LEXICOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTORS OF SEMANTICS OF ADJECTIVES DERIVED FROM ZOONYMS IN MODERN RUSSIAN

Abstract

The paper is focused on the study of descriptors used in lexicographic definitions of adjectives derived from zoonyms in modern Russian. On the data of two editions of the explanatory dictionary (Словарь современного русского литературного языка and Большой академический словарь русского языка) with the help of the definitional analysis it is revealed that lexicographers, first, regularly use the descriptor ‘относящийся к’ following the principle of a unified description of a general word formation meaning. Secondly, driven by the necessity to exhaustively define numerous senses of the derived words under consideration (e.g. рыбий хвост, рыбий суп, рыбий корм, рыбья натура человека, etc.), and to clarify the contextual modifications of the relation between the derived adjective and its attributed word (possession, goal, use, instrumental application, similarity, etc.) they widely apply descriptors-modifiers (‘принадлежащий’, ‘сделанный из’, ‘приготовленный из’ и др. (more than 30), which differ in frequency of their use in definitions.