SEMANTIC POTENTIAL OF BODY PART NAMES IN DIACHRONY
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-5-51-57
This article provides an evolutionary approach to the linguistic problem of encoding and interpretation of a conceptual content by means of body part names in the Old Russian and the Old English languages. Applying the category analysis to word semantics in diachrony enables us to decode the primary links between words and concepts that these words denote. The diachronic study of lexical semantics provides explicational potential, revealing recurring tendencies and the prospects for meaning generation and development. The lexicographic data of the Indo-European proto-language create the necessary basis to determine the ways semantic categories of objectivity, quality, quantity, space, and time can adapt and transform in the Slavic and the Anglo-Saxon linguistic consciousness. The comparative analysis of the Old Russian and the Old English body part names and their proto-Indo-European roots adds clarity to the processes of category transition and semantics formation. The semiotic complexity of human body contributes to the expansion of the objective space of body part names by means of incident semantics. The conducted research correlates the inventory of the Old Russian and the Old English somatic fragments with their Indo-European reflexes. The results testify to the dynamic nature of categories in the evolution of lexical semantics, indicating the vectors of semantic change.
Keywords: body parts names, semantic categories, diachrony, interpretation
References:
1. Traugott E. C., Dasher R. B. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001. 341 p.
2. Lotman Yu. M. Vnutri myslyashchikh mirov [Inside the thinking worlds]. Saint Petersburg, Azbuka Publ., 2014. 414 p. (in Russian).
3. Lapshina M. N. Semanticheskaya evolyutsiya angliyskogo slova [Semantic evolution of the English word]. Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publ., 1998. 159 p. (in Russian).
4. Apresyan Yu. D. Obraz cheloveka po dannym yazyka: popytka sistemnogo opisaniya [The image of a person according to linguistic data: an attempt of a systematic description]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya – Voprosy Jazykoznanija (Topics in the Study of Language), 1995, no. 1, pp. 37–68 (in Russian).
5. Uryson E. V. Fundamental’nye sposobnosti cheloveka i naivnaya “anatomiya” [Fundamental human abilities and naive “anatomy”].Voprosy yazykoznaniya, 1995, no. 3, pp. 3–16 (in Russian).
6. Arutyunova N. D. Yazyk i mir cheloveka [Language and the human world]. Moscow, Yazyki russkoy kul’tury Publ., 1999. 896 p. (in Russian).
7. Majid A., Enfi eld N. J., Staden van M. Cross-linguistic categorisation of the body. Language Sciences, 2006, no. 28, pp. 137–147.
8. Andersen E. S. Lexical universals of body-part terminology. Greenberg J. H. Universals of Human Language. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1978. Pp. 335–368.
9. Kreydlin G. E., Letuchiy A. B. Yazykovaya kontseptualizatsiya chastey tela v russkom yazyke (na primere plech) [Language conceptualization of parts of the body in the Russian language (the example of the shoulders)]. Sokrovennye smysly. Slovo. Tekst. Kul’tura: Sbornik statey v chest’ N. D. Arutyunovoy. Pod red. Yu. D. Apresyana [Hidden Meanings. Word. Text. Culture: Collection of articles in honor of N. D. Arutyunova. Ed. Yu. D. Apresyan]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoy kul’tury Publ., 2004. Pp. 129–136 (in Russian).
10. Kreydlin G. E., Pereverzeva S. I. Telo i ego chasti v raznykh yazykakh i kul’turakh (itogi nauchnogo proekta). Institut lingvistiki RGGU. Moskva. Rossiya [The body and its parts in different languages and cultures (the results of a scientifi c project). Institute for Linguistics. Moscow. Russia]. URL: http: //www.dialog-21.ru/media/1256/krejdlinge.pdf (in Russian).
11. Klevtsova O. B. Fenomen chelovecheskogo tela kak printsip lingvisticheskoy rekonstruktsii mira [The phenomenon of the human body as a principle of linguistic reconstruction of the world]. Tyumen, Tyumen State University Publ., 2012. 190 p. (in Russian).
12. Sreznevskiy I. I. Materialy dlya slovarya drevnerusskogo yazyka. V 3 tomakh (v 6 chastyakh) [Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language. In 3 volumes (in 6 parts)]. Moscow, Kniga Publ., 1989 (in Russian).
13. Bosworth J., Toller T. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. N. Y., Oxford University Press. 1302 p.
14. Watkins C. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Boston, N. Y., L., Houghton Miffl in Company, 2000. 109 p.
15. Campbell L. Historical linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1998. 419 p.
Issue: 5, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Pages: 51 — 57
Downloads: 682