4LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC CHANGES OF THE ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES: COMPARATIVE ASPECT
R. E. Xolmamatova
Chirchik State Pedagogical University Student, Tourism faculty, English language theory and practice Department Xolmamatovaruxshona2005@gmail.com
Scientific advisor: M.B Kenjayeva e-mail: kenjayevamuxlisa8@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The article presents a brief comparative analysis of lexical and semantic changes taking place in contemporary English and Russian. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article consists of the concepts of solidarity, language purism and progressive ideas about language, which contradicts them as a dynamically developing entity. The analysis of the examples given in the article confirms that word formation and borrowing are the main ways to refill the lexical stock of languages, and information technologies lead to semantic changes. The article attempts to determine the nature of lexical and semantic changes, the result of their impact on the language system and the effectiveness of communication.
Keywords: language, lexical change, semantic change, communication, language barrier.
Language, being a complex system, never stands still; it, like its speakers, develops and lives. Over time, any language undergoes changes that can be either subtle or profound, positive or negative. The great German linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote that "every language must be able to express everything, otherwise the people to which it belongs will not be able to go through all the stages of its development". For this reason, the lexical-semantic structure of the English and Russian languages is going through a period of natural changes due to the development of various spheres of our life. Everything that happens in the language causes a mixed reaction in the scientific and educational environment of British and Russian society, the media and even in business circles.
The purpose of the article is to find answers to the questions: 1) What methods of generation or sources of emergence of new vocabulary prevail in English and Russian languages? 2) What makes British and Russian linguists, scientists, journalists, and teachers worry about changes taking place in the language? Answers to the ques-
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tions posed can only be found based on scientific theories, as well as the results of linguistic research and authentic materials from the British and Russian media.
A language cannot remain unchanged if the speakers themselves and the world around them change. Proof of this is the fact that it is difficult to read in English the works of Shakespeare written in the 16th-17th centuries, and those written by A.S. Pushkin's lines: "Having become quiet, the servants trembled. Carrying boiling poison in his chest, the hetman locked himself in the room. Near the bed there in the darkness of the night', they are filled with words that are also difficult to perceive and understand even for native Russian speakers.
In both Russian and British society, the ideas of fixing language were and are being affirmed, as, for example, among the Slavophiles. Jonathan Swift in "Proposals for correcting, improving and consolidating the English language" in 1712 he spoke out sharply against all kinds of language changes and advocated fixing the language, prohibiting innovation, and preserving originality. On the contrary, the ideas of the expediency of the free formation of lexical noologisms (for example, D. Crystal, M Krongauz) emphasize that language changes are a natural process.
It is obvious that in the rapidly developing modern world, neither English nor Russian can remain unchanged monolithic languages, otherwise they will not be able to fulfill their main function - the function of effective communication. The processes of lexical-semantic changes are active and noticeable in the Russian and English languages. You can understand their qualitative and quantitative side by turning to the theory of language change, the main idea of which is to consider four equally important problems of changes in language: problems of restrictions, transition, entry and value judgment.
Solving the problem of restrictions determines possible conditions for lexical transformations through constant scientific observation of real linguistic phenomena. Answers to transition questions allow us to understand how language changes, how the language system moves from one state to another, whether changes occur gradually or suddenly, whether they are regular or not, whether the change is global or exceptional. Value judgment provides a critical analysis of the impact of lexical changes on the language system and communication efficiency. The problem of the entry of new linguistic elements affects the linguistic system and the social environment, where changes occur.
Lexico-semantic changes that occur in any language cannot be spontaneous; they are always conditioned and arise in response to the needs of the nomination. The era of the Internet and modern technology has had the most powerful impact on languages and their evolution. New lexical units have appeared (and continue to appear),
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and familiar words acquire new meanings and meanings.
