookedness, walker and so on. These words are not in dictionaries, you are unlikely to say them in speech yourself, since they do not exist, but they can be formed according to some working word-formation model, such as - is - stupidity, - is - beauty, - plastun - walker. These words are not in the vocabulary, but they are ready to appear at any time as needed, and represent part of the wealth that allows any living language to express any human thought.

Although the vocabulary of the language does not know these words, they are already ready for use if they have something to call them. Potential words It makes no sense to list them, since they have no number in two senses: firstly, they do not exist, and secondly, they can be created in unlimited quantities. Due to the specificity of potential words, their consideration is not limited to the framework of lexicology, where each word has a meaning, but is located at the junction of the lexicology of grammar, more precisely, that part of the grammar that is responsible for word formation.

Language is a living organism, it is so diverse and rich. He is as limitless as a person with his individuality and not always open abilities.

Grammar

General overview of the subject of grammar

At the very beginning of the course, we talked about the trinity: language - man - thought, that this is an indivisible unity. By the same analogy, the language itself can be divided into three main components, which will be the organizing parts of any language. First, there is the sound system of the language. The second component is the lexical and phraseological component. The third aspect of language is grammar.

We will study grammar not from a research position, but from a practical point of view, so that we have a basic scheme for how language works, that is, a scheme for the interaction of the constituent elements of any human language. We will look at grammar from the perspective of practical language acquisition, so that in the future you can begin to independently study languages ​​or be able to independently improve your knowledge in the field of linguistics and foreign languages ​​in particular. The ultimate goal of any serious learning is the ability to self-improvement; in our subject, it is an understanding of the mechanisms of how language works.

Grammar as a branch of linguistics studies the entire non-sound and non-lexical structure of language, that is, everything that is not directly related to sounds and lexical meaning is considered in the field of grammar. Grammar is building basis of language. Through grammar, parts of words are connected - this is the formation of word forms and word formation, words, in turn, are connected into phrases and sentences. What, in general, does language consist of?

So, grammar is the connecting component of language. If you imagine a house built of brick, metal, glass, wood, concrete slabs, insulation, and so on, then the material from which the bricks and other materials are made can be likened to the sound side of language. The bricks, slabs, piles, glass themselves are words of different shapes and properties. In this comparison, grammar will be the connecting element between the parts - it is the mortar between the bricks, the nails between the boards, the sealant. And not only this, but this is also the shape of the bricks and slabs, so that they fit, the relative arrangement of the bricks, slabs, boards so that they are meaningfully placed next to each other and are in their place.

Imagine a building in which one slab is sideways, another is stuck somehow obliquely, a third is pointlessly glued to the roof, a window frame with glass is attached to the wall, and so on. The boards are piled up, and the nails are driven into the insulation. It will be simply ridiculous. Even if there are good quality bricks, if there is expensive glass and everything else, the house will still be worthless, unless it is a house and not a heap of garbage.

It's hard to even give an example of the ridiculous mistakes that can occur if you actually try to speak without grammatical rules. I wanted to come up with an example from my head, but this is impossible, because knowledge sets limits to the imagination. The absurd grammatical constructions that a person can come up with will have a grammatical form one way or another, because our minds try to attach meaning to even made-up words.

In reality, you can hear from native English speakers that they sometimes do not understand what they are trying to say. The words are all known, but you can’t put the meaning together. It's a matter of grammar, because the meaning is completely lost or distorted, so it can be misleading.

Every language has its own unique grammatical structure, although some languages ​​have very similar grammatical structures. Grammar is the least moving part of a language, although it changes over time.

If you compare the dialects of Germany and Russia or different varieties of the English language, it will become obvious that phonetics and vocabulary are the most mobile, while grammar remains relatively stable, although, of course, it changes over time.

How does grammar work? Here's a simple example: the concept of plurality in language. You can't do without it. Plurality can be expressed by additional words - this is a lexical way of expression, or it can be expressed using an ending - this is a grammatical way: more than one ruble - rubles In the first case, words expressed the concept of set, and in the second, grammar. Ending - And is an indicator of multiplicity.

Grammar can indicate relations of time, quantity, plurality, direction of action, the speaker's relationship to the message, completeness, and so on. A set of homogeneous internally opposed grammatical phenomena is called grammatical categories. For example, quantity ratios. One and several - these concepts are the same in relation to quantity, but are opposed in mutually exclusive meaning. Either one or several. Time is the same, either now, or later, or earlier. Such associations of homogeneous linguistic meanings expressed by grammatical means are called grammatical categories.

There are general grammatical categories and private categories. General categories are parts of speech. Particular categories include number, gender, case, person, tense, mood, collective, modality, voice, and so on. We will not list them all. It should only be said that in some languages ​​the grammatical category is politeness or obscurity of the source of information.

The grammatical category assumes that some information is woven directly into the fabric of the language and permeates all speech. Different languages ​​have their own grammatical categories, and some have features that others do not. For example, grammatical gender is an integral part of the Russian language, but this category does not exist in English.

On the other hand, definiteness is a grammatical category in English, where it is expressed by an article, but in Russian there is no definiteness as a grammatical category. In Russian, definiteness is a lexical phenomenon.

Grammatical categories work on opposition: either one or the other. When the ending of an adjective in Russian shows what gender the noun belongs to, then the principle of either, or, or, works, for example, red,red, red. If the adjective is feminine, it will no longer be masculine or neuter. Cybernetics is built on a similar principle, but the language is more multifaceted than cybernetics, because it works not only on the one-zero principle, but covers several aspects at once and is not completely subject to the laws of logic.

It is impossible to separate grammar from language. Isolating grammar is a relative matter; it is impossible to separate the shape of a brick from the clay from which it is made. Material cannot be separated from form when they form one object. The properties of iron as a material make it possible to make needles for sewing. A material such as carrots will not allow itself to be made into a needle for sewing, because material and shape mutually determine each other. Also, grammar is intertwined with phonetics and lexical meanings in each language, differently. Therefore, the same meaning in different languages ​​can be expressed either by grammatical or lexical means. As already mentioned, in the Russian language definiteness is expressed by lexical features, and in Germanic languages ​​- by lexical ones.

