CC BY
9
УДК 81-119
DOI 10.36622/AQMPJ.2023.89.91.006
Воронежский государственный лесотехнический университет им. Г.Ф. Морозова Кандидат филологических наук, преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков, Ермаков С.А. Россия, г. Воронеж, тел. +7(903)850-46-93 e-mail: sergey-ermakov. 1811@mail.ru
С.А. Ермаков
СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ КАТЕГОРИИ ГРАДУАЛЬНОСТИ
Данная статья представляет собой краткий обзор работ, посвященных категории градуальности, которые были выполнены за последние 35 лет. Неослабевающий интерес ученых и исследователей к градуальности как к лингвистическому феномену связан прежде всего с тем, что она позволяет отражать языковую картину мира в её динамике, постоянном изменении и развитии. Градуальность является одной из основополагающих онтологических категорий и представляет собой способность человеческого сознания соотносить и сравнивать явления, действия и предметы окружающей действительности. Градуальность тесно связана с другими понятийными категориями, в первую очередь такими, как количество, качество, оценка и интенсивность. Пронизывая почти все уровни языка, градуальность на каждом из них проявляет свои специфические свойства. Несмотря на большое количество научных работ, посвященных категории градуальности, многие вопросы данной тематики остаются все еще открытыми и недостаточно изученными. Это открывает большой потенциал для будущих исследований. В настоящее время остаются актуальными вопросы, касающиеся изучения непосредственно самой категории градуальности, определения конкретных границ категории в языке и понятийной сфере, четкого определение ее статуса в области количественно-качественных отношений, разработки терминологического аппарата и др. Выбор понимания и трактовки исследуемого явления, его концепция играют немаловажную роль в решении указанных задач. Представленные в статье научные работы выполнены в рамках разных направлений и подходов, и отражают разнообразные концепции категории градуальности в лингвистике. Статья написана на английском языке.
Ключевые слова: градуальность, шкала градации, значение слова, признак, количественный и качественный компоненты.
S.A. Ermakov
MODERN STUDIES OF THE CATEGORY OF GRADUALITY
This article is a brief overview of the works devoted to the category of graduality that have been performed over the past 35 years. The permanent interest of scientists and researchers in the category of graduality as a linguistic phenomenon is primarily due to the fact that it enables to reflect the linguistic picture of the world in its dynamics, constant change and development. Graduality is one of the fundamental ontological categories and represents the ability of human consciousness to correlate and compare phenomena, actions and objects of the surrounding reality. Graduality is closely related to other conceptual categories, primarily such as quantity, quality, evaluation and intensity. Permeating almost all levels of the language, the graduality shows its specific properties on each of them. Despite the large number of scientific papers devoted to the category of graduality, many issues of this subject are still open and insufficiently studied. This opens up great potential for future research. Currently, there are still relevant issues related to the study of the category of gradality itself, the definition of specific boundaries of the category in the language and conceptual sphere, a clear definition of its status in the field of quantitative and qualitative relations, the development of terminological apparatus, etc. The choice of understanding and interpretation of the phenomenon under study, its concept play an important role in solving these problems. The scientific studies presented in the article are carried out within the framework of different directions and approaches, and reflect various concepts of the category of graduality in linguistics. The article is written in the English language.
© Ермаков С.А., 2023
Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies Named after G.F. Morozov lecturer at the department of foreign languages PhD
Ermakov S.A.
Russia, Voronezh, tel. +7(903)850-46-93 e-mail: sergey-ermakov. 1811@mail.ru
Key words: graduality, gradation scale, word meaning, trait, quantitative and qualitative components.
This article is an accurate summary of the studies on the category of graduality that have been carried out over the past 35 years. Most of these studies are based on the material of the Russian language.
Graduality, as the ability of human consciousness to correlate and compare phenomena, actions and objects of the surrounding reality, is the object of attention of many scholars. The category of graduality represents the interrelation between the categories of quality and quantity, which allows us to express in language graded relations involving an increase or decrease in the degree of manifestation of the trait.
Despite the fact that the mention of the category of graduality dates back to the beginning of the ancient era, a thorough theoretical study of this phenomenon has occurred only from the middle of the XX century.
