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NATIONAL PECULIARITIES IN SEMANTICS OF PERSON NOMINATIONS IN MODERN CHINESE NEOLOGISMS // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2019. Issue 2 (199). P. 77-81

The article deals with cultural context of meanings of persons’ nominations in neologisms of modern Chinese. It aims to interpret Chinese neologisms from the perspective of individuals’ nominations. New social roles and competences appearing in the rapidly changing environment create the need for detailed research of the new vocabulary that denotes these roles and competences. The analysis of the denoted lexical units has been conducted in the frame of aspect or integrated approach to evaluate the semantic meanings of neologisms at different macro levels: denotative, connotative and functional. Besides the key generic semes (denoting individuals or groups of people, their gender and naming lexical sets) we have attempted to mark out the differential semes that reflect the national and cultural traditions of Chinese people. These differential semes are grouped according to the criteria which we have singled out, namely, peculiarities of persons’ appearance and character, peculiarities of activity, social status and psycho-emotional state. The article lists the examples of neologisms for every group of semes. Analysis of the persons’ nominations in neologisms of modern Chinese reveals that most lexical units denoting individuals are not gender-marked and refer to the sociocultural field. Majority of the neologisms belong to standard Chinese and are emotionally neutral. The research offers a new perspective and method of studying new words in Chinese from the view of individuals’ denomination.

Keywords: Chinese, neologisms, persons’ nominations, national peculiarities of semantics, macro- and microcomponents of meaning, aspect approach, seme