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CONCEPT “FRIEND” ACTUALIZATION IN THE LANGUAGE USAGE OF THE YOUTH IN MODERN ENGLISH (ON THE EXAMPLE OF “BRO” AND ITS DERIVATIVES) // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2018. Issue 7 (196). P. 38-42

The article deals with the concept Friend and the ways of its actualization in the language usage of the youth in English. It characterizes the youth as a special social and age group. The language usage of the youth is chosen in the article because of its dynamic development that meets the requirements of modern society. The results of the definition analysis of the lexeme “bro” and its derivatives as a part of concept Friend are given. The article presents formal and informal definitions of “bro”, which show two main connotations of the word: “blood relationships” and “kinship of souls” regardless of gender. It defines seven semantic fields with the “bro” root words which characterize the concept Friend in the English language. The fields are: friendship with no boundaries, close nonsexual relations between men, assistance, having fun, love, male friendship through the prism of attitude to women, friendship as hobby. The article describes each of the fields with details and states the increasing nominative ability of the lexeme “bro”. The concept Friend is becoming more pragmatic because of new nominations and semantic fields: friend is a person to spend free time with (bromam, to bro out, brover), even to make love to (friend-a-fit, broabe) or to interact with to gain more popularity (frien, frienaddict). However, modern language usage of the youth saves the “real friend” nominations: bromance, brover, bromandawg, frienbling, bro-action.

Keywords: concept Friend, semantic field, language usage, bro, concept representation, American slang