The most common and necessary categories in the grammar of any language are parts of speech. The description of any language begins with their description. And a description of the language is necessary for its learning and teaching. In each language, the parts of speech form a single system in which they are both interconnected and separated from each other at the same time.

For example, a verb and a noun are connected in a language because they are contained within the same system, but they are also separated because they are opposed within the same system. Language cannot do without words that name objects and actions, which means that these words interact within one system, but these words have different formal characteristics, and this separates them from having different purposes. Just as a verb cannot exist without a noun, a noun cannot exist without a verb.

The parts of speech are unequal. The most important information is provided by a noun and a verb. But the information they carry needs clarification. For this there are adjectives, numerals and adverbs.

The verb - the most important part of speech - has the categories of tense, person, aspect, voice, number, and in different languages ​​some other special categories that we do not know.

If the case of a noun depends on its role in the sentence, then the case of the adjective repeats the case of the noun; The gender and number of the adjective depend on the noun, that is, the noun and the adjective agree. Sometimes adjectives can become nouns, e.g. dining room, patient, but then they fall into the category of a noun and are subject to their laws.

Numerals are the part of speech that determines quantity. Every now and then we count something: hours, minutes, learned English or German words, money, and so on, and yet the name numeral includes only a few dozen words that can name an infinite number of numbers.

Participle, gerund, adverb - all parts of speech have their own grammatical features, but a detailed consideration of them is not part of our plans. Our goal is to consider practical issues.

When considering questions of grammar, you should always remember that the general purpose of grammatical categories is the same - they are responsible for the connections of words in the language and play an organizing role.

Language is a living phenomenon, and our knowledge about it is the result of observation of a highly complex, mobile organism. It's no secret that the observer never takes in everything that is in his field of vision. Likewise, the most talented scientists never see the complete picture of the interconnection of elements in a language. Therefore, no description of a language can be considered complete, accurate or definitive.

Outside of the practical realm, such as teaching, translating, learning foreign languages, or recovering ancient dead languages, linguistics can largely be considered an art as much as a science. Using the above as an introduction, we will move on to questions of the general grammatical structure of languages.

Synthetic and analytical languages

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger said that language is the house of being, permeated by its structure; Existence itself is comprehended through language.

The idea of ​​home is an allegory we are already familiar with. Allegory is when abstract concepts are explained by categories of everyday life. And so you can imagine: language is a house with a roof, doors, windows, floors, everything that is inherent in the house is its outer side. A house is needed so that there is somewhere to hide from bad weather, receive guests, and relax - this is the purpose of the house, that is, its essence. You can imagine a language as a kind of house, consisting of sounds, words, sentences that are connected by general rules. This is the outside. Language is needed so that our soul and mind can live and work in it. This is the raison d'être of language. Why isn't language and home similar?

Languages ​​differ from each other, just like at home. But no matter how different languages ​​are, they are all perfect. All languages ​​are capable of development. Any natural language has enough means to express any human thought.

The words of a language can be likened to the building material of a language, grammatical connections to the methods of attaching building blocks to make a house stand.

Just as it is impossible to build a brick house according to the principle of a wigwam, it is also impossible to combine words of another language using the grammatical means of one language, especially if these languages ​​are fundamentally different in structure, and if these languages ​​have different grammatical categories, different parts of speech, or have no parts of speech at all in our understanding .

After all, there are languages ​​in the world in which the same word appears in different functions, depending on its place in the order of words. Then, outwardly, the same form of the word acquires different grammatical meanings, appearing in the sentence as a subject, a predicate, or an object. For example, in English, words can usually play different roles: The pilots pilot regularly. WITH The word pilot in this context has two different meanings - it is the pilots who control the aircraft, and it is piloting, the action directly related to the control of the aircraft.

Each of these meanings, as on a photographic film, appears in the context of speech in a sentence. Words can also appear in phrases depending on their position among other words. In speech, a word, in addition to its lexical meaning, also acquires a grammatical meaning and becomes a member of a sentence. But the word pilot is not formally part of speech; it has no external qualifiers. At the same time, there are words in English that can be defined as parts of speech, for example, development or worker, because they have endings.

The systems of grammatical connections in languages ​​are different, and, as a rule, it is impossible to combine words of another language using the grammatical means of one language. It is possible, perhaps, to somehow construct a very elementary phrase, for example, a Russian phrase, using English grammar. This is still somehow possible. After all, Russian and English have a lot in common. Both of these languages ​​belong to the Indo-European language family.

Let's take an English phrase: I see Ivan in the yard every day. In Russian it would be: I see Ivan in the yard every day. Russian words with English grammar means will give something like: I see Ivan in this yard every day.

In principle it is clear. We can somehow translate and understand Russian words based on English grammatical connections, because these languages ​​are still close, and because we know the basics of the English language, and the phrase itself is the simplest. It would be a different matter if we took Chinese words, put them together using Finnish grammar, and asked a Cuban to parse what was written, giving him a Chinese-Spanish dictionary. It's hard to imagine what would have happened because Spanish, Chinese and Finnish are three languages ​​from different language families. They have little in common and have different ways of expressing grammatical relationships.

Since every grammatical category has its own meaning and way of expressing this meaning, the grammatical systems of different languages ​​can have differences and similarities in various grammatical features. For example, in terms of the category of gender of a noun, the Russian and German languages ​​are similar to each other, since both of these languages ​​have a gender, but they are opposed to the English language, which does not have a grammatical category of gender. It was a comparison by presence and absence grammatical category. In turn, Russian and German languages ​​are contrasted by way of expression grammatical gender of nouns. In Russian, gender is determined by the ending of the word or the gender of the adjective, for example, good dad. In German, the main determinant of gender is the article. Languages ​​are united by the same categories, but separated by ways of expressing them.

