THE SEMANTIC FIELD OF EXPRESSIVES DENOTING SAD EMOTIONAL STATES

Abstract

This article examines the lexical-semantic field of Russian expressive words denoting sad and negative emotional states: “грусть”, “печаль”, “тоска”, “уныние”, “горе”, “скорбь”, “скука”, and others. The research materials and analysis of these concepts are based on statistical data from the Russian National Corpus. The aim of this study is to identify and characterize the semantic differences, degrees of intensity, grammatical and stylistic features of these lexemes, as well as their associative and cultural connotations. Special attention is given to the roles of “грусть” and “печаль” as the semantic core of this field, as well as their interactions with deeper states (such as “горе”) and more superficial states (such as “скука”). These concepts are analyzed with regard to their linguistic features and their role in expressing negative emotional states. Within the framework of this research, these concepts were extracted from the Russian National Corpus in combination with anthropomorphic components such as “глаз”, “сердце” (literal meaning), “взгляд”, as well as “душа” and “жизнь” (figurative meaning).

Extended Abstract:

This article examines the lexical-semantic field of Russian expressives denoting sad and negative emotional states: "grust" (sadness), "pechal" (sorrow), "toska" (melancholy/yearning), "unynie" (despondency), "gore" (grief), "skorb" (mourning), "skuka" (boredom) and others. The research materials and analysis of these concepts are based on statistical data from the National Corpus of the Russian Language (NCRL). The aim is to identify and characterize the semantic differences, degree of intensity, grammatical and stylistic features of these lexemes, as well as their associative and cultural connotations. Particular attention is paid to the positions of "grust" and "pechal" as the semantic core of the field, and their interaction with deeper (e.g., "gore") and more superficial (e.g., "skuka") states.

The relevance of the study is determined by the need for a detailed examination of the ways language conceptualizes negative emotional states and identifies subtle semantic differences between closely related words. The scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive approach to studying the semantic field of sad emotions and identifying nuances of semantic content for each lexeme.

The main part provides a semantic analysis of each key lexeme:

- Grust (sadness): A soft, light negative experience associated with reflection, nostalgia, and inner peace, less intense and socially acceptable.

- Pechal (sorrow): A deep and heavy emotional experience arising from loss or disappointment, intermediate in intensity between grust and toska, characterized by passivity and a search for consolation.

- Toska (melancholy/yearning): A complex, polysemous emotional state ranging from light sadness to deep spiritual suffering and inner emptiness.

- Skuka (boredom): A state of mental languor and despondency due to inactivity or lack of interest.

- Skorb (mourning): A socially formalized emotion associated with public and ritually sanctioned expressions of loss, used in high-style speech practices.

- Unynie (despondency): A gloomy, depressed state of spirit encompassing both emotional and spiritual-moral aspects, often interpreted as a sin in Christian tradition.

- Gore (grief): The most intense form of emotional suffering, directly related to experiencing loss (death, separation, destruction of life's foundations).

The analysis reveals significant grammatical differences between these concepts. For instance, "grust" is rarely used in the plural, perceiving it as a holistic state, while "pechal" can be pluralized ("dolgie pechali" - long sorrows). The noun "skuka" is unique in its syntactic behavior, typically governing with the preposition "po" and the dative case (e.g., "skuka po domu" - homesickness).

A notable feature is the use of tautological combinations in folk and artistic discourse, such as "grust-toska" (sadness-melancholy) or "toska-pechal" (melancholy-sorrow), which serve to emotionally intensify and explicate a high level of mental distress.

The study also explores the associative field of these concepts and their connection with color symbolism in Russian culture (e.g., dark - sad, gray - dreary, black - mournful).

A significant part of the research is dedicated to analyzing stable nominal phrases that localize sad emotions in body parts or anthropomorphic concepts (e.g., "grust na dushe" - sadness in the soul, "toska na serdtse" - melancholy on the heart, "pechal v glazakh" - sorrow in the eyes). These expressions, common in classical and modern literature as well as everyday speech, are structured according to the model "emotion + preposition + body/spirit." They function as stable collocations or quasi-idioms, characterized by high expressiveness, symbolic meaning, and an important pragmatic role in conveying emotional experience. The most frequent and expressive combinations involve the lexemes "serdtse" (heart), "dusha" (soul), and "glaza" (eyes).

Corpus analysis shows the highest frequency for constructions localizing emotions in the heart and soul. Three groups are identified: metaphorical expressions ("bol v serdtse" - pain in the heart), phraseological idioms ("s kamnem na serdtse" - with a stone on the heart), and grammatically transparent stable combinations ("toska na serdtse"). Stylistically, most such combinations are characteristic of literary and poetic language. Their function is not only to communicate emotional state but also to form a symbolic picture of experiences reflecting national-cultural specificity.

In conclusion, the analysis demonstrates that bodily and spiritual metaphor is a primary way of conceptualizing the inner world in Russian. Stable nominal structures perform an important communicative and pragmatic function, contributing to artistic expressiveness and supporting the unique emotional style of Russian-language discourse.