The creation of new realities entailed an objective need for a meaningful (not free) nomination. In this situation, the English language used exclusively its own resources, without resorting to borrowing ready-made words from other languages, for example, words such as modem, cable TV, fax machines, computer, etc. appeared. In modern English, the following models of word formation are productive: Abbr + Noun = Noun: T-shirt - tenis; B-ball - basketball; V-ball - volleyball. Noun + Numeral = Noun: Catch 22 - trap, snare Participle + Noun = Adjective: off-the-shelf - ready to eat Noun + Particle -> Adjective: hands-on - practical There are also more complex models, for example: Noun + Prepositional Phrase + Noun = Noun: right - to - work law The largest group consists of truncation neologisms and bullion words: Doc = Doctor - doctor, doctor; work + alchoholic -> workaholic (workaholic) [4]. Bullion words are widely used in the media and advertising because... attract attention with their freshness, surprise and have a certain effect on the consumer. Thus, we see that word formation is the main way of "production" of new lexical groups that replenish the English language. In addition, lexical units operating in the modern English-language Internet space acquire new meanings, expanding the boundaries of their semantic fields. The Internet space has become a place for the creation of new concepts that, out of context, require certain explanations. You can verify the validity of this statement by considering the specific interpretation of some words and phrases taken from an article in the popular science section "Language" of the British newspaper "The Guardian" : e.g. Poke touching someone via Facebook - persistent but well-behaved flirting on the social network Facebook; 404 Error - stupidity; ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) - rolling on the floor laughing, etc. The semantic connotation of the meanings of well-known words, such as bookmark, surf, spam, web, has changed; the prefix cyber is widely used as a word-forming element: cyber bullying - cyber violence; cyber loaf is a slacker who spends hours on the Internet, leaving his duties unfulfilled.
The main way of "producing" new lexical groups that have replenished and enriched the Russian language is borrowing. The range of new concepts and phenomena of Russian origin is limited. Therefore, borrowing an already existing nomination along with the borrowed concept and subject is considered simpler and more effective.
The dynamics of lexical-semantic connotations does not occur due to the process of formation of neologisms by one's own linguistic means, as happens in English, but most often due to the means of a foreign language. The only exceptions are
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those words that are formed by combining morphemes of both languages, for example snowshoeing (snowshoe + ing).
The Russian language takes into its composition a lot from English: word-educational means, for example, semi-free morphemes time-, show-,
-gate, -maker, etc., direct lexical borrowings, for example, shopping, off-road, call-center, and even traditions, holidays, for example, Halloween, St. Valentine's Day, etc.
Borrowed words have an impact on the language: due to the fact that they contain foreign sounds, they can often violate the phonetic patterns of the borrowing language (many teenagers adopt intonation patterns of speech from English). The borrowing process does not end with phonetic changes; they move to another level - the grammatical one. For example, the absence of a case system in the English language contributes to the lack of inflection of numerals in the Russian language, for example, there is a tendency to pronounce '2018' as 'the year twenty - eighteen', rather than 'the year two thousand and eighteen'.
Analyticism, as a phenomenon not typical for the Russian language, increasingly reveals itself in words such as website, press release, business lunch, talk show, lions show. A new part of speech has also appeared in the Russian language - an analytical adjective, for example, khaki jacket, burgundy dress.
Increasingly, new words formed according to the principle of agglutination began to appear - "pasting" an English-language suffix, for example, snowshoeing competitions (snowshoe + ing), or "piling up" of prefixes and suffixes, for example, dedollar-ization.
Just like in the English language, the expansion and change of semantic connotations in the Russian language occurs in connection with the growing role of technology. Thus, words such as 'mail' (electronic), 'teapot' (inexperienced user), etc. acquired new meanings.
You can assess the nature of changes in language by turning to the theory of Yu.M. Lotman, according to which a language progresses if its core remains more productive, and not the periphery [7, p. 397], that is, the English language demonstrates the ability to satisfy the needs of communication at its own expense, and the Russian language tries to compensate for its internal weakening by resorting to borrowings.
An analysis of neologisms used by teenagers in Russian and English confirms the emergence of a cultural and linguistic barrier between generations. Many English-speaking parents do not understand the words 'fleek' (look good), 'bae' (1. before anyone else - in front of someone else, 2. an affectionate word derived from the famous
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word babe (dear, cutie), 'fomo' (fear miss something important).Parents who speak Russian do not always understand what it means to go for a walk (from the English 'go'), 'soryan' (from the English 'sorry'), etc.
Unfortunately, the generation of the postmodern era denies all types of linguistic tradition, treats language carelessly, "breaks" language from the inside, which, on the one hand, contributes to the generation of neologisms, and on the other, creates language barriers and leads to a breakdown in communication.
REFERENCES
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