Thus, when starting to study a language or research it, we must take into account that we not only have to learn the words of the language being studied, but also the system of connections between words in the language being studied, that is, grammatical meanings and ways of expressing these grammatical meanings.

Imagine the picture that I only know two words in the language, do I know the language? Haende hoch And how do you do?- this is not knowledge of the language. A person can know a hundred words and not be able to explain himself.

Speaking in their native language, a person, as a rule, does not think about grammatical structure. You can live your life and not know that grammar exists. You and I, to one degree or another, speak a foreign language. But how often do we think about expressing grammatical meanings? Hardly. When learning a foreign language as a child, everything worked out somehow naturally over time. At school, over the years, we have memorized something, learned phrases, and perhaps over time we have comprehended and imagined the categories of time, numbers, persons, and so on. The main thing is that we can use the language.

But such comprehension of the language took years. And if we had a chance to learn a new language now, where would we start if we didn’t have six or even eight years of work with a patient teacher ahead of us? Where would we start? From memorizing words from the dictionary? But we would soon reach a dead end.

Of course, we should start with fundamental questions. The most important task when learning a foreign language is to decide how the subject-object relationship is expressed. Next comes mastering how definitions are expressed, how grammatical tense is constructed, and so on. That is, how language works, by what principle words are connected in this new language for us.

It's hard to imagine how some languages ​​work, what grammatical categories they have, and how these categories are expressed. But someone always has knowledge about the languages ​​we need. And you should learn from these people. People who actually study languages ​​always systematize their accumulated knowledge. And at this stage we come to the issue of systematization of knowledge, or more precisely, to the issue of grammatical classification of languages. To such a classification that will show, even determine, how to approach learning a new language for us and where to start learning it.

Classifications of languages ​​help you take the first step in understanding a language that is still unknown to you. And, of course, classifications help to work with language. Since we are now examining questions of grammar, we are interested in the grammatical classification of languages, that is, the classification of the grammatical means of languages, and how these means are expressed.

The most rational way to classify languages ​​is classification by means of expression grammatical meanings. That is, by what means are grammatical meanings expressed in the language, because grammatical meanings, if they exist, must always be expressed somehow.

Not all languages ​​have the same grammatical meanings or the same categories. Let's take, for example, the category of gender. As already mentioned, in Russian the grammatical meaning of gender is expressed by the ending ( a, ya, -ch - feminine, o, e - neuter, consonant - masculine), in German - an article (die, das, der), in English there is no gender as a grammatical category, only pronouns can lexically indicate masculine, feminine and neuter gender, but grammatically this does not affect anything.

If we compare the Russian and English languages: he went, she went, it went and he walked, she walked and it went, then in Russian the gender has its own expression, but in English it does not. The difference is that in Russian the whole phrase must be oriented towards grammatical gender.

Different languages ​​have different grammatical categories, which in turn have different meanings and are expressed by different grammatical means.

Imagine if all the languages ​​of the world had the same grammatical categories, then there would be freedom, know, substitute words for yourself, but the reality is not so simple.

There are about 3,000 languages ​​in the world, and they all have, to one degree or another, different means of expressing grammatical meanings, but, despite the variety of means of expressing grammatical meanings, there are two main means of expressing them in the languages ​​of the world. This synthetic and analytical ways of expressing grammatical categories.

Based on the predominant use of analytical and synthetic methods of grammatical connections, languages ​​can be divided into synthetic and analytical languages. It is impossible to give an example of a purely synthetic or purely analytical language, since not a single purely synthetic or purely analytical language has been discovered on earth, although the nature of things fully allows their existence. Speaking about synthetic and analytical languages, we should talk about the predominant use of analytical and synthetic ways of expressing grammatical meanings.

Ways to express grammatical connections inside words are called synthetic methods. This method assumes the possibility of combining several morphemes in one word: root, word-forming and inflectional.

Synthetic ways of expressing grammar include:

1 - internal inflection,

2 - affixation,

3 - repetitions,

4 - addition,

5 - emphasis,

6 - suppletivism.

That is, grammatical categories are expressed within words.

In turn, the expression of grammatical connections beyond words called the analytical method. Analyticism presupposes the separate expression of lexical and grammatical meanings. It manifests itself in the morphological invariability of the word and in the use of auxiliary elements, which, in combination with significant lexical units, form complex, in other words, analytical forms. For example, in Russian: I will read. Analytical form of the future tense of the verb. Or more important - this is a compound, that is, analytical, form of the comparative degree.

Analytical ways of expressing grammar include:

1 - way of using function words,

2 - way to use word order,

3 - way of using intonation.

The meaning of the terms synthetic and analytical comes down to the fact that with the synthetic tendency of the grammatical structure of a language, the grammatical meaning is synthesized, that is, combined with lexical meanings within the word, which, with the unity of the word, is a strong indicator of the whole.

With the analytical tendency, grammatical meanings are separated from the expression of lexical meanings, that is, lexical meanings are concentrated in one word, and grammatical meanings are expressed either by function words accompanying the significant word, or by the order of the significant words themselves, or by intonation accompanying the sentence, but not by the word expressing lexical meaning.

As already mentioned, there are no languages ​​that are completely analytical or completely synthetic, but all languages ​​can be divided according to the principle of the predominance of analytical or synthetic ways of expressing grammatical meanings.

Let's try to give the following example. We'll take the Russian offer there are big tables, Let's translate it into several languages ​​and see how the plural is expressed:

German: Die grossen Tische stehen. The plural is expressed four times: by the article analytically and by affixes in the noun Tisch-e, in the adjective gross-en and in the verb steh-en synthetically.

English: The big tables stand. The plural is expressed twice: in the noun table-s the number is expressed by the ending -s, and in the verb - by the absence of the ending -s, that is, by the zero ending stand, indicating a singular number in the present tense synthetically.

