Article

Name: New Russian synonymy in the aspect of language attraction

Authors: Olkhovskaya A. I.

Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract:

The turn of the 21st century showed the substantial change in the synonymic composition of the Russian language due to the intensive borrowing of Anglicisms. This study focuses on the Russian synonymy novelties caused by lexical borrowings of recent years. 1 162 synonymous paradigms, including at least one borrowing introduced into the Russian language from the late 1980s to the present day, were analyzed. The synonym fund update indicates the transformation of semantic language space and, more broadly, of its concept sphere. Thus, the material is interpreted from the position of conceptualization of the linguistic worldview based on the law of synonymic attraction. Ideographic distribution of new synonyms and assessment of the synonym series update were applied. Two assumptions underlie the study: 1) thematic groups greatly enriched with synonyms correspond to the relevant spheres; 2) synonymic series augmented with numerous new components match the important concepts. The analysis revealed the semantic areas with a high synonymic increase. Synonymy of the ideographic sphere of “Society”, in particular, Internet communication, employment, equipment and IT technologies, sports and culture underwent the greatest changes, accounting for about 80 % of the synonymic rows. In the ideographic sphere of “Human”, the thematic groups of “Gender, sexuality”, “Hygiene, beauty procedures”, “Food”, “Thinking, cognition”, and “Human activity” demonstrated the greatest synonymic dynamics. The sphere of “Abstract categories” revealed the “equilibrium” synonymy. Ecological safety, media fame, Internet, emoticon, and shopping center prove to be the significant concepts of modern Russian society. Also, some conclusions were made concerning the worldview, values and ideological attitudes of contemporary Russian society.

Keywords: synonymy, borrowings, synonymic attraction, ideography, language worldview

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