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Functional-semantic approach to the description of means of expressing intensity in modern German // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2024. Issue 3 (233). P. 47-55

The article attempts to use a functional-semantic approach to the study of the category of intensity in order to identify and systematize the means of expressing the intensity of an action in the modern German language. The work was carried out on the material of the “German-Russian Synonymous Dictionary”, “Dictionary of Word Formative Elements of the German Language”, “German-Russian Phraseological Dictionary”, as well as using fragments of literary works of German writers of the 20th century. Taking into account the main directions in solving the problem of correlating the category of intensity with the concepts of expressiveness and quantity, the authors propose to interpret intensity as a category derived from the semantic categories of quantity and quality and as a quantitative indicator of expressiveness and emotional experiences. The category of action intensity is studied as a segment of the macrofield of the universal category of intensity. An analysis of the ways of expressing the intensity of an action in the German language allows to present the functional-semantic field under study as a monocentric formation, the core of which includes lexical means: intensifying verbs; adverbs with intensifying / deintensifying meanings and phraseological units. Syntactic means are located in the perinuclear zone. Word-formation, morphological and phonetic means fall into the peripheral sections of the field. As a result of the study, it was possible to establish that the microfield of action intensity includes a zone of intensification and deintensification. Linguistic intensification of action in syntagmatics is characterized by greater diversity than in paradigmatics. Verbs whose meaning includes the seme of intensity have a high frequency when expressing the intensity of an action in paradigmatics. In syntagmatics, the most common way to intensify or deintensify an action is to use adverbs. Deintensification of the action in most cases does not carry a stylistic load and, as a rule, is intended to soften the characteristics of the action. The means of expressing the intensity of action, on the contrary, are stylistically coloured. The most striking and powerful means of intensifying action are qualitative adverbs and comparative phraseological units. The construction of a model of the functional-semantic field of the category of action intensity on the material of the German language made it possible to systematically present the formal means of expressing intensity in their inextricable connection with semantic content and pragmatic orientation.

Keywords: category of intensity, intensification, intensifier, functional-semantic field, means, modern German