Synchronic and diachronic analysis of the word families of motion verbs (using the root morphemes -khod-, -id-, and -shed- as an example)

O.I. Dmitrieva^*, O.I. Jankovsky^**

N.G. Chernyshevsky Saratov State University, Saratov, 410012 Russia

E-mail: ^*oidmitrieva55@yandex.ru, ^**yankovskoi@mail.ru

Received June 21, 2017

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Abstract

The paper provides a comprehensive justification of the principles and methods of synchronic and diachronic research on word-formation subsystems of the Russian language. We have also studied the ways of analyzing the historical dynamics of the word family as the main macro-unit of the word-formation system. In the field of analysis, there are families of words with the stems –khod (-ход-), -id (-ид-), and -shed- (-шед-) having both etymological and structural-semantic links in the history of the Russian language. The significance of motion verbs in the linguistic world image determined the early formation of these word families, as well as their complex structure and volume.

The relevance of the study is determined by the need for systematic synchronic and diachronic research on word-formation subsystems of the Russian language, the traditions of which date back to the Kazan linguistic school.

The research has been carried out with the purpose of revealing both general laws of evolution of verbal word families with the stems -khod-, -id-, and -shed- and the structural and semantic peculiarities of their historical dynamics.

The paper provides a number of examples proving that the general tendencies in the formation of the studied word families in the written history of the Russian language were as follows: firstly, the early character of formation of verbal and nominal paradigms in their structure; secondly, the emergence of new word-formation models at every historical stage; thirdly, the word-formation and semantic variability, both inside and between word families; fourthly, system word-formation processes associated with the development of categories of reflexivity and evaluation in the language.

Based on the results obtained, the following main conclusions have been made:

1. All main verbal prefix paradigms with the stems -khod-, -id-, and -shed- were formed in the Old Russian period.

2. In the Old Russian period, the important word-formation, semantic, and grammatical changes associated with the development of reflexivity and evaluation categories in the language, as well as with the process of verbation, occurred in the word family.

3. In the 18th century, the interaction between word families with the stems -khod-, -id-, and -shed- increased. Many processes that took place in the word families were determined by the stylistic and semantic laws: a decrease in the variability of word formation; differentiation of word-formation synonyms.

4. In the modern Russian language, homonymy developed actively in the word family with the stem -khod- and the number of new word subfamilies increased, the range of derivational models and derivation methods (for example, abbreviation) broadened. The functional dynamics was often determined by the expansion of stylistic possibilities for using stem units of the word family.

The obtained results are of great importance for further application of the synchronic and diachronic method to research on word formation aimed at moving from the ascertaining method of describing historical processes to an explanatory one.

Keywords: linguistic dynamics, synchronic and diachronic method, semantic word-formation subsystem, word family, motion verbs, word-formation variability

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For citation: Dmitrieva O.I., Jankovsky O.I. Synchronic and diachronic analysis of the word families of motion verbs (using the root morphemes -khod-, -id-, and -shed- as an example). Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2017, vol. 159, no. 5, pp. 1295–1312. (In Russian)

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