The functional semantic properties of motion verbs from the documents of Don Cossack Host province offices of the 18th – 19th centuries

O.A. Gorban

Volgograd State University, Volgograd, 400062 Russia

E-mail: oa_gorban@volsu.ru

Received June 21, 2017

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Abstract

The study has been performed as part of the collective research project no. 16-14-34004 supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Government of the Volgograd region. The aim of the study is to reveal the functional semantic properties of motion verbs from the documents of   “Mikhailovsky Stanitsa Ataman” Archive Fund (State Archive of Volgograd region, Russia), created in the military and the stanitsa offices of the Don Cossack Host Province in the middle of 18th – late 19th century, to reveal their dynamics in synchrony and diachrony; the tasks are to find out the representation of lexical units in the documents, as well as to describe their direct and figurative use, constant nominal combinations. The analysis is based on the comparison of the documents, which is intended to identify trends in their functioning. The methods of des­criptive, comparative, component, and contextual analysis have been used.

It has been discovered that motion verbs were used in the middle of 18th century mainly in the meanings reflecting movement in space specified by environment, tools, manner, and intensity; they were also be used in figurative meanings and as components of stable combinations. The late 18th – first half of 19th century is marked by a rising tendency to the use of motion verbs denoting moves indifferent in their manner, as well as to the more active use of words in figurative abstract meanings.

It has been concluded that the functional semantic properties of motion verbs are dynamic. In synchrony, they are manifested as semantic and frequency variations in the documents of the same period. In diachrony, they are changes in the proportion of reporting verb forms, reflecting the all-Russian process of common official language formation.

Keywords: Russian language, vocabulary, verb, verbs of motion, text, history of official language, document, Don Cossack Host

Acknowledgments. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Administration of Volgograd region (project no. 16-14-34004).

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For citation: Gorban O.A. The functional semantic properties of motion verbs from the documents of Don Cossack Host province offices of the 18th – 19th centuries. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 5, pp. 1120–1131. (In Russian)

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