In 1944 an American linguist Edward Sapir published his work «Gradation, a study in semantics» which became an important event in the field of studying of the category of graduality. The author tried to explain the role of grading in language and in the process of comparing and correlating the qualitative and quantitative properties of a trait. It was an attempt to consider the graded relations taking into account psychological, logical and linguistic conditions, as well as to identify key concepts, namely the norm (or reference point), the gradation scale and its poles. The scientist defined graduation as «a psychological process preceding measurement and counting» [1, p. 41].
Since publication of Sapir's work scientists have undertaken lots of scientific research in this area and a large number of articles and studies have been issued.
So, Yury Vorotnikov in his PhD thesis «The functional and grammatical sphere of the gradation of a trait in the modern Russian language» (1987) formulates the definition of graduality as a logical-and-semantic category: «The essence of which is to reflect the ability of a qualitative trait to act in a given carrier to a certain degree of manifestation relative to another carrier or the norm of this trait, as well as to be in a state of transition from one degree of manifestation to another» [2, p.20]. The scientist assumes that the need to organize speech units in a certain system forms the basis of the category of graduality.
Marina Mezenina in her study «Graduality in the paradigmatics of lexis of the German language» (1991) classifies graduality as a semantic category and comes to the conclusion that «quality gradation is understood as quantitative modifications of the quality in its carrier, which are established by comparison with a certain standard» [3, p. 4]. The scientist distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative components in the content of lexical units, where the qualitative component is the core of the lexical meaning of the word, and the quantitative component complements the qualitative one, indicating the intensity, the degree of manifestation of quality. Also, the author presents different types of gradation scales depending on the subject and object of grading.
In Marina Bondarenko's PhD thesis «Graduality as a property of lexis and a basis for building a lexical paradigm (based on the material of the French language)» (2001) the category of graduality is characterized as «a complex formation, where the mandatory components are the category of comparability and the category of intensity, and the optional ones- additional nuances represented by a connotative, emotional-evaluative or stylistic component» [4, p. 27]. The researcher concludes that on the basis of the qualitative component, lexemes are combined into paradigms, including graded ones: «It is the ratio of the qualitative trait to the norm that represents the essence of the category of graduality in any language» [4, p. 47]. Much attention is also paid to the analysis of the gradation scale from the point of view of its structural organization. Its main components and their descriptions are highlighted, as well as the scalar organization of the graded lexis.
A detailed and original approach to the study and interpretation of the phenomenon of graduality is demonstrated by the philologist Andrey Shcherbakov in his dissertation work «Gradation as a stylistic phenomenon of the modern Russian literary language» (2004). According to Andrey Shcherbakov, the category of graduality should be presented as a logical category, which has its own stylistic manifestation — a technique of gradation, consisting of a number of verbal components and built on a deviation from the norm of speech. On the results of the conducted research the author defines linguistic gradation as «the attitude of the speaking subject to the object of speech which are expressed by means at several levels (word-formation, lexical, morphological, syntactic, stylistic)» [5, p. 21]. The scientist also devotes considerable attention in his study to the issues of the relationship of graduality with the phenomena of synonymy and antonymy, as well as to the category of expressiveness and its components - emotionality, appreciation, intensity and imagery. The gradation scale is built taking into account two factors: the object-logical (denotative) assessment and the emotional (connotative) assessment which are based on the connection of the connotative and denotative components with the philosophical categories of quality and quantity.
It is very important to note Svetlana Kolesnikova's PhD and Doctoral dissertations «Graded relations in modern Russian» (1993) and «Category of graduality in modern Russian» (1999) which make an important contribution
to the study of the category of graduality. The complex analysis given in her research characterizes the category of graduality as a lexical-grammatical category that «conveys the meaning of the increase and decrease in the degree of a trait, acting in words in different linguistic ways» [6, p. 64].
In subsequent works, Svetlana Kolesnikova concludes that graduality is a separate category with its own methods and means of expression. According to her opinion, graduality should be presented in the form of a functional-semantic field, where the core and the periphery are distinguished. The core is represented by the norm, whereas quantitative modifications of the trait go to the periphery, and the more modifications deviate from the norm, the further away from the core they are located. Svetlana Kolesnikova carries out work on the identification of word classes allowing gradation, examines the multi-level means of expressing the semantics of graduality (lexical, word formation and syntactic constructions), and also identifies the models of construction of the gradation scale. The results of detailed studies are reflected in her monographs «Graduality: links and systemic relations in the Russian language» (2012) and «Graduality: links and relations in the system of the Russian language» (2016).