French: Le s grand es table s rest ent debou t. The plural is expressed only once in the article le s, which is read "le". This is an analytical way.

Let's take the lesser-known Kazakh language: Ulken stoldartur - the plural is expressed once in a noun stoldar, that is, synthetically.

In Russian, the plural is expressed three times - in the noun tables, in an adjective big ones and in the verb hundred-yat. All three times the plural is expressed synthetically.

So, we looked at how the meaning of the plural is expressed using the example of 5 languages, and there are about 3,000 languages ​​in the world. And yet, according to the ways of expressing grammatical meanings, all the languages ​​of the world can be divided into languages ​​of a predominantly analytical and predominantly synthetic structure.

Typical synthetic languages ​​include ancient written languages: Sanskrit, ancient Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Church Slavonic; modern synthetic languages ​​are Lithuanian, Russian, German, although analytical methods actively work in their system.

Analytical languages ​​include Romance languages, English, Danish, Modern Greek, Modern Persian, and Bulgarian among the Slavic languages.

Analytical ways of expressing grammatical meanings

We have already looked at the issue of grammatical connections, namely, how grammar works, and how grammatical meanings can be expressed synthetically and analytically.

It should be remembered that analytical means of expressing grammatical meanings are means outside the word. This is a method of word order that is well known to all students of English, French and German; This is the use of function words, and a method of intonation that works in Russian, and in English, and in the vast majority of languages ​​of the world. Thus, we have identified three analytical methods for consideration.

Word order method

We will start with the method of word order, as the most easily systematized and remembered.

In many languages ​​of the world, although certainly not in all, the grammatical relations of subject and object, or in other words the relations of doer and sufferer, are expressed only by word order. Thus, word order shows, for example, who is eating and what is eaten, or who is inviting and who is invited.

Of the languages ​​known to us, such languages ​​are English and French. In these languages, the producer of the action, that is, the subject, is always in first place, and the object is always in second. For example:

In English: The father loves the son. The son loves the father. The mother loves the daughter. The daughter loves the mother.

In French: Le pere aime le fils. Le fils aime le pere. La mere aime la fille. La fille aime la mere.

Translated into Russian, the English phrase “The father loves the son” means: “The father loves the son.” Having in our minds solid skills in the Russian language, in which synthetic means predominate, we may, to strengthen the phrase, want to construct something like Russian: “The father loves his son!”, But a simple rearrangement of words will do us a disservice, because if we Let’s say “The son loves the father”, then it will not turn out “The father loves the son”, but “The son loves the father” and nothing else. Because word order in English expresses the object-subject relationship. This does not mean that the English language does not have expressive means of enhancing meaning or conveying emotional meaning. Of course, there are such means, and they work great, but these are, first of all, lexical means or a method of function words. Our task is to understand and remember that there is a big difference between synthetic and analytical languages. What is possible in one language is unacceptable in another.

In Russian, word order has nothing to do with expressing the relationship between subject and object. The relationship between subject and object is expressed by cases. The nominative case denotes the producer of the action, and the accusative case denotes the object of the action. And this is what we have as a result: “The father loves the son.” The word father is in the nominative case, son - in the accusative case. You can safely change words in places. The stylistic or emotional coloring changes, but the subject-object relationship does not change.

In Latin, as in Russian, any permutations are possible, for example: Pater amat filium. Pater filium amat. Amat pater filium. Amat filium pater. Filium pater amat. Filium amat pater. All words are rearranged, but the case forms of words and the form of the verb remain unchanged.

In German, the subject-object relationship is expressed by articles: Der Vater liebt den Sohn. One might say: Den Sohn liebt der Vater.

Of course, some order of words will be more familiar or usual, so to speak, the norm of a neutral statement, and other orders will have a stylistic meaning, but this is not an indicator of the main content of the phrase.

However, it should be noted that in the Russian language there are nouns that have the same forms in the nominative and accusative cases. These include inanimate masculine nouns or feminine and neuter nouns ending in a soft sibilant and indeclinable nouns. The subject and object in sentences with such words are determined only by the place before or after the predicate. For example: “The table scratches the chair.” "Night follows day." “The daughter loves the mother,” and so on.

In addition to the fact that the order of words in languages ​​of the analytical system expresses the subject-object relationship, the order of words expresses in them the relationship of the defined and the definition. And this is the second aspect of using word order.

In English, green grass and grass green are translated as “green grass” and “herbal greens”. In French, les savants sourds means "deaf scholars" and les sourds savants means "deaf scholars." Moreover, the word order is opposite to the Russian order in the relation determined - defining. The qualifying word in French comes after the qualifying word. In English, the qualified word always follows the modifier. As we can see, in the English and French languages ​​the relations between the defined and the defining are built solely depending on their mutual location.

In German and Russian, the forms of the qualifying noun and the qualifying adjective are different, that is, as a rule, they cannot be confused externally, for example: round house - home circle. But there are exceptions when the forms of the adjective and noun do not differ, for example, “deaf scientists” and “deaf scientists” - both are nouns derived from adjectives; in such cases, in the Russian language, word order is the only formal indicator of the relations of the determiner - definable.

In those languages ​​where word order is fixed to express grammatical relations, it can hardly be used for stylistic purposes, and, conversely, in languages ​​where word order is free, word rearrangement is an important stylistic technique called inversion. In Russian, word order is a very strong stylistic device: “I saw a new book.” “I saw a new book.” "I saw a new book." “I saw a new book” and so on.

It should be noted that our linguistic experience and traditions of the Russian language have built a solid, familiar sequence of words in a sentence: subject - predicate - object. One gets the impression of a “fixed word order,” but we must remember that word order in synthetic languages ​​is a stylistic tradition, and not a grammatical necessity. This is also true for Latin and German.

In analytical languages, word order is the main and often the only way to distinguish the subject from the predicate and the definition from the defined. Word order can also express the question-answer relationship. This does not apply to the Russian language. In Russian, intonation works, and in writing, a question mark indicates a question: “Will you come with me?” and “Will you come with me.”

