CC BY
32
DOI: 10.24411/2470-1262-2021-10104
УДК (UDC) 811.161.1 Tamara V. Kuprina,
Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Куприна Тамара В., Уральский федеральный университет им. первого Президента России Б. Н. Ельцина,
Екатеринбург, Россия
For citation: Kuprina T. (2021).
Neologization of Russian Lexical System: Practical Aspect Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science Vol.6, Issue 1 (2021),pp. 62-68 (in USA)
Manuscript received: 07/02/2021 Accepted for publication: 25/03/2021 The author has read and approved the final manuscript.
CC BY 4.0
NEOLOGIZATION OF RUSSIAN LEXICAL SYSTEM: PRACTICAL ASPECT
НЕОЛОГИЗАЦИЯ ЛЕКСИЧЕСКОЙ СИСТЕМЫ РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА:
ПРАКТИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ
Аннотация:
В статье представлен практический аспект неологизации лексической системы русского языка. На основе сплошной выборки из различных источников средств массовой информации проведен анализ неологизмов, вошедших в лексическую систему русского языка, но не всегда фиксируемых словарями. Дана характеристика неофразем и их классификация по фреймам и слотам. Подробно рассмотрены языки сферы менеджмента, IT-технологий и других социокультурных сфер, формирующих свои терминологические поля; представлены некоторые неологизмы, вошедшие в язык из новейшей сферы исследования, касающейся COVID-19. Еще раз подчеркивается гибкость лексической системы русского языка, не только привлекающую новые слова и фразы, но и активно трансформирующую их.
Ключевые слова: неологизация, неологизм, фрейм, слот, жаргон, карнавальность, самоорганизация.
Abstract:
The article presents a practical aspect of the neologization of the Russian lexical system. On the basis of a continuous sample from various sources of the mass media, an analysis of neologisms included in the lexical system of the Russian language, but not always recorded by dictionaries, is carried out. The characteristics of neophrasemes and their classification by frames and slots are given. The languages of the sphere of management, IT-technologies and other socio-cultural spheres that form their own terminological fields are considered in detail; there presented some of the neologisms that have entered the language from the latest research area regarding COVID-19. The flexibility of the lexical system of the Russian language which not only attracts new words and phrases but also actively transforms them, is emphasized once again.
Keywords: neologization, neologism, frame, slot, jargon, carnival, self-organization.
Introduction
Currently, the neologization of the lexical systems of various languages is causing numerous disputes. The lexical system of the Russian language is no exception. Moreover, a number of socio-cultural groups are the most active "suppliers" of new lexis. Consequently, the relevance of the proposed article is justified by the need to study gaps that are intensively filled with neologisms and their hybrid or mixed variants [1], or blends [7].
In general, in the modern culture there is a certain kind of economic centrism, i.e. the desire to see the most significant in economic processes. And the socio-cultural management group is represented as one of the leading, forming certain settings not only in the behavioral but also in the language environment. The main feature of the discourse is to attract a large number of Anglo-American loans to the Russian system which provokes the phenomenon of involuntary bilingualism in broad social strata of the society.
On the other hand, there is a wide jargonization of the Russian language, "carnival", which can be regarded as a special emotional-expressive function of the language. It consists of the indispensable attraction of the ironic connotative element in the semantics of slang units.
These theoretical assumptions are confirmed empirically on the basis of a continuous sample and comparative analysis of examples from modern mass media to determine the "points of growth" [4] of the Russian lexical system.
Theoretical basis of research
The theoretical basis of the research is works of native and foreign authors, confirming the intensive filling of lexical systems due to their neologization, which is based on the need to nominate new objects and phenomena. The phenomenon occurs spontaneously ("self-organizing") but rather creatively, often on the basis of "spontaneous linguistics" [2], or "neologic feeling" [8].
Methods of research
The empirical research is carried out using a continuous sample method. An example of creativity and adaptation in the professional environment of managers for our research is the section "Dictionary of Business Slang of Schwarzkopf & Henkel, Russia" from the "Almost Serious Dictionary of Business Communication", compiled by the managers themselves [5].
For the IT sphere, after a continuous sample and content analysis, a dictionary-reference book "Virtualisms" is compiled [6], containing both professional terms and their jargon counterparts.