Obviously, Svetlana Kolesnikova's studies have become a kind of incentive for researchers to continue studying the category of graduality and to consider little-studied issues of this topic.
The results of one of these studies are presented in Elena Beloglazova's PhD thesis «Graded function of multilevel linguistic means in formation of the dictum content of the sentence» (2003) (S. Kolesnikova's direction). In the study, the category of gradality appears as a functional-semantic category. In the course of a thorough analysis of extensive linguistic material extracted from the works of classical and modern Russian literature Elena Beloglazova comes to a number of theoretically significant conclusions regarding the presence in the modern Russian language of a large number of modus-dictum constructions with graded and evaluative meanings. To form these modus-dictum constructions speakers have to use a whole complex of multi-level means: word-formation, lexical, morphological and syntactic.
Natalia Rogozhina's PhD thesis «Indicators of graduality как, какой in the structure of a simple sentence» (2005) (S. Kolesnikova's direction) is also carried out within the framework of the functional approach to the study of linguistic phenomena. In this study the category of graduality is considered at the semantic level of the language, the representatives of which are lexemes как and какой endowed with a certain semantic structure. According to Natalia Rogozhina these lexemes «realize a graded function in the sentence structure and play an important role in expressing the category of gradality in the Russian language» [7, p. 4].
Natalia Nesterova's PhD thesis «Graduality in complex sentences with attributive-excretory subordinates» (2005) is devoted to the study of the semantics of graduality at the syntactic level. Natalia Nesterova shares Svetlana Kolesnikova's opinion on the status of the category of graduality, as it is «a functional-semantic category, realized in the activity of thinking and speech by multilevel linguistic means» [8, p. 9]. In the course of her study, Natalia Nesterova makes a number of important conclusions, for example:, the conclusion that under gradation is meant the ability of a trait to be in the language to varying degrees; the means of negation are used as additional means that contribute to the manifestation of graded semantics; the emotional and expressive components of semantics are in-dissolubly connected with the graded meaning of the studied sentences and form an inseparable whole with it, etc.
It is also necessary to give the names of other works that have appeared during this period and are devoted to the study of graduality.
Natalia Fedyaeva's scientific research «Linguistic image of the average person in the aspect of cognitive categories of duality, graduality, evaluation, norm (based on lexical and textual material of the modern Russian lan-guage)» (2003) explores the theory of graduality in such a phenomenon as the image of an average person. The subject of this research is the generalized image of the average person embodied in a variety of typed semantic interpretations as a fragment of the Russian language picture of the world.
Pavlina Bereznitskaya's PhD thesis «Typology and structure of graded fields in Russian language» (2004) gives a systemic and functional description of the properties and semantic links of lexical and morphological linguistic units forming graded fields in Russian language. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time it gives a complete structural and functional description of the graded relations and means of their expression in the Russian language identifies a system of graded fields and develops their typology.
Ukrainian linguist Tatiana Podufalova, in her scientific study «Cognitive-semantic and functional features of gradation in the Russian language» (2007), qualifies gradality as a cognitive-semantic category which is based on the fact that its speech realization reflects the cognitive (mental) activity of a person. The author defines gradality as «the property of a trait to undergo gradation, that is, to change its ability and be fixed at a certain moment of change» [9, p. 7].
Irina Nazarova's PhD thesis «Adverbs as a means of representing the category of graduality in modern Eng-lish» (2009) is the first research which explores graduality on the material of modern English. The work is carried out in the current of cognitive linguistics which makes it possible to approach the problem of graduality from a new
angle, to show the multidimensionality of the category of graduality and reveal the specificity of this category in English language.
Galina Kireeva turns to the consideration of individual parts of speech as indicators of graduality in her PhD thesis «Interjection as an indicator of graduality in the modern Russian language» (2010) (S. Kolesnikova's direction). According to Galina Kireeva, interjection as an indicator of graduality performs various functions peculiar to this group of words, enhancing the meaning of individual words and sentences as a whole.
Zoya Dolgikh examines the dynamic properties of linguistic means and methods of graded meanings in her scientific research «Operational means and methods of graded meanings (on the material of the Portuguese language)» (2020). The author analyzes the gradation processes using a combination of different approaches such as cognitive-discursive, operational and systemic-structural. The scientist visualizes the phenomenon of graduality not only in the form of a functional-and-semantic field, but also in the form of specially modeled gradation scales and diagrams.