The situation is different in English and German. In English, the tense system is Continuous Tense: I am sitting. Am I sitting? Perfect Tense: I have sat. Have I sat? All forms of passive voice also distinguish between question and answer according to word order: I am invited. Am I invited? I have been invited. Have I been invited? And so on. Only in Simple Tense the question is posed using the auxiliary verb do without rearranging the words. You can generally express a question using intonation, such as: You know that. Do you know that? But this only works if the context is strictly followed and has a tinge of doubt or clarification. If you ask a question in one intonation out of context, you may not be understood.

In German, questions are also asked by reversing the places of the subject and predicate or by reversing the function verb in front of the subject. Sie wissen. Wissen sie? Ich habe einen Freund. Habe ich einen Freund? Ich bin eingeladen. Bin Ich eingeladen? Without rearranging the words, you cannot pose a question in German, again, except in cases of asking again or doubt, where intonation can work. Word order in German is the main means of building question-answer relationships.

We looked at three different types of grammatical relations that are expressed by word order.

From our examples, word order can determine at least three types of relationships:

Firstly, the subject-object relationship, for example, “The dog sees the cat” - “The cat sees the dog” - the object comes before the predicate, the subject comes after the predicate.

Secondly, the relationship between the defined word and the defining word, for example “green grass” and “grass green”, the defining word is in front, followed by the qualifying word.

Thirdly, the distinction between affirmative and interrogative statements, for example, “I am invited” - “Am I invited?”, “Sie sind eingeladen.” - “Sind sie eingeladen?”

We took only a few languages, but the examples are very eloquent and unambiguous: a simple rearrangement of words in the languages ​​considered completely changes the relationships between words. Considering that there are about 3,000 languages ​​in the world, it is safe to say that there are other types of grammatical meanings that are expressed by word order, but it is not our intention to consider them. We set ourselves the task of fixing in our memory the fundamental scheme of how word order works in grammar and, therefore, we will not delve into this area, since further, according to the logic of things, there would be a dry classification of permutations of words with a listing of their specific semantic meanings in different languages.

Let us dwell on the fact that understanding the importance of word order should turn into the habit of monitoring word order in foreign languages, so that we do not transfer the freedom of Russian word arrangement to languages ​​that do not have it and do not make mistakes, trying to “speak beautifully.”

Method of function words

This is a way of expressing grammatical connections in which grammatical meanings are expressed not within the significant word, but with the help of function words that accompany the significant words. Thus, words that carry lexical meaning are exempt from the expression of grammar when it comes to analytical languages. In synthetic languages, function words can accompany inflection.

Function words, which corresponds to their name, are deprived of a nominative function, since they do not name anything, but only strengthen the relationships between the members of the sentence. Just as the bricks of a house are connected with mortar, so words in analytical languages, and in synthetic ones too, are held together by function words.

Those connections that in Russian are expressed by cases or a combination of case and preposition, in English, for example, are expressed by prepositions.

Let's take six Russian cases and inflect the word cat by comparing it with the English word cat.

Them. THE CAT eats THE CAT word order

Genus. CAT'S TAIL OF THE CAT

Dat. CAT I give meat TO THE CAT

Vin. CAT I see THE CAT word order

Creation CAT-OM play WITH THE CAT

Suggestion ABOUT THE CAT

In English, inflections, what we call endings in school, are responsible only for the number of nouns, that is, the grammatical meanings of nouns are expressed using word order and function words. In our example, the forms corresponding to the nominative and accusative cases are not expressed in any way, since in a sentence they would be conveyed by word order, but the four other cases correspond to combinations of prepositions and significant words, that is, function words work.

The term “function words” defines words whose purpose is solely to express grammatical meanings, even if some function words are superficially similar to significant words. The clearest boundary between significant and function words is function. If a word carries a lexical meaning, it is a significant word; if a word determines a grammatical meaning, it is a function word. For example, "I have a book" - "I have been fine." The same word “have” appeared differently in two different sentences: as a semantic verb “to have” and as an indicator of Perfect Tense.

Function words can be divided into several groups, which should be distinguished from each other: these are prepositions, conjunctions, particles, articles, auxiliary verbs, these are words of degree, these are empty words. In total we will highlight seven groups.

Prepositions express subordinating relationships between members of a sentence and indicate temporal, spatial, target, causal and many other connections in different languages.

For example, “before the lesson, after the lesson, during the lesson” - these prepositions indicate temporary relations; in English they correspond to: “before the lesson, after the lesson, during the lesson.” Spatial relations are expressed by prepositions such as in, from, at, about, away, near, through, and so on, there are quite a lot of them. In English they correspond to in, out of, near, far away, close, through etc - this is also a very important and numerous group of prepositions.

Considering all types of prepositions in all the variety of their meanings, even using the example of two languages, will be tedious, so we will not do this, but we will especially note that, by definition, prepositions express subordinating relationships between words, that is, members of a sentence.

In some languages, prepositions appear after words with lexical meanings, then they are called postpositions, postpositions do not differ from prepositions in their functions, but only in location, so we do not separate them into a special group. I can give an example from the Azerbaijani language. The Russian inscription on the bus “place for children” with the preposition “for” will correspond to the phrase “yer balalar uchun”, where “uchun” corresponds to the Russian “for”, but is a preposition. In Russian there are phrases like: “Not for self-interest, but by the will of the wife who sent me” or “not for fun, but for order,” but these are not postpositions, but a stylistic use of prepositions, since it would be more normal to say “Not for self-interest, not for fun, for order.”

Postpositions are words that, according to the rules of grammar, express relationships between members of a sentence, that is, between words, and are located after the associated words.