For the rest of the spheres, a continuous sample from various media is also carried out. As a result, the data obtained on the basis of the "Dictionary of Business Slang of Schwarzkopf & Henkel, Russia", sorted by frames and slots; for the IT sphere, examples of neologisms and their word formation are given, included in the author's dictionary-reference book "Virutalisms"; for other areas examples are given; for the COVID-19 sphere, examples and justifications for the use of the most common term "lockdown" are provided.
Results and Discussion1
While performing a comparative analysis in our research the "Dictionary of Business Slang of Schwarzkopf & Henkel, Russia" [5] is served as an example of creativity and adaptation in the professional environment of managers. The section includes 98 words and phrases, which form the basis of a unique portfolio of business-phrases. The portfolio consists of 26 phrases containing direct or transformed English borrowings, 17 precedent texts, 8 cases of explicit aggression, i.e. about half of the total number of phrases. The remaining 48 phrases can be attributed to a relatively neutral context with elements of implicit aggression.
The managers themselves call this option "bird language", i.e. stillborn language combining untranslatable English marketing terms, Russian prepositions and interjections, as well as in some cases, obscene expressions. A vivid example of the "bird language", as the managers themselves point out, is the phrase "the message is irrelevant" (cf.: Russian месседж не релевантен), the phrase is universal in holding conferences in order to prevent debates and shouts and also subsequently the presenter does not besiege a crowd of fans. We give some other examples of the phrasemes and the nuclear words as their generators (definitions are given in the original interpretation of the authors of the dictionary).
I. Phrasemes / nuclear words containing English borrowings. 1. Visualization (Russian Визуализация - with a replacement for a more specific suffix for the Russian language). For example: Visualize appropriately for a business need / Визуализируйте соответствующим образом под business need. It should be noted that in this case, even the explanation itself is made through the English language. 2. To create (Креативить. English: create + Russian suffix). 3. Training /Тренинг (English: training) 4. Pliz du / Плиз ду (transcription from English please, do!) - a universal appeal or consent; 5. Know-how - nohow (Russian: никак); 6. Laptop - a happy occasion to work at home. As you can see, the last two phrasemes have transformed meanings that do not correspond to the traditional translation.
II. Phrasemes / nuclear words containing precedent texts. 1. Bastinda / Бастинда (wicked sorceress, A. Volkov, "The Wizard of the Emerald City") - a professional girl manager with slight communication flaws; 2. Storm in a glass /Буря в стакане - an explosion of the top-manager anger which is not audible but can be seen through the glass of his small glass cabinet (Cf.: Russian phrase: the storm in a glass of water - scandal / anger because of a trifle); 3.Do not download and do not be downloaded!/Не грузите и не грузимы будите! (Cf.: . biblical: Do not judge and do not be judged
1 While translating Russian jargon it is impossible to convey the exact meaning. So, translation into English has only an explanatory function.
64
/ Every man's judgment returns to his door - the motto of a competent presentation. Load / Download (slang.) - give excessive information.
III. Phrasemes / nuclear words containing explicit aggression. 1. Fool (дура) - a). Large advertising material; b). Just a fool; 2. Devil's share (Чертова доля) - a falling market share.
In addition, these phrasemes can be formalized into thematic frames taking into account the economic context (activities, stakeholders, results and products of activity, mixed options).
I. Frame "Activity". Turn on your head / Включить голову (finally think for yourself); to marry projects / поженить проекты (manage to conduct several types of activities simultaneously);
II. Frame "Subjects of activity". 1. Slot "Proper names": Khertsen / Герцен (pseudo-intellectual who cares first about his "face"; Cf.: Russian writer A.I. Khertsen, XIX century); Truffaldino/ Труффальдино (manager who feels that he has more than one leader.) Cf.: C. Goldoni (Italian playwright) "Truffaldino from Bergamo, or Servant of Two Gentlemen". 2. Slot "Animate nouns, denoting people": Japanese grandmother /японская бабушка (a set phrase used in cases when something does not fit or does not work.) Cf.: Japanese policeman/ Японский городовой - a Russian set phrase, appeared after the assassination attempt on a cesarevitch (Crown Prince) by a policeman in the Japanese Otsu city in XIX century). 3. Slot "Inanimate nouns": a golden hand/ золотой винтик (a talented compiler of advertising texts), a gold cog (a highly skilled manager);
III. Frame "Results and products of activity". Brain-storming / Брейн-стоминг (discussion, in the course of which the participants touch personal feelings), without fanaticism / без фанатизма (immediate termination of the pathos situation).