During the period under review, researchers have also explored the graduality on the material of phraseological units of the Russian language.
Thus, Natalia Gorshkova's PhD thesis «Phraseological units with graded semantics in modern Russian language» (2004) (S. Kolesnikova's direction) is dedicated to the study of the semantic structure of phraseological units with graded meaning. It is for the first time in the history of Russian idiomatics that phraseological units with graded semantics are comprehensively described; their complex analysis is carried out taking into account paradigmatics and syntagmatics. In the course of the study, N. Gorshkova develops her definition of phraseology with graded semantics: these are «stable and reproducible units endowed with a holistic meaning, in the structure of which the presence of gradoseme is mandatory» [10, p. 5].
Another study, where the problem of graduality is analyzed on the material of phraseological units of the Russian language, is Natalia Prekina's PhD thesis «Graded semantics of Russian proverbs» (2006) (S. Kolesnikova's direction). Natalia Prekina describes in detail the lexical means of creating graduality in proverbs and the derivational ways of its expression, emphasizing that graduality is an indicator of quantitative differences in the semantics of proverbial constructions. The author thoroughly examines the theoretical justification the status and content of the category of graduality, its difference from adjacent linguistic categories and proposes a semantic classification of phraseological units with a graded trait. Like other researchers Natalia Pekina notes that the category of graduality is close to the categories of evaluation, quantity and intensity.
Kazakh linguist Saule Temirkanova gives the description of the theory and practice of the creation of new generation educational dictionaries which are based on the principle of graduality in her scientific research «A principle of graduality in lexicography» (2007). Saule Temirkhanova notes the absence of special works devoted to the problem of graduality in lexicography, with the exception of individual papers. The scientist believes that only the creation of a series of educational dictionaries based on the principle of graduality will contribute to the realization of the goals and objectives of teaching the Russian language.
Sergey Ermakov (author of this article) also pays special attention to the problem of graduality in lexicography in his PhD thesis «Gradual oppositions in the lexical-semantic group «Names of persons by the command of professional skill» (on the material of the Russian, English and French languages)» (2022). One of the practical results of this study is the creation of dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms. The lexical meaning of the word in the offered dictionaries is represented in the form of semantic traits and the lexicographic fixation of synonymous and antonymous oppositions is implemented on the basis of a graded semantic trait.
Also, over the period under consideration, scientists have made attempts to explore the category of graduality on the material of other languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
As a result Ekaterina Devyatkina's PhD thesis «Category of graduality in modern Mordovian languages: based on the material of the adjectives» (2009) is the first work on the study of the category of graduality based on the material of the languages of the Finno-Ugric group: Erzya-Mordovian and Moksha-Mordovian. The study is conducted in accordance with the functional approach to language research. The category of graduality acts as a functional-semantic category expressing the degree of manifestation of a trait, quality and property in a particular subject or phenomenon. The scientist explores the ways of expressing the category of graduality in their totality as components of the functional-semantic field of this category, attempts to identify the features of the functioning of lexical, word-formation, analytical, syntactic ways of expressing graduality.
The category of graduality has been studied in the works performed within the framework of comparative linguistics, based on the material of languages belonging to different language families. For example, Marina Zubayraeva's PhD thesis «Gradation of a qualitative trait: on the material of the Chechen and English languages»
(2008) studies the graduation of a qualitative trait on the material of various language families: Caucasian language family and Indo-European language family. The author emphasizes: «The category of graduality has the property of universality: characterizing objects, signs, actions, it actively manifests itself in the semantic structure of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, phraseological units» [11, p. 3]
Having examined the list of works devoted to modern concepts of the category of gradualness in linguistics, we would like to emphasize the scale and complexity of this phenomenon.
In this regard, we can note the existence of various approaches to the interpretation of the category of graduality in scientific circles, in particular: lexico-semantic (E. Sapir, M. Mezenina), complex (M. Bondarenko), logical (A. Shcherbakov), lexico-grammatical (S. Kolesnikova), cognitive-semantic (T. Podufalov), logical-semantic (Yu. Vorotnikov, Z. Dolgikh), etc.