Unions express coordinating relationships between words in simple sentences and coordinating connections between complex sentences: connective - and, yes, adversative - a, but, dividing - either-or, either-or. For example, I will eat porridge and cabbage soup. I will eat porridge, but not cabbage soup. I will eat either porridge or cabbage soup. In English these are conjunctions and, but not, either, or and others. In German und, aber nicht, entweder… oder. "I will sing and you will sing." “I will read, and you will listen.” “Either I go or you.” They correspond to the English sentences “I’ll sing, and you’ll sing.” "I'll read, and you'll listen." “Either I go, or you.”

Unions express relationships of subordination between parts of a complex sentence, For this purpose, prepositions are used in a simple sentence. Subordinating conjunctions what, when, what if and others express relations of time, conditions or goals. For example: “I want it to be fun” ... “He will come when needed” ... “I’m sleeping to kill time” ... “I’ll call you if I have time.”

We will jump ahead into the area of ​​syntax and make a short digression to outline the differences between coordinating and subordinating relationships. Words that are independent of each other and can easily do without each other in a given context enter into a coordinative connection. Such words can be rearranged, one of them can be removed, and the grammatical structure will not change and the sentence will not lose its meaning. For example: “I will read and write.” "I will write and read." "I will read." "I will write." Homogeneous members of the sentence enter into a coordinative connection. “I will write and the mouse” cannot be called a coordinating connection. Or “I’m coming in and reading.” Or “I’m good and read.” This is not a coordinating connection. Coordinating communication requires homogeneous members of the sentence.

A subordinating relationship represents a closer grammatical relationship. Words with such a connection cannot be mechanically rearranged. You can't throw out words without damaging the structure of the sentence. Words do not work independently, but they necessarily complement each other. In this case, the defining word is subordinate to the defined word. For example, in the sentence “I’m looking at the cat” you cannot replace it with “I’m looking at the cat” or add words from it without losing the integrity of the structure, the top: “I’m looking at” or “I’m looking at the cat.” This is a connection of a completely different nature.

The fourth type of function words is particles. All particles can be divided into two groups. Particles can express modal and non-modal meanings.

Term modal comes from the Latin word “modus” - way. Modal meanings in grammar express the target setting of the utterance: belief, question, doubt, command or personal attitude of the speaker to what he is saying.

Here are some examples: he after all knew Yes he knew he same knew - all these are modal particles that strengthen the statement. Or: neither one, Not knows - neither and not - these are negative particles. Knows whether He? - question. Let it go, let it go, let it go- these modal particles express motivation. At least, if only - desirability. Yes, supposedly - doubt.

Non-modal values ​​do not carry a target setting. Restrictive - only, only, English just (just for you), German nur (nicht nur heute). Connection too, also, English too, either, German ouch. excretory and, even, everything. For example, And you were invited. You won't even please me. Everything is not good for you. In English it is a particle even, and in German so gar.

Prepositions, conjunctions and particles are well known to Russian speakers, since they are actively used in everyday speech, and there is no particular point in dwelling on them; articles are another matter, but they will be discussed in another chapter.

Function words

Articles

Next we will talk about function words that are known to us to a much lesser extent, since they are not part of our native language. We will talk about articles, which may present some difficulty due to the fact that we do not have the skill of using articles other than that obtained as a result of training in the process of learning foreign languages.

It is known that articles are needed in English, German, French, Bulgarian, Arabic and some other languages. But something in the depths of consciousness says: “Why are they needed? And so everything is clear.”

Why these the and a? If you need to express certainty, take this, uncertainty - put one. But language lives not according to our ideas about it, but according to its own laws. The presence of articles is a fact of many languages ​​of the world, and this must be taken into account as a reality. You just need to know about articles.

If you ask a native English speaker how he understands English speech when it is spoken by omitting the articles, the Englishman will most likely say that this is a speech error acceptable for small children or foreigners. The meaning will be quite clear, but the speech will be illiterate, because the article is an integral part of the grammatical structure.

The absence or presence of an article carries both a grammatical and semantic load, which is instantly recorded by the listeners. Eliminating the article from an English phrase will roughly correspond to eliminating cases in a Russian phrase, for example: “A friend came to see me on Wednesday and we went outside for a walk.” Just as the above phrase will be completely understandable, but distorted, so an English phrase without articles will be understandable, but unpleasant to the ear.

In German, the article carries a greater semantic load than in English. In German, articles not only indicate definite-indefinite relations, but also determine the cases of nouns. In some cases, the article is the only determinant of subject-object relations. So, for example, the sentences “Der Fater liebt den Sohn” and “Den Fater liebt der Sohn” mean different things. The significant words are the same, but the messages are radically different due to the articles. In the first case, “The father loves the son,” and in the second, “The son loves the father.” However, the situation is not so dramatic, because in the neuter and feminine gender the relationship between subject and object is determined by word order, and not by articles, for example: “Die Mutter sihet die Tochter” and “Die Tochter sihet die Mutter”. Consequently, in German it would be possible to convey grammatical meanings by word order, which means that the meaning can be conveyed without an article.

Then the question arises, why do we need an article if without it we can fully understand the meaning of the statement? Why does the law of conservation of linguistic means not work, and the article does not die out? Apparently, the article takes on a number of relatively unimportant functions that can be expressed or duplicated by lexical means or word order, but, By combining, small functions make the existence of the article justified both from the point of view of preserving the richness of the language, and from the point of view of saving linguistic resources. Language is a living organism, and if something exists in it, then it certainly has a reason, even if we do not understand it.

There are approximately 3,000 languages ​​coexisting in the world, and the functions of articles in all languages ​​where they exist could be the subject of a separate study, but this is not our plan. Based only on the European languages ​​known to us, we will identify and consider five main functions of articles that can be useful to us both in practice and in terms of expanding general knowledge about the language.

First of all, the article is the most typical grammatical accompaniment of words naming objects or phenomena. Such words in Russian grammar are combined into a separate category called noun. Consequently, the first function of the article is to grammatically indicate the name that it accompanies. In many languages, the name notation function is used to convert non-nominal words into nominal ones. This phenomenon is called conversion.