IV. Frame "Animals" (mixed variants): bird language/ птичий язык (activity product). Other options: the angina pectoris / жаба грудная (the ungrateful subordinate) - the subject of activity; frog paper: 1. An illiterate document; 2. A document that no one will read - a product of activity.
Another sphere that constantly contributes to the development of the Russian language with Anglo-American borrowings is the sphere of IT-technologies. As for the ways to form the vocabulary of computer jargon, the replenishment of its composition is due to borrowings from the American version of the English language [6].
Having reviewed the materials devoted to the problem, we will give some examples of borrowings and word formation.
1. Direct transliteration of the English word: bye / бай - the usual form of farewell; device / девайс - any mechanism or its functional part.
2. Phonetic mimicry, i.e. phonetic and grammatical "distortion" of the original: батон (button) - any button. Often due to the use of proper names: error - Egor / Егор; laser printer - Lazarus / Лазарь (Russian proper names).
3. Ironically carnival rethinking of the existing lexeme in a more reduced version, when shocking or indecent, "carnival" meanings come to the fore: блин - CD (according to the shape of the Russian pancakes); голдед или голый дед - golded or naked granddad (GoldEd - message editor).
4. Coincidence of a part of words, i. е. a slang Russian word is supplemented with borrowed from English: break point - брякпоинт; Windows - виндовоз.
5. Onomatopoeia due to the transfer of some sounds in the original English term: MS-DOS -мздос; interpretator - интертрепатор.
6. Acronyms, i.e. English by origin and by the way of word-building are complex words that are not yet involved in the process of mastering them in Russian. AFAIK - as far as I know (насколько мне известно); BTW - by the way (кстати).
7. Combination of letters and numbers. In English, it is a famous technique which now makes a transition to the Russian system of word formation: 2 - to; 2U - to you (вам, тебе); CU - see you -(увидимся); L8R - later - (позже).
8. Use of other alphabets. For example, the use of the combination of the letters "q" and "n" in Internet advertising in the meaning of the Russian imperative "купи " (buy).
These examples illustrate another important feature of the computer jargon. The conditions of communication induce its carriers to the fastest possible reception and transmission of information; so it has a tendency to simplify, minimize and standardize linguistic means to a large extent. In combination with "carnival" it creates such unusual words for the Russian language as "ЗЫ "- PS (post scriptum) (on the keyboard of the computer when switching the Latin alphabet to the Cyrillic one "P" corresponds to "З" and "S" to "Ы").
Consequently, the ability of people to distinguish practically any situations of relations through signs leads to the fact that concepts can express not only things and situations in which they are included but also their individual properties, actions with things as well as the states of the subject of activity. ... Thus, professional terminology and phraseology constitute the core of the language culture of a professional group. Moreover, the language is not a frozen, once and for all established formation but a dynamic, developing system [9].
Among other areas that actively use English borrowings and hybrids, the following can be distinguished:
1. Names of clubs and fitness centers (RealFit-РеалФит);
2. Company names (КАБiNET);
3. Advertisements (С Новым Годом! С Новым Шопингом! - Happy New Year! Happy Shopping!);
4. Anecdotes (К хорошему работнику на Новый Год приходит Дед Мороз, а к плохому -Дед Лайн / Ded Moroz (Russian Santa who brings presents) comes to a good employee for the New Year, and Ded Line (= Deadline) comes to a bad one.
5. Prose (Их лав стори началась как заурядный роман (В.С. Токарева «За рекой, за лесом») / Their love story started as an ordinary one (V. S. Tokareva "Beyond the river, beyond the forest"); Т. Ogorodnikova "Рублевка live. Брачный ко№ракт, или Who is Ху...");
6. TV shows and their hosts (Comedy Club; Привет всем, купившим флэт по ипотеке! / Hello, everyone who bought a flat mortgage!);
7. Names of films and their heroes (В современном шоу должен быть драйв, экшн, если мы хотим обеспечить реальный постпродакшн нужный мощный промоушн, чтобы был бренд и не было ребрендинга / In a modern show, there must be a drive, action, if we want to provide a real post-production we need a powerful promotion, so that there is a brand but not rebranding (х/ф "Карнавальная ночь - 2, или 50 лет спустя" / "Carnival Night - 2 or 50 years after");
8. Fashion industry (Стритстаил, который сочетает в себе удобство, юмор и тенденции. Must have сезона - брюки / Street style that combines convenience, humor and trends. Must have of the season - trousers);
9. Horoscopes (Овен. Получите драйв на катке и лыжне, в кино - на экшн / Aries. Get a drive on the skating rink and ski track, in the cinema - at the action);
10. Radio and TV programs (Всереалити шоу полный трэш / All reality shows are full of
trash).