In addition, we can indicate various linguistic aspects that scientists consider as an object of study through the prism of graded relations: belonging to a certain lexico-grammatical class of words (I. Nazarova, E. Devyatkina), phraseological units (N. Gorshkova, S. Tkachenko), the expressive phenomenon of the modern Russian literary language (A. Shcherbakov), discursive graded features (T. Podufalova), dynamic properties of means and linguistic methods of gradation (Z. Dolgih).
Such a broad interpretation of the category of graduality is explained by its universality, since, connecting and penetrating all language levels, graduality manifests its specific properties at each of them.
Taking into account the above, we propose to adopt the following definition of graduality - this is a lexical-semantic category, which displays the property of a semantic trait of a word to express in its meaning a discrete degree of manifestation (from minimum to maximum) with the help of certain semantic indicators, which can be established by comparison with the norm, or with another degree of manifestation.
Also, this article is an expression of gratitude to all researchers and scientists who have participated in the studies of the category of graduality.
Библиографический список
1. Сепир, Э. Градуирование. Семантическое исследование / Э. Сепир. Новое в зарубежной лингвистике. М.: Прогресс, 1985. Вып. 16. Лингвистическая прагматика. С. 40-78.
2. Воротников Ю.Л. Функционально-грамматическая сфера градационности признака в современном русском языке: дис. ... канд. филол. наук / Ю. Л. Воротников. М., 1987. 214 с.
3. Мезенина М.В. Градуальность в парадигматике лексики немецкого языка: автореф. дисс. ... к-та филол. наук. М., 1991. 16 с.
4. Бондаренко М.В. Градуальность как свойство лексики и основание для построения лексической парадигмы (на материале французского языка): дисс. ... к-та филол. наук. Воронеж, 2001. 138 с.
5. Щербаков А.В. Градация как стилистическое явление современного русского литературного языка: дисс. ... к-та филол. наук. Кемерово, 2004. 229 с.
6. Колесникова, С.М. Градационные отношения в современном русском языке: дис. ... канд. филол. наук. М., 1993. 253с.
7. Рогожина Н.В. Показатели градуальности как, какой в структуре простого предложения: автореф. дис. ... канд. филол. наук . М., 2005. 20 с.
8. Колесникова С.М. Категория градуальности в современном русском языке: дис. ... д-ра филол. наук. М., 1999.
425 с.
9. Подуфалова Т.В. Когнитивно-семантические и функциональные особенности градации в русском языке: автореф. дис. канд. филол. наук. Харьков, 2007. 29 с.
10. Горшкова Н.Н. Фразеологические единицы с градуальной семантикой в современном русском языке: автореф дис. ... канд. филол. наук. М., 2004. 20 с.
11. Зубайраева М.У. Градационность качественного признака: на материале чеченского и английского языков: автореф. дис. ... канд. филол. наук. Грозный, 2008. 23 с.
References
1. Sapir, E. Grading, a study in semantics / E. Sapir. New in Foreign Linguistics. Moscow, 1985. Iss. 16. Linguistic pragmatics. P. 40-78.
2. Vorotnikov Y.L. The functional and grammatical sphere of the gradation of a trait in the modern Russian language: thesis ... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 1987. 214 p.
3. Mezenina M.V. Graduality in the paradigmatics of lexis of the German language: abstract. thesis ... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 1991. 16 p.
4. Bondarenko M.V. Graduality as a property of lexis and a basis for building a lexical paradigm (based on the material of the French language): thesis ... PhD in Philology. Voronezh, 2001. 138 p.
5. Shcheibakov A.V. Gradation as a stylistic phenomenon of the modern Russian literary language: thesis ... PhD in Philology. Kemerovo, 2004. 229 p.
6. Kolesnikova S.M. Graded relations in the modern Russian language: thesis ... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 1993. 253 p.
7. Rogozhina N.V. Indicators of gradality как, какой in the structure of a simple sentence: abstract... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 2005. 20 p.
8. Kolesnikova S.M. The category of gradality in modern Russian: thesis ... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 1999. 425 p.
9. Podufalova T.V. Cognitive-and-semantic and functional features of gradation in the Russian language: abstract. dis. ... cand. filol. sciences. Kharkov, 2007. 29 p.
10. Gorshkova N.N. Phraseological units with graded semantics in modern Russian: abstract... PhD in Philology. Moscow, 2004. 20 p.
11. Zubayraeva M.U. Gradation of a qualitative trait: on the material of the Chechen and English languages: abstract... PhD in Philology. Grozny, 2008. 23 p.