Conversion is a phenomenon in which a word moves into another grammatical category and falls into another paradigm without changing the morphological composition of the word. Here are a number of examples: German language “schreiben and das Schreiben” - writing and writing as a process. The French language “charme” is to enchant, charm are verbs, and “le charme” is the noun “charm”. English "play" and "the play". This type of conversion, which consists of converting verbs into nouns, is called substantivization. In the Russian language this phenomenon is impossible, since there are no articles. In the Russian language, to transform a noun into an adjective, morphological means are used, for example, to play is a game, to live is to live, and at the same time the morphological composition changes, that is, word formation takes place.

In languages ​​where there is an article, entire sentences can be turned into nouns, for example, the German expression “an und fuer sich sein” (to exist in and for oneself) is easily transformed into “das An und fuer sich Sein” (being in oneself and for oneself) is a philosophical term. As an example from everyday life, you can take wash and go - this is an imperative mood, and “the wash and go” is the name of a shampoo, something like “washing and walking.” When this name entered the Russian language, the article was lost, and the characteristics of the noun began to be expressed by means of the language that mastered it. As a result, we can say “new wash-and-go” or “fake wash-and-go”. The fact that we do without an article does not mean at all that an Englishman can do without it. In the flow of English speech, “wash and go” without an article will sound like “wash and go.”

The second grammatical function is the distinction between the categories of certainty and uncertainty. In English there are definite, indefinite and zero articles. Words accompanied by a definite article, as a rule, name things already known to the interlocutors. These objects may be mentioned earlier in the same conversation, they may be in front of the eyes, or they may be considered known to all native speakers. The indefinite article grammatically shows that we are talking about one item from a whole series of items. The indefinite article, as it were, introduces us to the thing, so that in subsequent speech we indicate that the thing is already familiar to both parties. It turns out a standard connection: familiarity - certainty.

With the appearance of each new property, a new acquaintance with the required designation and

Lecture 6 Vocabulary composition of the language

The lecture examines the lexical system of the Russian language, taking into account various classical units.

Lecture No. 6. Vocabulary composition of the language

The lecture examines the lexical system of the Russian language, taking into account various classical units.

Lecture outline

6.1. The origin of the vocabulary of modern Russian language

6.2. Vocabulary of the Russian language from the point of view of the sphere of use

6.3. Vocabulary of the Russian language from the point of view of active and passive stock

6.1. The origin of the vocabulary of modern Russian language

Vocabulary composition of the language (vocabulary)- this is the totality of all the words of a given language. Vocabulary is also called the totality of words of a writer, an individual, or the composition of the words of a work.

Forming the composition of the Russian language is a long and complex process. Along with words that appeared in the language relatively recently, there are a large number of words that are very ancient, but actively used at the present time.

Lexicology- a branch of linguistics that studies the vocabulary of a language. In the course of lexicology, words of the Russian language are examined from various points of view: the meanings of words, their place in the general system of the language, origin, and stylistic coloring are studied.

In terms of origin In the vocabulary of the Russian language two layers can be distinguished:

• · original Russian words;
• · borrowed words.

Original Russian words - words that arose in the Russian language at any stage of its development.

Some original words were inherited by the modern language from the common Slavic language, which existed before the 7th century AD. For example: sun, sky, summer, earth, birch, oak, sparrow, bull, head, hand, heart, white, blue, black, etc.

Part of the original vocabulary arose in the Old Russian language, which was spoken by the inhabitants of Kievan Rus (VII - XIII centuries): tornado, snowfall, squirrel, cat, flower, buckwheat, pea, pepper, boyfriend, uncle, nephew, etc.

Since the 14th century The stock of actual Russian words is replenished: grandmother, child, butterfly, canary, chicken, strawberry, cucumber, dandelion, smile, play tricks, get lost, cloudy, dim, purple, etc.

Borrowed (foreign) words - words that came into the Russian language from other languages.

The borrowing of words is associated with the expansion of economic and cultural ties between peoples, the emergence of new objects and concepts for which there were no special names in the Russian language.

A special group among words borrowed from the Russian language are Old Church Slavonicisms. Old Slavonicisms - words borrowed from Old Church Slavonic: power, sweet, enemy, equal, young man, etc. Old Slavonic (Church Slavonic) language is the language of the most ancient liturgical books. The borrowing of Old Church Slavonic words was facilitated by the spread of Christianity in Rus' and the influence of monuments of Old Church Slavonic writing.

Phonetic features of Old Church Slavonicisms:

1) combinations ra, la, re, le, corresponding to Russian combinations oro, olo, ere, barely: hail - city, head - head, shore - shore, captivity - full;

2) initial combinations ra, la, corresponding to Russian combinations ro, lo: equal - equal, rook - boat;

3) the initial combination of sounds [ye], corresponding to Russian [o]: one - one, autumn - autumn(cf. also surname Yesenin);

4) the initial combination of sounds [yu], corresponding to Russian [u]: holy fool - ugly, young man - ugly;

5) initial sound [a], corresponding to Russian [ya]: lamb - lamb, az - I;

6) [railway] And [ sch], corresponding to Russian [zh] and [h]: leader - leader, lighting - candle.

Word-formation features of Old Church Slavonicisms:

1) consoles up-, down-, out-: ignite, fall, spew out;

2) suffixes -ash-, -yush-, -ush-, -yush-, -yn(ya), -tv(a), -zn-, -stv(ie): seeing, waiting, stronghold, battle, fear, disaster;

3) basics good-, good-, evil-, great-, vanity: well-being, slander, splendor, ambition, vanity.

In addition to Old Church Slavonicisms, a significant number of words from other languages ​​have penetrated into the Russian language. Many of them are no longer perceived by speakers as borrowed. For example, the words came from the German language bow, rutabaga, coat of arms, button, faucet, kitchen, brand, minute, chair, cord, etc., from French - ballet, pool, hammock, shower, chandelier, blizzard, fashion, million, cologne; from English - boxing, carriage, station, sports, express, etc.

