CONVENTIONAL LEXICAL CYCLES IN THE MODERN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of conventional temporal lexical cycles in Russian – names of days of the week cycle and months of the year tightly tied by sequence and recurrence relationships. The lexicographic and psycholinguistic analyses lead to the conclusion that on a par with equality based on the ontological properties of the cycles analyzed their language representations share a set of semantic features which form in their entirety a cognitive matrix members of which differ in their significance. Selectivity of semantic features actualized in the meanings of individual units determines differentiation of relations in the conventional temporal lexical cycles and salience of some members of the sets (воскресенье in the week cycle, май in the year cycle, etc.).  

Extended abstract:

The article presents the results of a study of conventional temporal cycle structures within the Russian lexicon – names of days of the week cycle and months of the year tightly tied by sequence and recurrence relationships. Based on the assumption that these structures form a specific taxonomy, we set the aim to describe the semantic and systemic properties of their constituents with the help of componential and contextual analyses of data drawn from a number of Russian lexicographic sources, and psycholinguistic experiments involving native speakers of Russian. The results obtained support our hypothesis that, on a par with equality of the cycle constituents determined by the ontological properties of the conventional cycle structures analyzed, their language representations share a set of specific semantic features of the type «Time period in the cycle», «Order in the cycle», «Activity», etc., which form in their entirety a cognitive matrix. The quantitative analysis reveals that the semantic components as members of the cognitive matrices differ in their significance: relevant for the week cycle is the parameter of «Activity», whereas for the year cycle – «Nature and Weather», «Activity». Selectivity of semantic features actualized in the meanings of individual constituents and their frequency indices determine differentiation of relations within the lexical conventional cycle structures, which opposes the ontological equality principle and leads to salience of some members of the sets (воскресенье in the week cycle, май in the year cycle, etc.). The knowledge schema which underlies Russian language representations of the conventional cycle structures also results in language specific stratification of the elements of the corresponding lexical subsystems and their dominant or peripheric place within the conventional lexical structure. The novel observations made on the semantic character and systemic relations of the Russian lexical units – constituents of lexical conventional cycle structures, help expose multiple ways language construes, organizes and stores human knowledge of the surrounding world.