One of the newest areas is the study of lexis related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A number of terms of "spontaneous linguistics" have appeared to describe the current situation: covidlo (a); raskhlamingo (cleaning during quarantine); pogulyantsy and sididomtsy (those who are against strict restrictions (walk) and those who are for (stay at home)); karantinkuly (holidays + quarantine); naruzha (everything outside the house); raskovidetsya (finally meet after quarantine); naruzhenosets (one who walks in a mask but leaves his nose open); obnulenie - went beyond politics and is used in everyday life (reset plans, trips, acquaintances, meetings); as well as medical terms (saturation, plateau, pulse oximetry, pulse oximeters).
To the topic the conference "2020 NEOLOGISM: the language of the coronavirus era", conducted by the Institute of Linguistic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences on 1-2 December, 2020, was devoted. In particular, terms such as lockdown and self-isolation were discussed. Collins British Dictionary, which conducted a study of the most popular and used words in 2020, recognized "lockdown" as the word of the year (250 thousand uses). It defines the term "lockdown" as the official measures aimed at containing the pandemic and taken by governments around the world to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [3]. The Institute of the Russian Language also considers the term lockdown as the most commonly used one.
However, in Russian, the term self-isolation is often used. According to the Webster Dictionary, the term has been used since 1834 and primarily means voluntary isolation from others, especially to avoid the spread of infectious diseases. The meaning is confirmed by a number of other dictionaries: Cambridge Dictionary, Oxford Learners Dictionary, and Collins Dictionary. In Russian dictionaries (by S. I. Ozhegov, L.P. Krysin, Big Russian Encyclopedia) there is no definition of the term self-isolation. However, there are definitions of the term isolation: deprivation of connection with the environment; separating someone from other people.
In the given context, one can observe some euphemization, since the term self-isolation means lockdown, that is, a certain coercion, supported by government decrees. On the other hand, deliberate use of the more familiar word self-isolation is also possible. The term lockdown is more used by young people and the media, as the most active and creative participants in the process of updating the lexical system of the Russian language.
Conclusion
Thus, we can underline that Russian lexical system presents a heterogeneous phenomenon. It cannot be stable and develops together with the society. The most creative spheres which deliver the bulk of terminology are management, IT- technologies. Though there are a lot of spheres which support the neologization and introduce their own terms corresponding to their
needs. No sphere can be indifferent to the processes in the surrounding environment. At the same time, we can observe the wide jargonization which can be formed on the basis of inner resources of the language. As a result, we can find mixed variants combining English borrowings proper, jargon, digital and special signs. Generally, it is a spontaneous process, so called, self-organization of the system which accept or reject new words and phrases.
References:
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2. Bulygina, T.V., & Shmelov, A.D. (2000) «Stikhiynaya lingvistika» [«Spontaneous linguistics»]. Russkiy yazyk segodnya: Sb. Statey [Russian language today: Col. articles] (issue 1. pp. 9-18). M.: Azbukovnik. (In Russ.)
3. Chto oznachayet lokdaun? [What is lockdown?] Retrieved January 3, 2021, from https://investprofit.info/lockdown/
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8. Rijo da Fonseca Lino, Maria Teresa (2019). Neology and Neonymy in Portuguese Language: Identification Criteria. Linha d Agua, Vol. 32, Issue 3, 9-23.
9. Rozum, S.I. (2007). Psikhologiya sotsializatsii i sotsial'noy adaptatsii cheloveka [Psychology of socialization and social adaptation of a person]. SPb.: Rech, 365. (In Russ.)
Information about the author:
Tamara V. Kuprina (Yekaterinburg, Russia) - Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, Academic Department of International Economics and Management, Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin. Research interests: neology, cross-cultural communications, cross-cultural didactics. http://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-8184-2490; SCOPUS Author ID 55811001900. SPIN-code 8892-1348. Email: tvkuprina@mail.ru
Contribution of the author. The author contributed equality to the present research.