The main features of borrowed words.

1. Double consonants at the root of a word: cash register, point withdrawn.
2. Confluence of vowel sounds: Oa zis, mosaic ka, adagio, duel.
3. Unstressed sound [o]: radio, cocoa, scherzo.
4. Pronunciation of a hard consonant before [e] (letter “e”): par[te]r, portmo[ne], pyu[re].
5. Letter uh at the root of the word: poet, energy, sir.
6. Combination of letters ІО and ьО: mayonnaise, broth.
7. Invariability of nouns and adjectives: coat, muffler, taxi, kangaroo; beige, khaki.

6.2. Vocabulary of the Russian language from the point of view of the sphere of use

From the point of view of the scope of use, words can be divided into two groups:

• common words
• · words that are limited in use.

The first group includes words whose use is not limited either by the territory of distribution or by the type of activity of people. These units form the basis of the vocabulary of the Russian language, they are all understandable and accessible to every native speaker and can be used in a wide variety of conditions, in all styles of speech without any restrictions: man, white, go, high, etc.

Vocabulary of a limited scope of use is widespread within a certain area or among people united by profession, common interests, and social characteristics. Thus, dialect words, special words - terms and professionalisms, and slang words are limited in use.

Dialect words (dialectisms)- these are words used only by residents of a particular area: beetroot(beet), cibula(onion), poles(apricots), kochet(rooster), hefty(Very); sash(belt), peplum(Beautiful), golitsy(mittens), etc. Dialect words are outside the boundaries of the literary language, but can be used in works of art to create speech characteristics of characters and describe local color: The eastern wind blows across the native steppe. Loga covered with snow. Padina And ravines equalized. There are no roads or paths. (M. Sholokhov). Log - ravine. Padina - narrow hollow. Yar- steep steep bank of the river.

Professional words (professionalisms) - words used by people of the same profession. Professionalisms are “unofficial” names of objects or concepts and do not have a strictly scientific nature.

For example, in the speech of printers: basement- the bottom of a newspaper page, where a separate article is placed, hat - a headline common to several articles in a newspaper; in the speech of programmers: net- computer network, screw- hard drive, computer storage device, printout - printed data.

Terms - words or combinations of words used for logically precise definition of special concepts. Characteristic features of the terms: 1) unambiguity, 2) lack of emotional and expressive coloring.

For example, linguistic terms: archaism, affix, morpheme, case, preposition, predicate, declension, numeral, etc.; medical terms: abscess, bronchitis, depression, infection, herbal medicine, electrocardiography, etc.; political science terms: authoritarianism, democracy, ideology, conformism, nation, opposition, faction, etc.

Methods of forming terms.

1. Borrowing words: algorithm, aria, vacuum, cybernetics, laser, metonymy, conveyor, keel, etc.
2. Formation of words by typical word formation models:

1) adding the basics: nuclear-powered icebreaker, smoke eliminator, cotyledons;

2) abbreviation (complex abbreviated method): UHF(high frequency ultraviolet rays), Power lines(power line), Efficiency(efficiency factor), etc.;

3) use of foreign language morphemes: biophysics, weather center, ultrasound, photosphere, etc.

1. Rethinking the meanings of well-known words: union(part of speech), root(the main part of the word), shoulder blade, pelvis(body parts), head, leg, pistil(plant parts).

The frequent use of many philosophical, medical, literary and other terms makes them common words: analysis, argument, concept, consciousness, novel, style, center of gravity, etc.

Slang words (jargonisms) - This is a socially limited group of words, located outside the literary language, belonging to some jargon.

Jargon - this is a set of features of the spoken speech of people united by a common interest, occupation, social status, etc. Jargon can arise in any group. There is the jargon of schoolchildren, students, musicians, athletes, army jargon, criminal jargon, etc. The most widespread in our time is youth slang (also called slang): computer - computer, run over - threaten, throw- to deceive, freebie- something that was received for free, etc.

In general, the vocabulary of the Russian language from the point of view of use can be presented as follows:

6.3. Vocabulary of the Russian language from the point of view of active and passive stock

The division of the vocabulary of the Russian language into active and passive vocabulary is associated with the frequency of use of lexical units that reflect the development of language and society.

Active vocabulary constitute popular words that are constantly used by speakers in all spheres of communication.

Passive vocabulary are words that are not widely used in speech:

1) outdated words,

2) new words (neologisms).

The relationship between active and passive words can be represented as the following diagram:

Vocabulary composition of the Russian language

(from the point of view of the active use of words)

Outdated words- these are words that have fallen out of active use: right hand(right hand) , ratay(plowman) , palace(castle) , thief(thief) , Victoria(victory). Among obsolete words, archaisms and historicisms are distinguished.

Archaisms - words that have become obsolete after being replaced by more modern lexical units. Typically, archaisms have synonyms among words in the modern language: airplane(airplane) , very(Very) , finger(finger) , eye(eye) , bedchamber (bedroom) , this(this).

Historicisms - words that have become obsolete with the disappearance of the objects they denoted: prince, boyar, policeman, merchant, guardsman, coachman, carriage, livery. Historicisms have no synonyms in modern language.

Neologisms - new words not yet included in the active vocabulary: aura(psychological climate), impeachment(deprivation of powers of senior officials), ufology(science that studies anomalous phenomena), charisma(giftedness), electorate(circle of voters), etc. Over time, neologisms can become part of the active vocabulary: computer, floppy disk, VCR, skateboard.

Perform a special aesthetic function author's neologisms - new words created by poets and writers.

Lonely there's a girl in the room,

The sounds of the flute excited her... (I. Severyanin)

It was January, or February,

Some damn Zimar. (A. Voznesensky)

The relationship between active and passive vocabulary of the Russian language during the 80-90s of the 20th century is described in the dictionary: Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 20th Century. Language changes / Ed. G. N. Sklyarevskaya. - St. Petersburg, 1998.